Uncommon, Rare, and Collector's Delights.

Wow, a magnesium flash! I have only ever seen those portrayed in old movies. Pretty cool! Have you ever loaded it up and fired it? I puzzled one of my nephews a few years ago demonstrating my 1950s Canon bulb flash. They had never seen one before and were intrigued by the crinkly fired bulb, a Sylvania Press 25.
 
Many years ago I stupidly sold a 50mm 1.5 Taylor Hobson Schneider Xenar that I wish I still had. I was just missing it a few days ago. Maybe I should just buy one. They do show up on ebay.

Oh, yeah, I just remembered, I also sold a 21mm Nikkor that mounts on a Nikon F with the mirror up. Dumb!
 
TenEleven said:
That's a gorgeous lens, even with the stupid (Leica induced) filing down of the lens mount area. The focus throw seems unusually long - even for the period. I guess Zeiss' engineers didn't really trust the Barnacks' rangefinder to be up to the task.
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I can't imagine someone doing this to a fine old lens, especially a rare example. If Brian's guess is correct that it was modified to fit an M3, why not just use the lens on a different camera instead of filing this down?
 
This is a great thread. 🙂

Brian what's the serial on your 50/2 Nikkor collapsible? Mine is 8111000. My 135/4 serial is 904284. I'm fond of MIOJ gear, also have a 35/3.5 Nikkor and Nippon Kogaku vari-viewfinder (marked 24x36 on the side.)
 
splitimageview said:
This is a great thread. 🙂

Brian what's the serial on your 50/2 Nikkor collapsible? Mine is 8111000. My 135/4 serial is 904284. I'm fond of MIOJ gear, also have a 35/3.5 Nikkor and Nippon Kogaku vari-viewfinder (marked 24x36 on the side.)
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8112168, bought with a Nicca III long ago. Looked like wax paper- haze on middle elements, 15minute job. The inner surfaces are all hard-coated, haze cleaned off- surfaces perfect.
 
That's cool, three 50/2s from the batch started Nov '48. 😀 I had DAG tighten the "neck" of lens when its pulled out, so it stays extended, not sure if that's common. Glass clean and clear, no scratches, the Nikkors seem much more resistant to haze and scratches than similar era collapsible Summicrons.
 
This is such a cool thread. I love reading about the history of some lenses with RFF members. I may have a few nice lenses from the 30's and 40's and 50's. Are they "rare" lenses? Maybe not. I enjoy using them anyways.
 
dexdog said:
A Steinheil Casca II rangefinder camera from 1948 or 1949. According the Cameraquest website, only several hundred were ever made. It is an interesting story from the head bartender. This one even works, shot a couple rolls of film with it last summer.
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If there's one vintage 35 RF that I'd love to be able to try out, it's the Casca II, because of its technical significance (and to get back at Leica for muscling it out of existence.) How's the shooting experience with it?
 
The Fujifilm Cristar 50/2 collapsible is probably the most rare lens I've had. Here it is next to other collapsibles.

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ranger9 said:
If there's one vintage 35 RF that I'd love to be able to try out, it's the Casca II, because of its technical significance (and to get back at Leica for muscling it out of existence.) How's the shooting experience with it?
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The camera has pretty normal functions and handles well, except for the sliding shutter speed scale on the back. That would take some getting used to because it does not have a strong "click" as you change speeds (sample of one, so bear that in mind), and I could not change speeds merely by counting clicks on shutter speed dial as may be done on lots of other cameras. The combined rangefinder/viewfinder is nice and bright as might be expected from the huge windows on the front. The rangefinder patch is kind of a coppery-red color, nice and crisp, but could stand to be a little bigger in my opinion. The camera is kinda chunky, at least compared to my leica IIIC stepper.



The camera works just fine, shutter speeds appear to be fairly accurate. I dont know if this camera has ever been worked on, but at 70+ years I will never run it too hard.
 
BTW, the flip up back on the camera makes loading film easy, unlike the IIIC stepper or similar bottom loaders. The camera has projected framelines for 8.5cm and 13.5cm lenses, and these show up very well in the same coppery-red color as the rangefinder patch.
 
dexdog said:
Wow, a magnesium flash! I have only ever seen those portrayed in old movies. Pretty cool! Have you ever loaded it up and fired it? I puzzled one of my nephews a few years ago demonstrating my 1950s Canon bulb flash. They had never seen one before and were intrigued by the crinkly fired bulb, a Sylvania Press 25.
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I've certainly considered it but have not had the courage - yet. It has a kerosene lamp in the base that provides the fire when you push the bulb and blow magnesium into the "explosion" zone.
 
I purchased this one of ten prototypes from KEH back in 2017. After reading the article about their creation and also having a working Carl Zeiss S312 and Contessa S310, this camera was too unique to pass up. Evidently, Honeywell was interested in producing a small RF camera and they partnered with Carl Zeiss to produce a prototype. Just as these were finished, Honeywell decided to leave the camera business and these ten cameras were given to employees as mementos and the seller had acquired 5 which he sold to KEH. It was pretty much brand new in the box and after installing the batteries, it worked perfectly. What was not said was if this camera was a prototype of the Zeiss S-312 or if it was a rebadged version they did for Honeywell to sell, as they were going out of business and their S-312 was the last RF camera they produced.

By the way, love this thread to see what rarities our esteemed membership has in their collections. I know I have some more to dig out and photograph. Honey 915.jpg
 
hilltime said:
Evidently, Honeywell was interested in producing a small RF camera and they partnered with Carl Zeiss to produce a prototype.
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Interesting that they called it the "Visitronic," as I think that was the name they eventually used on the autofocus module that they licensed to several camera companies early in the AF era, wasn't it?
 
Rob-F said:
Many years ago I stupidly sold a 50mm 1.5 Taylor Hobson Schneider Xenar that I wish I still had. I was just missing it a few days ago. Maybe I should just buy one. They do show up on ebay.

Oh, yeah, I just remembered, I also sold a 21mm Nikkor that mounts on a Nikon F with the mirror up. Dumb!
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Someone on reddit was just showing a 50mm f/1.5 Taylor Hobson "Leitz Xenon" the other day, interesting that there were both Xenons and Xenars like that.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Leica/comments/sajcs9/my_favorite_bit_of_kit_lately_a_wartime_iiic/
 
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