Reid & Sigrist

[L39chap]

Does anyone out there have any information about Reid & Sigrist other than what is on the net?
Questions:
1. Did R&S enter into camera production solely for commercial gain rather than having a passion for cameras?
2. How much ministerial or govt dept interference did they encounter?
3. Why did they chose to copy a Leica model that was already 10yrs old and not copy the IIIC/F?
4. Why didn't they or the BIOS people see sight of the M prototypes and chose to stick with L39?
5. Why did they believe that their model could ever excel over the M3 yet continued to produce the Mk III?

 

[wolves3012]

I believe that the answer to 1) is that they produced it because there was an awareness the Britain had no equivalent high-quality camera. I think that neither commercial gain nor passion was the major factor, it was more about the manufacturing capability. Was it not also about war reparations that the Leica factory was visited and the designs appropriated? Note that I am far from an expert on R&S, please feel free to say I'm wrong!

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Well it was announced in 1947, wasn't it but only started in production in 1951. I vaguely recall reading an article/review about it in a '51 magazine. I'll see what I can dig up.

BTW, to make it they needed a licence from the Govt., the "Custodian of Enemy Patents" or some-such title.

Regards, David

 

[L39chap]

Whilst they picked up the IIIb designs in '46, they spent the next several months, apparently, converting the components from metric to imperial. Of course this effectively made the components different fom the original design. The only dimensions that would not have been changed would have been the 39mm throat and the 28.8mm film plane depth.
Reading the BIOS report, Leica jiggled components around until the camera worked. If R&S had a low production run, components would have been engineered to fit so racking up the costs.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Leicas weren't available new for a long, long time. In September 1939 there would have been new stock in Great Britain but that would have been soon sold, then the RAF etc wanted Contax and Leicas and so many firms were offering good prices for them for the Govt and these would have been dwindling in numbers as they were damaged in active service.

Additionally, I think/remember that Leitz would sell cameras in Germany for a year or so to iron out problems before exports started. For example, the Summitar only became available in August or September 1939 in GB. So there may have been very few IIIb's in GB. And there were the IIIc's captured during the war but would Reid's have seen them? Or have the expertise for the die casting. (Also the IIIa would have been eaier to make.)

Then the fact that Leitz was in the US zone meant that no supplies (or very few) got here until 1951 when it was again allowed. So Reid's decision was probably based on what they had experience of, ie the IIIa and perhaps IIIb. And I imagine that there would have been a high demand for a camera and lens of that quality. Reviews at the time said they were better than Leitz's offerings but there may have been other reasons for that.

Given the state we were in after the war I doubt if Reid were in a position to do much for a long time. And Leica had years of experience turning out the cameras by the thousand and Reid's had to catch up with that as well.

By 1951, judging by the adverts in MCM the price of a second-hand Leica IIIa was about a hundred pounds or more and that was a lot of money compared to the pre-war price (about 20 to 30 for a second-hand one) and wages at the time.

BTW, in the same 1951 magazine I saw an advertisement from a dealer offering a FED for £32=10/= so there were obviously some in the country...

Regards, David

 

[L39chap]

Dave,
Thanks for that, it was really interesting. I guess that as the country was running on fumes, producing just about anything must have been hardwork. It's just not that easy to appreciate.
If anyone out there can add to the history of Reid and Sigrist, I would very much like to hear of it.

Best wishes,

PJB