colyn
ישו משיח
I got this email today about my Nikon S.
Obviously a scam since the person then offered me $50 for the body and lens..
"Some photo enthusiasts have had pretty serious medical problems. Most never had any idea it was being caused by their early rangefinder Nikon S. The more the camera was used the more
pronounced the medical problems with the user became.
The Nikon S Camera had a big problem when it was made and I believe to a slightly lesser extent it still has the same problem today. The camera body itself is very fine and shows very high quality of workmanship and materials. It is a Contax-Leica-Retina knock off design that has the Contax lens mount, the Leica shutter and rangefinder actuator, and the Retina design rangefinder. The problem is with the leather.
There are a number of ways to tan animal skins to make it into leather. Today there are two main methods used industrially: These are the Vegetable and Chromic Acid methods. In vegetable tanning the skin is prepared by the removal of fat and hair and then it is treated in baths of various natural vegetable and bark extracts. This process can take from weeks to months to complete. In the chromic acid method the skin is prepared and then put into a bath of chromic acid. The chromic acid allows for the skin to be tanned in about a day. Today it is usual with the chromic acid method to follow the chromic acid bath with rinses and a special neutralizing bath and then a final vegetable bath. This extra processing removes all the chromic acid and extends the lifetime and suppleness of the leather.
Vegetable tanned leather is the best. It can easily last for many many years. It's also completely non-toxic and absolutely neutral to the human immune system. Chromic acid tanned leather doesn't last long. It tends to harden, become brittle and for its surface to flake. Chromic acid is one of the most powerful sensitizers. A sensitizer is a chemical that makes humans allergic to it and the more contact the stronger the allergy. Chromic acid is today known to be a very powerful sensitizer and also the second most powerful carcinogen known causing lung and sinus cancer. Today chromic acid tanned leathers are very carefully rinsed and treated to neutralize the chromic acid. But this was not done with the leather used on the Nikon S.
Zeiss used the highest quality skins tanned by the highest quality vegetable tanning process on the Contax from the Contax I until the final Contax IIa production runs where it changed to the same shellac based leatherette used on the Contarex. Nikon used brutally chromic acid tanned leather on the Nikon S. I say brutally chromic acid tanned because the tanning method use is uniquely bad; and not only this it is toxic to people who were unfortunate enough to touch it.
The leather used on the Nikon S was tanned with chromic acid and then it was not rinsed or neutralized but was left totally saturated with chromic acid. This left this leather totally toxic to all known forms of life. Not only this it was a powerful sensitizer rendering anyone who used the Nikon S camera to be permanently rendered to be extremely allergic to chromium acid for the remainder of their life. The result of this sensitization was asthma caused whenever the camera was touched or brought close to the face. I also believe this leather also caused a fair number of fatal sinus cancers.
If you examine the leather on a Nikon S camera body today carefully you will notice it is dark green and that it is very brittle and flakey. This green is the color of chromic acid after it has had a very very long time to become oxidized into a pigment known as chromium green. I'm certain that when the Nikon S leather was brand new it had a very profound reddish blonde color which is the color of fresh chromic acid and coincidentally also the color of high quality vegetable tanned leather. The dark green color of the Nikon S leather today is so very dark green my belief is that the leather was removed from a very high concentration bath of chromic acid and then left to dry and was not rinsed or neutralized thereafter.
Chromium acid does not oxidize quickly in the air. It takes many years. Because the leather is over painted with black paint the inner color change has not been noticed. But there can be no doubt that the leather on the NIkon S was a powerful sensitizer and carcinogen to anyone who regularly handled the camera for at least thirty if not more years after it was made, if not up until the present time. Only a professional analysis of properly collected representative samples of Nikon S body leather could provide a valid measurement of the level of chromic acid in the Nikon S body leather today. All I can say is that I would not use one or handle it much even today.
You may ask, how can I know that the Nikon S leather was left saturated with chromic acid and not converted deliberately to chrome green during the tanning process? The answer is the glue used to attach the leather to the camera. Nikon used hide glue which is normally water soluble, unless it is tanned. When hide glue becomes tanned it becomes insoluble to water or any other solvent. The glue on the Nikon S is tanned. This means the leather had plenty of chromic acid in it when it was attached to the camera.
If you would like to know more about the extraordinary toxicity of chromic acid and how the U.S. Navy intentionally exposed thousands of innocent victims to it check out this web site: Chromic Acid Murder."
Obviously a scam since the person then offered me $50 for the body and lens..
"Some photo enthusiasts have had pretty serious medical problems. Most never had any idea it was being caused by their early rangefinder Nikon S. The more the camera was used the more
pronounced the medical problems with the user became.
The Nikon S Camera had a big problem when it was made and I believe to a slightly lesser extent it still has the same problem today. The camera body itself is very fine and shows very high quality of workmanship and materials. It is a Contax-Leica-Retina knock off design that has the Contax lens mount, the Leica shutter and rangefinder actuator, and the Retina design rangefinder. The problem is with the leather.
