Linhof Super Technika

Modern Photography, in their September 1953 issue, takes a close look at this camera.

 

 

Linhof ST 1 sm 2

Here is a look at photographer Paul Strand.

 

 

Strand 1 sm 2

Is Ilford HPS the fastest film?

 

 

Fastest Film 1 sm 2

Home processing of Kodachrome?

 

 

BTS 1 sm 2

Depth without specs.

 

 

Depth 1 sm 2

The What's Ahead column looks at depth perception.

 

 

What's Ahead 1 sm 2

Here are this month's dealer ads.

 

 

AC 1 sm 2

Here are this month's camera equipment ads.

 

 

Alpa 1 sm 2

You can see the entire collection of magazine scans at my website site here.

 

 

A Look Back – Photography Magazine Scans

Thanks for another great look back, Marc. The HPS article makes one appreciate the advances that were made in film since then.

Mike - Glad you liked it. Our perception of what is "fast" has really changed over the years.

Great fun as always—thank you Marc.

 

I may have missed it but didn't see any reference to Nikon on any of these pages, including the dealer ads. There are plenty of ads for Leica and Contax but no Nikon. That seems odd given that, according to this CameraQuest article, the Nikon S was produced from 1951 to 1955 and was a good seller in the U.S. Maybe the U.S. sales didn't get going until later in the production run.

The earliest Nikon rangefinders (marked made in Occupied Japan) had 24 x 32 and 24 x 34 frame sizes rather than the standard 24 x 36. Maybe that had something to do with initial sales. I think I read somewhere that it was the Nikkor lenses (made also in Leica and Contax mounts) that really got Nikon noticed. Please correct me if I'm in error.

Kent - Nikon didn't seem to have a consistent ad campaign until late 1954. I think their sales were driven by the great press they got from Korean War combat photographers.

Thanks for this post. How things have changed!

Thanks for posting Marc. I have been fortunate to have a Linhoff III with three matching lenses and complete kit as shown in the article. I have only had it a short time (a year) and it has been a joy to shoot with. The build quality is great and the format is just amazing in the amount of detail it can capture. When they said the photographs can be better than what you can see with your eyes, they were not kidding. I have found detail in some shots that I simply didn't know was there when I released the shutter. Great selection to post for us.

I forced my parents to get me a V as a compensation for ruined health. Best production camera in the world. I've designed better but there's no way it's ever going to see the light.

I loved reading the article about Paul Strand by Nancy Newhall. It would be hard to find such high quality writing in any magazine these days, and especially in a general interest photography magazine.

Julio - You are so right.

 

Andy - When you combine camera movements with that big, beautiful negative it is still a hard camera to beat.

 

Glenn - These days at most they would give a short interview and then post a link to his Flickr page.