The quality of German and Japanese-built equipment

[Jim Galli]

It's not that we can't do it in America. I have Photosonics high speed 35mm cameras out at work that are made in Burbank California. The mechanism in those cameras is like a piece of jewelry. Each piece hand lapped to precision tolerance. They spin at 11,000 RPM and the film advances and stops for an exposure 250 times a second. (no typo) The image quality is similar to a Nikon. Mostly Pentax 67 lenses. Some Zeiss, and some Schneider Xenotar's. But they cost $250,000. Your tax $ at work folks. Nobody else anywhere even tries to compete.

[Struan Gray]

I second Jim's point: when it comes to real high-precision engineering no country has a monopoly, and the best supplier can come from anywhere.

You can find a craftsman capable of making you a top-quality LF camera in pretty well every country in the world. The real question is how much will it cost for a particular volume.

Having worked in Germany and visited labs in Japan I can say that one cultural factor I have noticed is technical staff are treated with the same respect as managerial or scientific personnel. Both countries also have a strong tradition in production engineering - how to make machines to make things - compared to the anglo-saxon world which awards kudos to the design of the product itself. Finally, both countries have financial sectors which are very friendly towards small companies in general, and small mechanical engineering companies in particular.

[giancatarina]

I'm a french, i've got an army swiss knife, a german LF camera (linhof), german lens (schneider and rodenstock); my hasselblad comes from suede, my apple mac was built in UK. I enjoy french cuisine at home, i'm going to thai, greck...restaurants... I don't want a world where everyone looks similar (religion, food, skills,...), with mondialisation we can have different products made by different people, i like it like that, that's call : humanity. Don't let mondial isation destroy our own specific skills, cultures...and enjoy differences...

[Paul Schilliger]

I fully agree. After wearing them for four years, I have sadly put to the rubbis h the best shoes I ever had: a pair of Timberland made and bought in USA. Otherwise, my flatbed is German but m y monorail is Japanese. My 65 SW is Japanese, but the 110 XL is German. My Apo-Ronar is German, but the Fuj i C's are Japanese. My tripods are French, but the ball heads are German and Italian. My Backpack is Ir ish as well as my computer, but my monitor and my car are Japanese and my scanner is Israeli. Finally and to put an end to the list, my army-knife as well as my rollfilm back are Swiss! What would we be without one a nother? Best wishes to all!

[Paul Schilliger]

Forgot to mention an excellent movie tripod that I had and was made in Australia , and the wonderful roast-leg that we had the other week from a tender Kiwi lamb! ;-)

[Robert A. Zeichner]

We (Americans) can manufacture the best there is when we want or need to. Panavision in Tarzana, CA and Mitchell, before them, produced the finest 35mm motion picture cameras in the world. Why? They needed to do it. Entertainment is our biggest export! Big money drives that industry. It will be interesting to see the impact of HDTV on the motion picture industry. Should it eventually dominate the world of moving pictures, it will be the Japanese who we turn to for the cameras (and as is the case now, Zeiss, Angenieux, Cooke and Leitz for the optics). But, I think it a mistake to assume anything the Japanese and Germans make is great. At their best, they are wonderful products but, at their worst, they can be as dreadful as any made here (USA) or elsewhere. Precision made dreck? Personally, I think we are "toolcentric" as a society. We often measure each other's ability by the tools we use. This is particularly so in highly creative arenas. I think that is because it is so difficult to explain what enables artists to create art, that ordinary folks look for "answers" to explain their success. "He or she makes beautiful photographs.....I wonder what camera they use". You never hear anyone saying "What a great plumber....I wonder if he uses a Craftsman or a Stanley wrench!"

[Walter Glover]

Paul,

You cruel man. That lamb you ate may have been some poor Kiwi's girlfriend! Just as well it wasn't Australian lamb or it would definitely have been some bloke's shiela.

