The First Rangefinder Camera was...

[bmattock]

What was the very first rangefinder camera?

Some think it was the Leica II (1932).

Some think it was the Contax I (1932).

Was it the Voigtländer Prominent? No, also 1932.

Some even think it was the Kalart rangefinder on the Graflex Speed Graphic (1936). Morris Schwartz, the inventer, apparently thought so too (although he did invent some really interesting stuff, and the Kalart rangefinder was very cool).

Historical documents may be misinformed, however: there is no disputing that Schwartz invented the 'Focuspot' device in 1936, and this may have been what he meant when he claimed to have invented the range finder (he used two words instead of one to describe his device, but always took pains to say he had invented the Kalart "Range Finder and Focuspot"). The Focuspot was essentially a backwards rangefinder - it shone a light through the rangefinder onto the subject for shooting at night - adjusting the light until the two images came together ensured that the camera was in focus.

Since it was none of those, which camera was it?

It was the Kodak No. 3a Autographic of 1916 - an accessory coupled rangefinder was available (not all had them).

And it was based on an earlier design by Professors Barr & Stroud for the British Army and Navy. In fact, their device was used on all British warships from 1888 right up until the advent of rader during WWII. The company they founded is still around, still making rangefinders - laser rangefinders. Well, they are called the Thales Group PLC now. Barr & Stroud ceased to be in 1977.

The rangefinder concept itself was much older even than that, but the Barr & Stroud device was pretty much the concept for the optical rangefinder used in today's rangefinder cameras.

Of course, completely common to the Kodak experience - having been there first with the most, they then essentially abandoned the concept of the coupled rangefinder until the Kodak Bantam (1936) and used it only sparingly after that. They just didn't like it - too bad that the rest of the world did.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Web Biblio:

http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php?inum=TGSE00890

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/R/RA/RANGE_FINDER.htm

http://www.prairienet.org/b-wallen/BN_Photo/KodakRangefinders.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Schwartz

http://www.whnpa.org/join/inmemoriam.htm

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/aa13/aa13.shtml

http://homepage.mac.com/cameradecollection/folding/Pages/19.html

http://www.thalesgroup.co.uk/thales_corporate/about/history/history_home.cfm

NOTE: All images are copyright their respective owners - these are links, not my drawings/photos.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

The book Rangefinders by Roger Hicks has almost the same information, Bill. But thanks for the thoughtful post! 🙂

 

[bmattock]

Bloody hell. Sigh. The devil breaks wind on me again.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[doubs43]

Bill, I was certain that either a large or medium format camera was the first RF but wasn't sure which one. Thanks for the information.

Walker

 

[pesphoto]

interesting info Bill, Thanks!

 

[John Camp]

When old what's-his-name was developing the Leica back before the first war to end all wars, how did he focus? A scale or something? I think rangefiners had been available for a while, used by the military in ranging applications.

JC

 

[drmatthes]

Bill,

I love this information, due to my - at times self-indulged, that's what my friends say - hobby called history (of photography in this case).

Well, how did the old masters focus? Most of them in the ground-glass (Ed Weston refers to this - in the way of a poem, which I now realise - that must be cited here:

April 24, 1930)

"I start with no preconceived idea-
discovery excites me to focus-
then rediscovery through the lens-
final form of presentation seen on ground glass,
the finished print previsioned complete
in every detail of texture, movement, proportion,
before exposure-
the shutter's release automatically and finally
fixes my conception, allowing no after manipulation-
the ultimate end, the print, is but a duplication
of all that I saw and felt through my camera."

The rest is tech-talk,

the TLR, the SLR, all inventions of the turn of the century - or even before that.

Therefore, it was enlightenment to me to learn that the RF was also such an early invention.

Thanx,

Jesko

___________

2006 AD
800 yrs Dresden
80 yrs Zeiss Ikon

 

[clarence]

I am looking for a Kodak 3A or 4A! if anyone has a functional camera, please let me know.

Clarence

 

[jlw]

Of course, completely common to the Kodak experience - having been there first with the most, they then essentially abandoned the concept of the coupled rangefinder until the Kodak Bantam (1936) and used it only sparingly after that. They just didn't like it - too bad that the rest of the world did.

I don't know that I'd say they didn't like it -- more that they didn't think it fit the user profiles of most of their at-one-time-huge line of cameras. After all, how much good would a CRF have done on a Brownie Hawkeye?

Besides, the CRF in the 3A Special was kind of an odd duck, used by looking down at the front standard at waist level -- not at all easy to use, by contemporary accounts I've read. Having pioneered the concept, it's easy to see why they might have decided to hold off further application until the technology was a bit more developed.

Once it was, though, I think you'll see that Kodak eventually offered a CRF in the top-of-the-line model of just about every series of their eye-level cameras: the Bantam Special, as you mentioned; the Super Six-20 (also the first production still camera with auto exposure); the Ektra; the Medalist and Chevron; the neat little Signet 35 and weird-but-usable Signet 80; and don't forget the Pocket Instamatic 60!

Considering the diversity of ingenious rangefinder designs used in these cameras, and how effective most of them were, it's hard to call Kodak's RF commitment a halfhearted effort!

 

[Oldprof]

Interesting information Bill, but remember that only Leica rangefinder mechanisms have the "Leica glow." Leitz's proprietary pixie dust formula ensures that.

 

[VinceC]

In its basic form, the rangefinder was used by surveyors and geographers for hundreds of years. A Greek mathmetician even used the triangulation concept to accurate calculate the diameter of the earth back around 100 BC.

Optical rangefinders have been used aboard Navy ships for perhaps 100 years.

I'd say it's likely that some of the early camera companies were also fine instrument makers and so would have been making surveyor rangefinders as part of their larger optical inventory. The first Leica's scale focused, as did most early cameras that didn't use a ground glass.

 

[murrayatuptown]

and the Kodak 35RF.