Hi, > Anybody know what the real story is?
David Douglas Duncan has documented in "This is War!" how Nikon took over from Leica during the Korean War. I copied it out and posted it once or twice before. Luckily I kept it. Here it is again: He throws some very interesting historical light on the transition from European to Japanese (Nikon) lenses and cameras, which I thought might interest you all here, even though it's Nikon- rather than Pentax-related. Here are some quotes. My comments are in parentheses. Ellipses in brackets [�] are where I've edited. Unbracketed ellipses � are in the original: "Probably very few of you [�] will ever be called upon to photograph a war. [�] the techniques and tools employed were just about the same as many of you [�] would use on your vacations or assignments. [�] the equipment used in Korea already has started a minor revolution among miniature-camera enthusiasts in the United States and Europe." (and they say the British are masters of understatement!) "Every photograph in 'This is War!' was taken with a Leica camera, but fitted with Nikkor lenses�made in occupied Japan." (He used 2 Leica IIICs, which he praised very highly indeed. Leica gave DDD a Leica MP - serial no. M3D, which were produced in 1956-1957, in a production run of about 450 in total. I don't know if this was in thanks for his praise, or as part of a package which included some better-than-Nikkor lenses). "[�] Horace Bristol [�] and I began experimenting with [�] Nikkor lenses, made by the Nippon Optical Company, Tokyo, and discovered to our utter amazement that their three standard lenses for 35mm cameras were far superior, [�], to any standard 35mm lenses available [�], British, American or German." "[�] we sold every [�] lens in our outfits�and re-equipped with only Nikkor lenses." "As the Korean war progressed [�] the reputation of the new lenses spread until, within a matter of only 3 months, there was scarcely a photographer working out of Japan who was not using Nikkors on his cameras." "[�] Carl Mydans and Hank Walker, both of Life [�] soon had discarded their original German cameras and were using only Nikons." (This is a fascinating document about how he worked. He seems to have shot almost everything using just 2 lenses, a 50mm and a telephoto. He doesn't say what focal length, but later mentions the Nikkor 135mm F3.5. Amazingly, he seems also to have used the same exposure for everything: ) "[�] it would be a bit difficult to give exposure data for each photograph. It would be somewhat unnecessary, too, for as a whole the exposure was a basic 1/200 sec. at F11. The film was always Eastman SuperXX [�]". -- Cheers, Bob Wednesday, January 21, 2004, 4:30:18 PM, you wrote: >> I was reading an old Tom Clancey novel yesterday, "Without Remorse." I >> was surprised to find an excellent account of how N***n grabbed the lead >> in "professional" cameras from Pentax. >> >> The story takes place in the '70s. One of the minor characters is a pj >> who is trying out a new camera. He has been using his faithful >> "Honeywell" Spotmatic for years, and has been very happy with it, but he >> has just been given a new N***n FREE, together with several telephoto >> lenses, which he tries out for the first time photographing the body of >> a girl who was tortured, mutilated and killed by drug dealers. It gives >> a real feel for how N***n pushed aside Pentax and all of the other >> camera companies by spending lots of money on freebies to professionals, >> so that they could make much more selling overpriced cameras to amateur >> wanabes. >>