Happy eating ... Walter

[Walter Glover]

Nathan,

I know where you are coming from and I feel sure that there are many of us make the same observations and uphold the same views.

In fairness: drop a Technika over a cliff and warp the body-shell and that's the end of it - chances are you won't even be able to shut it again prior to major surgery.

Having said that you need to look at the marketing and manufacturing philosophies of the societies involved. The comparative histories are relevant also. I?ll endeavour to refrain from more psychobabble.

Europe and Japan are very old cultures with traditions of craft and manufacture dating back to Neolithic times (in the case of Europe). From this craft manufacturing tradition industry developed and eventually in response to increased demand and greater technology heavy industry and manufacturing came into being ? but always with the influence and incorporation of craft alongside.

America, on the other hand, is a comparatively new society quickly developing it?s own culture. From a standing start it had to acquire vast industrial capabilities virtually overnight to forge the national expansion necessary to accommodate the enormous influx of migration that flooded to its shores. Expediency and economic viability were essential if the goals of the great American social experiment were to be met. Without the time, need or funds for craft it had to give way to simplicity and efficiency ? hence the American development and worship of the production line.

"Good Old Yankee Know-How" has lead to the invention, development and fabrication of a plethora of manufactured goods for every purpose imaginable ... including photography. They?re adequate to satisfy their intended purpose (often handsomely so), usually relatively inexpensive and readily available. But then American designs often remain fundamentally unchanged for generations to minimise expenditure on re-designing, re-casting or re-tooling on the basis that "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It!" The Zippo lighter, Omega and Beseler enlargers, Norman & Speedotron flash are all examples ? the list goes on and on.

I recall attending a press-conference here in Sydney a couple of decades ago at which Neil Armstrong was asked what his feelings were in retrospect about his trip to the moon. "Scary," was his immediate response, to which he added: "I was undertaking mankind's most potentially hazardous journey in a craft built by the company that put in the lowest tender." It got him there and back and the rest is history. In American manufacturing I believe economical expediency is paramount ? the bottom line IS the bottom line.

Let?s take a look at enlargers for a moment to illustrate this point. I had an Omega D-something or other ? hardly changed since it was designed for use with the US Navy in WWII. The negative stage was a sheet of stamped aluminium plate aligned using 4 phillips head screws and spring washers. Pull the lever to raise the head and re-insert the neg carrier (a flat stamped aluminium sandwich) and bits swayed and clunked in a charming but hardly reassuring ballet. Lower the head and it all sort of went back to where it was before ? but it might be smart to re-check the focus. Now I have a Durst Laborator L1200 ? a solid die-cast chassis with milled tracks for the neg carrier to glide in on, assisted by bearings. Snaps back to the same spot time and time again. The carrier glasses are seated on milled parallel surfaces, the head glides up the column on roller bearings ? believe me, it?s nice ? and precise. The Omega did the same job but the Durst is nice and precise.

Now, I?m sure that just like my Linhof the Durst will be at a premium price in the USA as it is here in Australia and anywhere else you care to mention. But they make it; and you have are given a choice. While the bottom line is the focus for these Italian folk, also, there is the sense that they go the extra yards. Maybe they have to in order to maintain a competitive identity in the face of US industrial might.

Naturally Germany, Switzerland and Japan make some prize crap as well and the ?Name Brands? aren?t necessarily innocent in this regard, either. But generally speaking if you are discerning in your choice and cough up the money you can be sure of getting what you pay for.

So now let?s consider the Linhof Technika series for a moment: there was a time when there were many metal Technical/Field/Press cameras in production ? the Graphics from the USA, the MPPs from England and the Linhof from Germany to name a few. What do we have now? Despite market changes, ownership changes and the need to re-structure production and financing Linhof have persisted and produce a premium product to this day ? with ongoing upgrades and improvements. They obviously see it as their role and exercise a considerable level of devotion to it over and above purely fiscal considerations. I feel sure that the German national identity plays no small part in this also. So where are MPP and Graphic now? With the decline in demand for large format ?press? cameras they couldn?t or wouldn?t weather the storm.

