Two down one to go . . .

[IanG]

I've had a British made Rolleicord an MPP Microcord for a few years now, the Xpres lens is superb, sharpest of all my TLR cameras lenses.

Now I've bought a British made Linhof, a MPP MifroTechincal Mk111, well more accurately almost 2, one complete the other a parts camera.

Off topic and currently out of my price range is a Reid III, the British made Leice. about 40 yeras ago crates of part built camera were found and finished I should have bought one then, they were incredibly cheap, a TTH Cooke lens that out-performedthe then current Summicron

Ian

[Two23]

Had to google these. Looks like they were from the era when the DRP were voided and small companies all over the world sprang to action. There is a Reid 50mm lens in LTM currently listed on ebay. Price is still reasonable, but bidding is active.


Kent in SD

[Jody_S]

If you want a British Leica, why not go with the Periflex?

I have several. One of them almost works.

[IanG]

Corfield were not far from where I live, I met Sir Kenneth Corfield a few times at trade shows when he was involved in Gandolfi and making his achiterural camera.

Ian

[Drew Bedo]

This thread is mostly unintelligible to me here in Houston,Texas. I do not think that the problem has anything to do with my accent though.

Will someone please put this discussion into historical and social context?

Cheers

[civich]

+1 for me in Luther, Oklahoma.

This thread is mostly unintelligible to me here in Houston,Texas. I do not think that the problem has anything to do with my accent though.

Will someone please put this discussion into historical and social context?

Cheers

[IanG]

This thread is mostly unintelligible to me here in Houston,Texas. I do not think that the problem has anything to do with my accent though.

Will someone please put this discussion into historical and social context?

Cheers

After WWII the Allies sent technicians etc into German factories as part of war reparations to learn trade secrets etc. The British Government wanted to rebuild the UK camera industry and so helped MPP who had access to the Linhof and Rollei factories and tooling, Taylor, Taylor, Hobson (Cooke) had access to the Leica plant.

The consequence was MPP's Microcord was a essentially a Rolleicord clone, the MicroTechnical a Linhof Techika clone (with minor differences). The Reid III camera was made by a subsidiary company set up by TTH and was slightly better than the comparative Leica as were the lenses, Leitz in fact later had some lenses made by TTH.

This was at a time when Britain had draconian Import restrictions after the end of WWII, you needed a special license to import cameras from Germany and even the US. MPP designed a MicroPress camera based on the MicroTechical but with a Wray Focal Plane shutter, however their version never went into production, instead a MicroPress based on a Speed Graphic went on sale instead. Essentially this was a way of getting round import restrictions, parts could be imported, there's still a great deal of secrecy about the MPP/Graflex deal.

So a British MicroPress uses a Graflex front standard and track bed. lens boards etc, a Graflex Focal Plane shutter, probably a Graflex made casing but with an internal top rangefinder (way before Graflex). The back and base for the rails are British made as are the rack, and pinion. The one I examined carefully had the Graflex teeth ground off the track-bed and two new sets attached.



You can see more details here, I did check parts to see how close they were between the MicroPress and a Pacemaker Speed Graphic. Some threads had been changed from US to British.

Ian

[interneg]

Taylor, Taylor, Hobson (Cooke) had access to the Leica plant.

Wasn't the 50/1.5 Summarit (and the Xenon?) a TTH design?

[RSalles]

What I usually heard is that Xenon has the Zeiss Tessar lens design, from Schneider Optics.

Cheers,

[interneg]

What I usually heard is that Xenon has the Zeiss Tessar lens design, from Schneider Optics.

Cheers,

Not with a 7 element/ 5 group design - subsequent googling suggests that both are TTH designs - http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-...%3D_5_cm_1:1.5 - not totally surprising as TTH/ Cooke were massively innovative & influential in mid-20th century optics - their lenses were on the 3-strip technicolor cameras, and the SII/SIII speed panchros are still very desirable lenses in the cinema world today.