Ever wonder whose camera you just bought ?

[FrozenInTime]

I just bought a used Linhof 612 PC-II with 58mm and 135mm lenses.
The camera is well used and features several modifications by the prior owner.

The modifications seem very beneficial and done through experience:
An after market lens base protector on the 58XL
A epoxied on 40.5mm filter holder on the viewfinder - I'm guessing for a polarizer or B&W contrast filter.
A series of step rings on the 135mm that form a hood.

One thing however intrigues me :
The 135mm lens which shipped from Linhof as a Schneider Apo-Symmar has been changed to a Rodenstock Sironar-N ( not APO, but I read that was just a marketing title added in later production )

Can anyone suggest why the change - wider image circle at large apertures ; ; less fall off ; sharper on 6x12 etc.
Given the thoughtfulness of the other modifications, I would like to think the original owner did careful side by side test on the lenses.

This camera was also a nostalgic purchase for me ; I actually owned the same rig for 5 years some 15 years ago and had regretted selling it ever since.
I'm very happy to have this camera again ( also glad I did not sell the 4x5 enlarger or 86mm ESW filters that fit over the ND spot filter )

It would be great to know the camera provenance, solve the lens mystery and to see the previous owners work.

 

[jim_jm]

A few years ago I purchased a 1938 Zeiss Super Ikonta B in excellent condition from the online auction site. Indications were that it was from an estate sale. The camera was obviously well cared for, and after a CLA by Jurgen Kreckel is near brand-new in operation and appearance.

Accompanying documentation indicated that the previous owner was an officer in the US Army Air Corps around the end of WWII, and lived in New York city. I'd like to think that he bought the camera while he was in Germany during WWII and brought it home with him after the War.

I now use this camera regularly and suspect he would appreciate that someone who loves film cameras is still using and enjoying his camera 70 years after he first bought it.

I don't have any children, but I hope this camera (among many others I use) is still being used to take photographs by someone after I'm gone. I'm just the current custodian of these film-bearing contraptions - they'll be around and functioning long after I've ceased to do so.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

I had, but declined, the option to buy a couple of Fuji RFs (a 6x7 and 6x9, if my memory serves) bought by the retailer at auction and whose previous owner had been Patrick (Lord) Lichfield. They were a bit pricier than I'd wanted to pay. Recently, I was considering purchase of a 35mm f1.4 AIS Nikkor whose previous owner was Sir Alan Sugar. The vendor had photos of him the the shop, posing for the camera - so provenance was good. The lens had obviously seen little use and was out of my price bracket. So long as the camera does what I want it to do, I'm not really fussed about who the previous owner was and I don't believe any of their skill or celebrity will rub off on me.

 

[ottluuk]

One thing however intrigues me :
The 135mm lens which shipped from Linhof as a Schneider Apo-Symmar has been changed to a Rodenstock Sironar-N ( not APO, but I read that was just a marketing title added in later production )

Can anyone suggest why the change - wider image circle at large apertures ; ; less fall off ; sharper on 6x12 etc.
Given the thoughtfulness of the other modifications, I would like to think the original owner did careful side by side test on the lenses.

It's still entirely possible that the original lens got damaged somehow and was simply replaced with the closest equivalent that was available.

 

[Spanik]

I often think about that when I get a camera/lens in my hands after the post delivered them. Can go from "why did they buy that if they never used it?" to "what the *** did they do with that?". Would be fun but hardly essential.

 

[kuuan]

A Pentax MX that I had bought in a package deal with some old manual lenses, all in very poor condition, in Hue, Vietnam, had letters engraved on it's bottom plate. They were not clear enough to read but had my curiosity, I took macro shots and with some tweaking was able to decipher a name and city.


Garret Culhane's Pentax MX ;-) by Andreas, on Flickr

Searching the internet I found a photographer that goes by this name who even has his own photography related internet site. I contacted him and he told me that this really had been his camera, that he had received it as a Christmas gift from his parents in 1979. The photos taken in Africa and Nicaragua seen on his site had been taken with it.
He had been to Vietnam, there are photos on his sites he had taken there, but interestingly he told me that he never had taken this camera to Vietnam but given it, some 10 years earlier, to a charity shop in northern California.

 

[John E Earley]

I often have wondered who Violette was and what pictures she took with this camera.

Violette's Box Tengor by JOHN EARLEY, on Flickr

 

[Melancholy]

I know that a man named Olav Johnsen living in the same city as I do owned my GB Kershaw, I don´t know anything about him (a very common name in Norway), but I would like to see the pictures he took with this beauty.

 

[Melancholy]

On the other hand, I do know who had this gem before me (after I bought it from a norwegian journalist) it belonged in the gifted hands of Helen Hill 🙂

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

It's not a problem with digital cameras. After removing the decayed battery you just look at the media card and there's the answer. The last one I looked at had photo's of passports, driving licences and European health cards...

Regards, David

 

[greyelm]

A couple of years ago I bought a 1935 LTM Leitz Summar 50mm f2.0. It had been professionally engraved with "P.D.Daw Norwich Union No 25 Z 1170". Norwich Union (an insurance company) now trade under the name Aviva so I contacted their archivist to see if the number related to a policy number but unfortunately they didn't have records back that far so Im still in the dark about P.D.Daw.

 

[Gregoris]

My Yashica 12 TLR used to belong to a Wilson.

I also bought a Contax 139Q on German ebay which was in excellent condition, together with a beautiful T* Planar 50mm 1.7, which the seller told me belonged to his recently deceased uncle. Whether the story was true or not - it touched me and I felt like I had to take good care of that camera, since it was obviously very well cared for all this time. And it takes some beautiful pictures.

Also my Ricoh GR1s once belonged to this guy

http://www.juandejimenez.com/400/2013/06/la-espera