However, what about the healthy American ?large format art market?? Who is serving the perpetuees of the Ansel Adams legacy? Many fine American craftsmen answered the call making exquisite wooden field cameras (some metal too, of course) but due to the somewhat limited size of the market production is possibly geared up as cottage industry. Forged or stamped metal parts are often common to many manufacturers; fiscal constraints are at the forefront again. Then there are the less scrupulous camera makers that cater for those photographers on a forced budget by supplying sloppy, under-featured units made from dead peoples? furniture: those products could be made anywhere. Nevertheless, Japan and Europe have made their move into this market as well with the much-lauded Ebony from Japan, the venerable Gandolfi of Britain and the full-featured Lotus of Austria. It will be intriguing to see what happens over time.

However, credit where it?s due. America makes damn fine film, paper, and chemistry and has kept up research and development activity and new product releases until very recently in some areas that many are predicting the impending death of.

I do respect Robert's view about concentration on our tools but if it feels good, it feels good and makes you happy. If it inspires confidence and certainty then go for it. Maybe the plumber's client is unconcerned by his choice of wrench but sure as hell the plumber has his preferences.

Season?s greetings ? Walter

[Ben Calwell]

Japanese cameras are great, but I'll never forget that day when a piece of wood fell off my rosewood Wista. I was composing on the ground glass when I heard a soft "plunk" sound. One of the corner pieces, where the tongue and groove joints are, just simply fell off for no apparent reason. I glued it back on with some Elmer's.

[Neal Shields]

That is a very good question. So good that several years ago, MIT asked it and then spent 5 years and 5 million dollars answering it. To limit the scope of the question, they restricted their study to the automotive industry. The results were published in a book called: ?The Machine that Changed the World? Buy it if you like graphs and charts. They looked at overall product quality, and quality as a function of man hours and resources used. Their conclusion (in a nut shell) was that Toyota was a fine car but in most cases Ford was just as good and in some cases better. Mercedes was good but only because of very expensive end of line rework of mistakes that Ford and Toyota wouldn?t have made.

I have worked with automotive engineers all over the world, and yes, I do believe that there are cultural differences that show up in the products. I wouldn?t even begin to try to make judgments as to whether these differences make products better or worse. On the whole I think the answer is both. Linhof puts a triple extension bellows in the same space Graflex put a double. But to my experience Graflex will last longer before developing pin holes. The Nikon?s eight thousands of a second shutter adds capability to the camera but my wife?s F4 blew up on our honeymoon on about the 30th roll of film and about 30 days after the warranty expired. My old Ftn with a cloth shutter is going strong after 25 years and my Leica 3f still produces a satisfying ?zip? after about 50. Everything in engineering is a compromise.

With modern quality procedures (invented by Americans for the War Department during WW2) and modern CNC machinery, the differences in quality as a result of where a product is made are shrinking rapidly.

However, ?the proof is in the pudding?. Cameras are for taking pictures not admiring and stroking. (do as I say not as I do.)

I think it is safe to say the vast majority of 4X5 images that have stood the test of time were taken with Graflex cameras. Probably the Wide Field Extar holds the record for studio advertising shots. For vacations and kids birthdays, the Brownie has to King. Kodak labs are to film what Bell Labs were to semiconductors. The only area of photography where you might give the title to a foreigner would be lens development and to my mind no one comes close to Zeiss. However, that was more a result of two or three individuals not a culture.

The other problem that we have in American is that the government takes their share first before the company can buy new machinery or improve worker's compensation. Right now in an American manufacturing company the government gets about 50% of the wealth created. Furthar, tax laws and the stock market mandate a 90 day to 1 year corporate horizon. As most equipment capital expendure has a pay of measured in tens of years, it gets a short shrift in America. At one time Japan owned 80% of the industral robuts in the world and America had 80% of the lawyers.

Neal