There are a number of ways to tan animal skins to make it into leather. Today there are two main methods used industrially: These are the Vegetable and Chromic Acid methods. In vegetable tanning the skin is prepared by the removal of fat and hair and then it is treated in baths of various natural vegetable and bark extracts. This process can take from weeks to months to complete. In the chromic acid method the skin is prepared and then put into a bath of chromic acid. The chromic acid allows for the skin to be tanned in about a day. Today it is usual with the chromic acid method to follow the chromic acid bath with rinses and a special neutralizing bath and then a final vegetable bath. This extra processing removes all the chromic acid and extends the lifetime and suppleness of the leather.
Vegetable tanned leather is the best. It can easily last for many many years. It's also completely non-toxic and absolutely neutral to the human immune system. Chromic acid tanned leather doesn't last long. It tends to harden, become brittle and for its surface to flake. Chromic acid is one of the most powerful sensitizers. A sensitizer is a chemical that makes humans allergic to it and the more contact the stronger the allergy. Chromic acid is today known to be a very powerful sensitizer and also the second most powerful carcinogen known causing lung and sinus cancer. Today chromic acid tanned leathers are very carefully rinsed and treated to neutralize the chromic acid. But this was not done with the leather used on the Nikon S.
Zeiss used the highest quality skins tanned by the highest quality vegetable tanning process on the Contax from the Contax I until the final Contax IIa production runs where it changed to the same shellac based leatherette used on the Contarex. Nikon used brutally chromic acid tanned leather on the Nikon S. I say brutally chromic acid tanned because the tanning method use is uniquely bad; and not only this it is toxic to people who were unfortunate enough to touch it.
The leather used on the Nikon S was tanned with chromic acid and then it was not rinsed or neutralized but was left totally saturated with chromic acid. This left this leather totally toxic to all known forms of life. Not only this it was a powerful sensitizer rendering anyone who used the Nikon S camera to be permanently rendered to be extremely allergic to chromium acid for the remainder of their life. The result of this sensitization was asthma caused whenever the camera was touched or brought close to the face. I also believe this leather also caused a fair number of fatal sinus cancers.
If you examine the leather on a Nikon S camera body today carefully you will notice it is dark green and that it is very brittle and flakey. This green is the color of chromic acid after it has had a very very long time to become oxidized into a pigment known as chromium green. I'm certain that when the Nikon S leather was brand new it had a very profound reddish blonde color which is the color of fresh chromic acid and coincidentally also the color of high quality vegetable tanned leather. The dark green color of the Nikon S leather today is so very dark green my belief is that the leather was removed from a very high concentration bath of chromic acid and then left to dry and was not rinsed or neutralized thereafter.
Chromium acid does not oxidize quickly in the air. It takes many years. Because the leather is over painted with black paint the inner color change has not been noticed. But there can be no doubt that the leather on the NIkon S was a powerful sensitizer and carcinogen to anyone who regularly handled the camera for at least thirty if not more years after it was made, if not up until the present time. Only a professional analysis of properly collected representative samples of Nikon S body leather could provide a valid measurement of the level of chromic acid in the Nikon S body leather today. All I can say is that I would not use one or handle it much even today.
You may ask, how can I know that the Nikon S leather was left saturated with chromic acid and not converted deliberately to chrome green during the tanning process? The answer is the glue used to attach the leather to the camera. Nikon used hide glue which is normally water soluble, unless it is tanned. When hide glue becomes tanned it becomes insoluble to water or any other solvent. The glue on the Nikon S is tanned. This means the leather had plenty of chromic acid in it when it was attached to the camera.
If you would like to know more about the extraordinary toxicity of chromic acid and how the U.S. Navy intentionally exposed thousands of innocent victims to it check out this web site: Chromic Acid Murder."
squirrel$$$bandit
Veteran
colyn
ישו משיח
Sounds like Nikon bashing which this person tried to use in order to get my camera cheap..
It didn't work though..
Beemermark
Veteran
Well every one today has been so thoroughly brainwashed that 1 PPB (part per billion) of anything will instantly cause cancer and a long lingering, painful death that people will believe this type of hype. As a professional engineer with a history of hazardous waste clean up and dealing with the EPA and various citizen groups, fear rules. And fear makes money. The best commercials I've heard is for removing linoleum. Linoleum used to made using asbestos. Unless asbestos is ground into a fine dust and inhaled it posses absolutely no threat. So linoleum is inert and totally safe. But contractors run ads to scare the homeowner into replacing the kitchen floor, a lot better commercial than just updating the kitchen.
Another example is in Iowa. Iowa requires all public schools to inventory the asbestos in the school. Big bucks. They do not have to remove it, because it is not hazardous, but they pay hundred of thousands to do an inventory of the floor linoleum. Of course the inventory never changes unless the linoleum is removed. But every parent feels better sending their kid to school while the contractor gets a guaranteed source of income, thanks to the politicians.
end rant.
Another example is in Iowa. Iowa requires all public schools to inventory the asbestos in the school. Big bucks. They do not have to remove it, because it is not hazardous, but they pay hundred of thousands to do an inventory of the floor linoleum. Of course the inventory never changes unless the linoleum is removed. But every parent feels better sending their kid to school while the contractor gets a guaranteed source of income, thanks to the politicians.
end rant.
Last edited:
colyn
ישו משיח
I'm too old to let scare mongers bother me so I ignore the scare tactics..