Capa's Contax at Omaha?

[Blink kills]

Hi all,

I am new here and I am from Sweden.

I wonder little about history events.
Does anyone KNOW here what Contax camera Capa used at Omaha Beach?

/Blink kills

 

[jlw]

According to his somewhat fictionalized autobiography Slightly Out of Focus, he was carrying two Contax II cameras when he went ashore.

The Contax II was introduced in 1936, so this fits in well with the chronology of Contax development.

 

[VinceC]

Contax II.

The Contax I wasn't a big success, in part because of unreliable shutters, according to Stephen Gandy's site.

The Contax II and Contax III were identical except that the II had no light meter and the III had one. There were no additional Contax 35mm models until after World War II, when the completely redesigned IIa and IIIa were introduced for the 1950 FotoKina camera show in Cologne (according to a 1950 book I have describing the PhotoKina exhibition).

 

[Michael I.]

he carried a contax and a rolleiflex i think

 

[wlewisiii]

I don't have any references handy however, IIRC (and that's anyone's guess) he had the Rollie on board the ship and then carried 2 Contax II's to the beach in the landing craft. My recollection is that he shot the roll in one, then shot the roll in the other and then scrambled abord the next landing craft headed back to the fleet. The Rollie shots were all fine, but the rush to get the Contax films developed is what led to the famous look of the surviving 11(?) negatives.

William

 

[FrankS]

The story I read somewhere was that the lab tech hurried to get the processed films dry and ended up burning most of them in the film drying cabinet.

 

[Blink kills]

I know from the book "The definitive collection" written of Richard Whelan and Cornell Capa that he used a Rolleiflex on board the ship and two Contax's in the water. But it didn't say which model.

In the book it is also written that 11 of 72 picture was saved. The other pictures was destroyed because overheating drying.

Thank's!

 

[Biber]

FrankS: He wrote in Slightly out of Focus that "the excited darkroom assistant, while drying the negatives, had turned on too much heat and the emulsions had melted and run down before the eyes of the London office. Out of one hundred and sixty pictures in all, only eight were salvaged. The captions under the heat-blurred pictures read that Capa's hands were badly shaking. [end of ch. IX]"


Blink: Välkommen till RFF. 🙂


edit: typo

 

[wilt]

Välkommen! Kul att se fler svenskar/skandinaver.

Blink: Välkommen till RFF. 🙂

 

[VinceC]

FYI, here's an uncredited photo I found of Capa (left) in Naples in 1943 with Life photographer George Rodger. Capa's Contax II is clearly visible (Rodger has a Leica and a TLR).

 

[rover]

Slightly off topic,

General George Patton was a Leica man. His camera and lens collection is on display in his museam at Ft Knox, Kentucky.

http://www.potomacbooksinc.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=89754

 

[Blink kills]

Tack!

Kul med fler svenskar...

 

[ChadHahn]

It's kind of interesting that in the middle of a fight to the death with the Germans the allies were using their cameras.

 

[Michael I.]

the lab technician that ruined the film

the lab technician that ruined the film

became a war photographer and was killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam

 

[Stu W]

We know he used a Contax II. But I wonder where it is now? Maybe one of mine? If so, I don't think I'll have to work anymore. Stu

 

[CZeni]

FYI, here's an uncredited photo I found of Capa (left) in Naples in 1943 with Life photographer George Rodger. Capa's Contax II is clearly visible (Rodger has a Leica and a TLR).

I note, with some amusement, that all three cameras are in their 'neverready' cases...

 

[Honu-Hugger]

A Contax II but with what lens -- a 1.5 Sonnar, or maybe a 35/2.8 Biogon? Or both?

 

[dostacos]

Hi all,

I am new here and I am from Sweden.

I wonder little about history events.
Does anyone KNOW here what Contax camera Capa used at Omaha Beach?

/Blink kills

One of his most famous work was done on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) where he swam up on the beaches like all the other soldiers that day, but instead of being armed with a gun, he was armed with a Rolleiflex and a Contax II.

this is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Capa

 

[djon]

I believe the two Contax were wrapped in oilcloth when he left the ship...no ziploc bags back then.

 

[Harry Lime]

became a war photographer and was killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam

Sorry, but this is incorrect. It wasn't Larry Burrows. The kid who destroyed Capa's film was Dennis Banks. They were in a hurry to get it to the censor and meet the plane to the United States, so they closed the door on the drying cabinet and unfortunately melted the emulsion.

On board his transport ship Capa used his Rolleiflex, which he left behind for the assault on the beach. This makes perfect sense. The Rollei only holds 12 shots per roll and isn't as good for action shots as the Contax.
He may have also used the Contax on board the ship, because he sent 4 rolls of film back to LIFE, but Morris talks of only 72 beach shots. (36-40 frames per roll)

Capa hit the beach with as many as two Contax II cameras and some extra film, sealed in condoms, oil cloth or both. It appears that both cameras mounted 50mm lenses, probably the 1.5/50 Sonnar. According to John Morris there were 72 shots taken on the beach, of which 11 survived. Tha's about two rolls of film. In Capa's books he talks about how he tried to reload the Contax, while under fire, but failed to do so, when the film was ruined by the sea water. So, it sounds like at least one camera may have been a write off, maybe both. The saltwater would have corroded them quickly.

In the bag with the film (4 x 35mm, circa 6 x 120) that was delivered to LIFE that morning was a note from Capa to John Morrison: "All of the action is on the 35mm".

cheers,

Harry Lime