Five-letter product codes à la VIOOH?

[rxmd]

I always thought that the Leica five-letter codes à la VIOOH were just a very quaint and old-fashioned way of labeling products. Then, during my last two weeks at Princeton, I prepared a presentation on indigenous photography in the Ottoman Empire and ran across a bound volume containing four different Ottoman Turkish textbooks on photography, bound together with various advertisement flyers and a 1920s Voigtländer brochure (in German) listing Voigtländer products by five-letter "telegraph codes". So these must have served an actual purpose, to facilitate ordering via telegram.

So I wonder what manufacturers actually had these code systems, and if they are documented somewhere for reference?

(I had copies made of the entire volume. Maybe one day I'll get round to scanning them. I guess at one point I'll need a document scanner with a feeder in addition to my Minolta Scan Dual. I'm still waiting for a couple of rolls of film that I didn't want to have X-rayed on my somewhat tedious journey back to Heathrow, but that's another story.)

Philipp

 

[jaapv]

Novoflex had (has?) these codes as well.

 

[bob cole]

Five-letter product codes à la VIOOH?

Yes, Rxmd...as You Discovered, These Five-letter Code Groups Were Devised By Leitz To Save Telegraph Costs In The Days When Telegrams Were Very Expensive And, To Save Money, Limited To Ten Words...i've Said This Before But In The Movie "cabaret," With Liza Minelli, She Tells Her Lover, Michael York, That Her Penny-pinching Dad, On Hearing , For Example, That She Had Leprosy, Would Telegraph: Gee Kid, Hope Your Nose Doesn't Fall Off. Love, Dad...

What I Didn't Know That Voigtlander And Novoflex --and, I Guess, Others Also Did It...

Of Course, All Major Foreign Governments Also Have Used Five-letter Code Groups To Send Secret Messages.. And Commercial Code Books Available In The Us And Elsewhere Could Be Bought For Businesses To Send Semi-secret Messages To Save Money And Hide Content...

For Example, Xrtyu In A Code Book Might Mean " I Will Be In Xxxxx At The Usual Hotel.'' The Next Five-letter Code Group Might Mean Munich Or Paris Or Whatever You Wanted... So A Telegram Might Have Only Two Five-letter Code Groups And The Signature...a Major Saving For Busy Executives...

 

[John Robertson]

I have the yearly annual of the Royal Photographic Society for 1939, from the Adverts you can see that just about every firm was using them.

 

[raydm6]

Here's a 1953 Leitz Catalog/Price List (PDF) with corresponding Catalog Numbers and Code Words. Some very interesting ones in there... ...and the prices!
https://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica...1953_total.pdf

 

[Muggins]

With a five-letter code you have 11,888,376 possible permutations for the 26 standard letters - so more products for fewer characters.

 

[Saganich]

I have volumes of advertisements from US camera annuals to check, I bet this was standard across much of manufacturing. BTW $210 for a new IIIf in 1953 equals $2,192.82 in 2022. Used chrome IIIf's these days are selling for between $200-$400. The Summicrons on the other hand are getting their fully adjusted prices these days.

 

[raydm6]

I have volumes of advertisements from US camera annuals to check, I bet this was standard across much of manufacturing. BTW $210 for a new IIIf in 1953 equals $2,192.82 in 2022. Used chrome IIIf's these days are selling for between $200-$400. The Summicrons on the other hand are getting their fully adjusted prices these days.

Wow! LTM Summicrons are getting up there and the radioactive ones are in another pricing category altogether.