U.S. Navy photo gear over the years...

[hepcat]

There's a thread going about using an M9 on a bike.... And I had posted about my experience with Leica gear and repairs while I was in the Navy from 1974-1979. Takkun replied with this:

"Off topic, but would you be interested in starting a thread perhaps about the gear you used in the Navy? My father was USAF and a former professor was Signal Corps, and they both mentioned having used exclusively the Nikon F/F2 bodies.
__________________
Ian M., Seattle"

So, Ian... here's your thread. Post away.

When I was in Admiral Zumwalt's Navy... we used KE-7A M4 Leica kits with 35, 50, and 90mm Summicrons. The SLR of the time was the Beseler Topcon Super D. 6x6 was covered with the Mamiya C330 systems. We had a variety of 4x5 press and view cameras availalble and I think in the two Fleet-Air Photo Labs (FAPL) I was assigned to, we had an 8x10 view camera available that was almost never used except as a copy camera.

We had Kodak EH-38 b&w processing machines for 5" aerial film from the aircraft 5" belly cameras, and did primarily hand-process for b&w roll film. We did in-lab C-6 and C-22 processing. We had both color & b&w enlarger print rooms. I recall that the b&w print room had four up to 6x7 enlarger print stations and one 5x7" enlarger. I didn't do much color stuff if any.

I seem to recall that some of the squadrons were transitioning to Canon AE-1s for the ordinancemen who were responsible for taking photos from the aircraft. I also recall there being some Nikkormats and Nikons floating around in some of the squadrons. I believe that as I was getting out, the Topcons were being replaced with Nikon F2s.

Man, that was a looooong time ago.

There you go Takkun... post away! 🙂

 

[Fuchs]

A long time ago, in the mid 1990's, I had a Leica R mount APO-Elcan 180/3.4 marked US Navy. Do you know if there were also Leica R kits being used? I seem to remember I traced back the SN on the lens to be an early 1980's sample.

 

[hepcat]

A long time ago, in the mid 1990's, I had a Leica R mount APO-Elcan 180/3.4 marked US Navy. Do you know if there were also Leica R kits being used? I seem to remember I traced back the SN on the lens to be an early 1980's sample.

Wow... you know anything's possible. I never really did entirely figure out the Navy procurement system. Some things were bought in bulk from manufacturers, and some things were bought locally. I know that the Navy had contracts with Leitz for many years; the KS-15 M2 kits and KE-7A M4 kits were sourced as kits from Leica and engraved with U.S. Navy engraving... others were just bought from Leica without any special engraving. It's entirely possible that they bought R kits as well. I'd been out for 15 years by the mid-'90s. Maybe one of the younger guys who were in know a little more about that.

I recentl bought an ElCan Viso 65mm that's engraved NAS Barber's Pt.

 

[Bill Clark]

Thanks for your service.

I was serving in the Navy before you and for my own photography I bought Nikon stuff as it was at a pretty good price, especially when I was in Japan or Hong Kong.

 

[Fuchs]

Wow... you know anything's possible. I never really did entirely figure out the Navy procurement system. Some things were bought in bulk from manufacturers, and some things were bought locally. I know that the Navy had contracts with Leitz for many years; the KS-15 M2 kits and KE-7A M4 kits were sourced as kits from Leica and engraved with U.S. Navy engraving... others were just bought from Leica without any special engraving. It's entirely possible that they bought R kits as well. I'd been out for 15 years by the mid-'90s. Maybe one of the younger guys who were in know a little more about that.

I recentl bought an ElCan Viso 65mm that's engraved NAS Barber's Pt.

Yes, I think they probably acquired whatever was needed, both in bulk for generic applications or in small numbers maybe at local providers for more specific applications or requirements. Thank you for your post, It brought back memories of some travels with that fine lens. After some time of using it, I ended trading it towards a Contax G1 with the original 3 lenses kit at Tamarkin's NY.

 

[hepcat]

Thanks for your service.

I was serving in the Navy before you and for my own photography I bought Nikon stuff as it was at a pretty good price, especially when I was in Japan or Hong Kong.

And thank you as well, Bill. Were it not for you serving, there wouldn't have been a Navy for me to be in. We were all just stewards of the fleet for a while.

A number of the photo mates I worked with were Nikon guys too. Me, I had an M2 kit with Canon Serenar rangefinder lenses.

 

[Justus C.]

I just finished serving 4 years and i know they all use nikon nowadays, and I use little rangefinders 😛

 

[colyn]

A long time ago, in the mid 1990's, I had a Leica R mount APO-Elcan 180/3.4 marked US Navy. Do you know if there were also Leica R kits being used? I seem to remember I traced back the SN on the lens to be an early 1980's sample.

Some units used the Leicaflex SL. We had 1 at Barber's Point while I was there. We mainly used Nikon F/F2's..

 

[newspaperguy]

I did a trick in the Navy reserve as a PH2 after active Army service. Would have been early 1960s. Mostly used a Rollei.
Korean era Army service used an issue 4x5 Graphic, Rollei and a pair Leica 1f's

 

[farlymac]

Besseler Topcon was the official camera for the sub I was on. Looked really cool hooked up to the scope.

PF

 

[Phil_F_NM]

When I was on the J. C. Stennis from 1998-2000, we used Nikon: 6006s (these were loaners, mostly for pilots, mostly with permanently mounted 105 micro AiS lenses set to infinity with a machine screw,) Nikon F4s, F5s, a single D1 and a nightmare Fujix. Some of the small point & shoot digitals were making their way out into port visits and they were mostly Olympus Camedias and maybe a Nikon or Sony here & there. There were always a stash of F3s "just in case."

