New Toy - a RangeFinder ...

[xpatUSA]

... No, not a Leica camera!





Works and seems accurate enough. Got it for $15 US. It suffers the same "defect" as lens distance scales, extreme non-linearity, goes from 300' to infinity in about 1/32" on the scale.

But anything over 300' is virtually infinite focus for many lenses these days ...

[William W]

It looks like something spies would have used... perhaps in the Cold War. How old is it?

[rpcrowe]

These auxiliary rangefinders were actually pretty neat gadgets when many cameras did not have integrated rangefinders. You would either have to measure or guesstimate the distance at which you wanted to focus. These rangefinders, although slow to use were an aid to focusing the camera. Next came the cameras with built-in rangefinders that were in a separate window from the viewing window of the camera. Still slow but, a step up from guessing or using a separate rangefinder like this one...

[xpatUSA]

It looks like something spies would have used... perhaps in the Cold War. How old is it?

No date on it, Bill. I'll guess early 50's judging by a lady's hairstyle inside the booklet. Price was $12.50 !!

I found the original patent:

2186806 Range Finder Jan. 9, 1940 by Oscar. Liebmann assigned to Q.O.S. corp. NY

But the original Meyer Co. (German) predates the patent. 1896.



https://www.meyer-optik-goerlitz.com/en/history/

The box says "made in USA" ...

[Manfred M]

I found a similar device in some old photo equipment that had been donated to a local charity. Most of the stuff was cheap garbage by this device with a leather case manufactured by "Chess United", New York City was my bit of treasure. The black paint has deteriorated and comes off easily from the brass housing.

[xpatUSA]

I found a similar device in some old photo equipment that had been donated to a local charity. Most of the stuff was cheap garbage by this device with a leather case manufactured by "Chess United", New York City was my bit of treasure. The black paint has deteriorated and comes off easily from the brass housing.

Ah, yes, I almost bought a Chess model, but the square casing had split corners at both ends where the caps are.

That nicely-captured dial certainly emphasizes the angular nature of photography - in spite of the best efforts in the literature to "dumb it down" to things like "an 8x10 print viewed from 25cm" et al.

[Manfred M]

... No, not a Leica camera!

What I find interesting is how these companies were in many ways independent legal entities, even though they shared a name that was similar to the original company back in the home country.

E. Leitz based in Rockleigh NJ was both the importer of Leica cameras but also made locally sourced products for the American market under their names.

My Leica Pradolux RT300 slide projector was an E. Leitz product that was not made by the Germain Leitz company, but was unique to the North American market and featured a round Kodak slide tray versus the linear trays on the German made Pradovit slide projectors. So far as I can tell it was made by Singer Corporation (Buhl division?) and used a Leitz Portugal projector lens.

Another unusual E. Leitz product were the E. Leitz Tiltall tripods (made by Marchioni in the USA); another product not available through the German Leitz works.

http://http://www.tiltallusa.com/

[William W]

What I find interesting is how these companies were in many ways independent legal entities, even though they shared a name that was similar to the original company back in the home country.

E. Leitz based in Rockleigh NJ was both the importer of Leica cameras but also made locally sourced products for the American market under their names.

For many years post WWII, I think many USA businesses had at the least an "arm's length" policy with German Companies.

WW

[GrahamS]

Variations on a theme.
This rangefinder has "WATAMETER" and "Germany" on the faceplate.



This one is a "PRAZISA" and has "Germany" engraved under the mount.



The Argus company incorporated a rangefinder similar to those above, into the top plate of the Argus C Four camera, with the lens focussing helical coupled to the adjustment wheel.
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[xpatUSA]

Variations on a theme.

Excellent post, Graham, thank you!

The Argus was most interesting - looks like the adjustment wheel is concentric with the rangefinder viewing port; quite elegant, that. I wonder what those red&orange marks at 15ft on the wheel are ...

[GrahamS]

Excellent post, Graham, thank you!

The Argus was most interesting - looks like the adjustment wheel is concentric with the rangefinder viewing port; quite elegant, that. I wonder what those red&orange marks at 15ft on the wheel are ...

Ted, here's what the instruction manual says:

[xpatUSA]

Ted, here's what the instruction manual says:

Never was a film guy except for snapshots only processed at Boots (UK) or K-mart (USA) but I can just about figure out what the marks actually do, thanks again!

[Manfred M]

I find it fascinating that ASA 32-80 are all lumped into a single setting. These days we worry about 1/3 stops in getting our exposures right.

ASA 10 Kodachrome film sounds a bit bizarre; I've never shot anything quite that slow. I do remember shooting a lot of Kodachrome 25 film. It and AgfaPan 25 (B&W negative film) are probably the slowest films I shot on a regular basis.

[GrahamS]

I teethed on Kodachrome 10ASA. It was the original Kodachrome and there was no other choice. It was also available in 16mm 100ft rolls. Here's an example - my mother in Dar-es-Salaam 1957.

This is also interesting: http://bit.ly/2YKlZhq

[xpatUSA]

ASA 10 Kodachrome film sounds a bit bizarre; I've never shot anything quite that slow. I do remember shooting a lot of Kodachrome 25 film. It and AgfaPan 25 (B&W negative film) are probably the slowest films I shot on a regular basis.

A bit faster than it sounds, though - because 80 ASA became 100 ISO (21 DIN) at some point in the past, so 1936 Kodachrome 10 ASA was actually 12.5 ISO by modern standards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_s...sion_table.jpg

They made it in 8 ASA Daylight too!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodachrome
.