tennis-joe
Well-known
Did the English try to produce a version of the Leica IIIc during WWII as the Americans have the Kardon RF cameras during those days? I thought I read somewhere they also tried to make a Leica Like camera because Leicas were not available for the war effort?
Joe
Joe
maddoc
... likes film again.
The "Reid" come to mind ...
rodt16s
Well-known
Jockos
Well-known
tennis-joe
Well-known
Wow, wonderful responses on my question. The Ilford looks sweet.
Joe
Joe
KoNickon
Nick Merritt
If you can find one of the Witnesses, jump on it -- they're very hard to come by. (I've never seen one, myself.)
HuubL
hunter-gatherer
beautiful camera, but it was not produced during ww2. early fifties i believe.
Vics
Veteran
WOW! The KI Monobar is the coolest thing! Are they rare today?
Sejanus.Aelianus
Veteran
According to Andrew Holliman (Faces, People and Places - The Cameras of Ilford Limited, 1899 to 2005) Robert Sternberg started on the design of the Witness in 1939 and continued through the war years. 6 prototypes were built by Salford Electrical Instruments in 1946.
Sales started in 1953 and Holliman conjectures that total production was in the range 300 - 350 units, beginning with Peto Scott (Electrical Instruments) Ltd's original 250 cameras and tailing off through the construction of various cameras from spare parts.
The book is worth a read for the light it casts on one photographic company's relationship with camera production.
Sejanus.Aelianus
Veteran
They're not common. Holliman doesn't give figures for their production. I remember them being remaindered off on the back pages of "Amateur Photographer" in the 'sixties. I think the price, then, was around £45. Holliman gives the price (without lens) as £180 0s 0d for the advanced (type U) version and £120 0s 0d for the much simpler (type F) model.
I'd make a guess that production numbers were similar to those for the Witness.
Dralowid
Michael
According to a well respected UK technician who specialises in Leicas and the like, the Witness was not all that it could have been internally. He suggests that the original design was too expensive in production and corners were cut.
He went on on to say that later Reids, after Reid and Seigrist had been bought by someone (was it Rank?) suffered too.
Mind you, he would sat that wouldn't he...
Shame that.
As a boy I always wanted a Reid that I had seen in a Wallace Heaton catalogue...it sort of looked more up to date than my poor battered old Leica III that I still have which came from their second hand department out the back. Someone else must have fond memories of WH too...
Michael
He went on on to say that later Reids, after Reid and Seigrist had been bought by someone (was it Rank?) suffered too.
Mind you, he would sat that wouldn't he...
Shame that.
As a boy I always wanted a Reid that I had seen in a Wallace Heaton catalogue...it sort of looked more up to date than my poor battered old Leica III that I still have which came from their second hand department out the back. Someone else must have fond memories of WH too...
Michael
rodt16s
Well-known
I agree, my Reid III doesn't quite feel as solidly built as the IIIF it sits next to... but it's 2" f2 TTH lens is special