After digital took over, it was the D1X then the D2H and D2X. Those were in wide use by the time I left the Navy in 2005. Now I'm sure it's more D3S and D800 now that PH has been merged into "sucka MCs" along with JO, LI and DM.

When I got to the Seabees in 2003, all our digital "gear" was out in Iraq and I went to Guam, not having the tactics or other qualifications I needed to go there. Anyway, right before I left the states for that deployment, I knew the "gear" we had in our (my) pool and decided to buy a Nikon D100 to make my life easier. I was still using an F4s at the time so all my lenses worked just fine.
When the battalion was on movement back to the states, we merged up the contingents from Iraq and Guam (as well as other Pacific project sites) and I got to see the "assets" we had in the gear pool: A Kodak EasyShare with a lens locked up that would somehow make an image if you hit it enough times, a Nikon Coolpix 990 that was almost coming apart at the weird pivot (this camera had a filter on with Iraqi sand between the filter and the lens) and a Canon EX series flash with no camera to attach it to. So buying the D100 before we could get PACFLT to replace the gear with decent working equipment was a good choice. It made my life so much easier.

A few months after we got back from that deployment, I received my shiny new D2H with a garbage 24-120 VR zoom lens. This was my first exposure (pun intended) to the problem that IR causes when shooting black polyester. Needless to say, the folks in my chain of command were not happy to see the results of my shoot with the CNO and his magenta uniform bits which should have been black...

Now, what they had at the NATO facility in Keflavik and at Guam were completely different animals. There was antique gear in those lockers going back to the 1950s. I only got to look in there twice and tried desperately to requisition a few flashes (as well as a backup film body) but the paperwork took too long (carrier pigeon to Pearl Harbor must have gotten lost) and the gear never materialized.

Phil Forrest

 

[dasuess]

I was ship's company aboard the USS JFK from 1975 -79. All the pilots took Topcons up to photograph shipping. The film was processed in the photo lab within the CV-IC and analyzed by the IS's.

My personal gear was two Nikon F's and Leica M-2.

 

[Harry S.]

I bought a Canon 'New' F1 a couple of years ago. Both it and a matching 50mm FD lens were neatly engraved with "US NAVY"

 

[Guaranteed]

I bought a Canon 'New' F1 a couple of years ago. Both it and a matching 50mm FD lens were neatly engraved with "US NAVY"

That's pretty cool to get a roughly 40 year old camera new, I'd have probably picked it up for the engraving alone(and I was Army).

Great thread hepcat.

 

[Takkun]

Thanks! Really fascinating stuff. My father was in the 101st Airborne division in the late 60s, and a high school teacher I had was a Signal Corps photographer around the same time. Interestingly both ended up lifelong Nikon photographers after shooting them for the military (though my father ended up with a Maxxum 5 after he gave me the Nikon F, years and years ago).
Interestingly, my father ended up going into eye care professionally, and took a preference for Tokyo Kogaku instruments--in his words, 'it was a hell of a lot cheaper than Leica'. Last I visited his office, there were a handful of old M42 mount Topcon SLRs laying around unused.


My maternal grandfather was a RCAF pilot and not an official photographer but an avid amateur landscape photographer, and I'm lucky to have his old Mamiya C330. Unfortunately, his 4x5 field camera was destroyed in a flood about 20 years ago, so I never got to handle that.

 

[Harry S.]

That's pretty cool to get a roughly 40 year old camera new, I'd have probably picked it up for the engraving alone(and I was Army).

Great thread hepcat.

It wasnt new condition (near new!) but the model that superseded the F1, which canon simply called "New F1"

I think it was late 80's?

 

[hepcat]

When I got to the Seabees in 2003, all our digital "gear" was out in Iraq and I went to Guam, not having the tactics or other qualifications I needed to go there.

Phil Forrest

I was stationed at FAPL Agana from '76 to '79, although I was TAD to NAS for most of that time. There was a fairly large SeaBee detachment there then. Where were you Phil? I really want to go back and vacation on Guam one day just to see the place again. I loved it there. I actually extended for a year because it was such a good gig.

 

[hepcat]

That's pretty cool to get a roughly 40 year old camera new, I'd have probably picked it up for the engraving alone(and I was Army).

Great thread hepcat.

Thanks. The thread was Takkun's idea though. 😉

 

[Tiger 68]

RA3B Skywarrior

RA3B Skywarrior

Not precisely what you're looking for, but this is the Navy photo gear I was involved with 40+ years ago.
The black squares in the belly between the engines are the camera windows, the 2 black ovals just aft of the nose are the viewfinders.

 

[hepcat]

Oh, I think that'll do QUITE nicely.... so what were the belly cams in the RA 3B? Five inch or eight inch? The P3-Cs Orions I flew on (and a few Bravos and Charlie updates) had five inch belly cams with a really ineffective gunsight viewfinder system. A couple of the photo training team guys at FAPL Moffett Field came up with a 4"x6" acetate template that could be taped to the pilot's side window. It had a horizon line and two vertical trigger lines. All the pilot had to do was put the horizon on the horizon line, and when the ship's bow entered the frame, trigger the camera, and let off when it left the frame. That $1.00 acetate frame made the P3 Orion one of the most effective light photo aerial platforms for shipping surveillance out there at the time.

Cool stuff. Geez, I wish I could remember the designations of some of that aerial gear. I hated working with it at the time, but it was some interesting stuff.

Not precisely what you're looking for, but this is the Navy photo gear I was involved with 40+ years ago.
The black squares in the belly between the engines are the camera windows, the 2 black ovals just aft of the nose are the viewfinders.