Was HCB just really good at...

[phatnev]

zone focusing using a 50mm if he was using the VIDOM VF on top of his M3? Correct me if Im wrong but it's merely a VF and not a focusing/rangefinder aparatus of some sort?

 

[peter_n]

My understanding was that he used the VIDOM to check out the graphic/compositional aspects of some of his scenes. You can turn the image in a VIDOM upside down and that is useful for looking at graphic shapes without detail getting in the way. Painters sometimes use this technique.

 

[VinceC]

Also, much of his most well-known work was taken before the M3 was introduced, so he used screwmount cameras.

 

[furcafe]

Yes, he was good @ zone focusing among other things, like quickly recognizing photoworthy scenes & composition, which is where the VIDOM came in (as others have noted in their responses). I read somewhere that he put a dab of red lipstick polish or paint on his lens's distance scale to mark his ideal focus distance for street shooting, approx. 3m, IIRC.

zone focusing using a 50mm if he was using the VIDOM VF on top of his M3? Correct me if Im wrong but it's merely a VF and not a focusing/rangefinder aparatus of some sort?

 

[rich815]

Anyone want a VIDOM I have an extra one for sale. PM me.

 

[dll927]

The 1948 TIME magazine quote was in 1948 dollars. Seven hundred smackers was, at the time, a sum that a lot of people had to work several weeks to accumulate. And in the meantime, they had other expenses besides the "world's most expensive camera", which it probably wasn't, anyway.

 

[furcafe]

If you're referring to my signature, yes, that's why the quote is so funny, a great example of corporate overoptimism (or delusion). However, @ $700, the Foton probably was the most expensive still camera available on the market @ the time, @ least in miniature format (Leicas, etc. were significantly cheaper).

I'm not sure where Bell & Howell got their information that "families" were spending $550/year on movie equipment. I suspect that they were relying on flawed market research data, kind of like the way that the political polls that year predicted Dewey would win in the presidential election (they had been conducted by telephone @ a time when most people who had phones in their homes were much more likely to be relatively wealthy, & therefore Republicans).

The 1948 TIME magazine quote was in 1948 dollars. Seven hundred smackers was, at the time, a sum that a lot of people had to work several weeks to accumulate. And in the meantime, they had other expenses besides the "world's most expensive camera", which it probably wasn't, anyway.