Robert Capa -- fake photo from Spanish civil war?

<p>I was driving around this afternoon with NPR on the radio. In a segment produced by the BBC, they had a blurb in which they said that Capa's photo of the soldier, falling to the ground with a rifle in his hand, was undoubtedly staged. I searched npr.org but could not find a link.<br>

On the other hand, I did find a f/2.8 Minolta 24mm lens, as well as a f/1.2 50mm lens.<br>

The 24mm lens is labeled MD W.ROKKOR-X.<br>

I have never seen the W before. Any answers?</p>

<p>http://www.geocities.com/mikkonis/reviewed/md24mm.html</p>

<p>http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22md+w+rokkor%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=KxYPMM6r3XA</p>

<p>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/5876669/Robert-Capa-war-photo-was-staged-claims-newspaper.html</p>

 

<p>The Capa story has already been covered in reasonable completeness at <a href="../casual-conversations-forum/00TzYt">link</a> in the Casual Conv forum, to which I would direct further comments. Many of us thought the furor was overblown and the case "unproven" as I think Scottish justice puts it. The charge that it was staged is ancient, all that is new is some effort to identify where it was taken. Originally the Francoists tried to show it was "fake," of course, so mind whom you are traveling with here.</p>

<p>But I am glad that you found the Minolta lenses. That's a Minolta f/1.2? I have a Nikkor f/1.2 that is still one of my favorite lenses even though I turned to the Dark Side (where I still use it, but shhh, this is the Classic forum) for my digital work ;)</p>

<p>Sorry no ideas on the W, but what does the f/1.2 say on it?</p>

<p>"Sorry no ideas on the W, but what does the f/1.2 say on it?"<br>

It is not in my possession yet, since my contact wanted to conplete the cleaning job, but I will let you know when I get it.</p>

<p>Ernest, thank you for the links. I found them very infomative.</p>

<p>Kerry, you're welcome.</p>

<p>What is a good price to pay for the Minolta 1.2??<br>

I have been lookin for one for i can affors for a while and they always seem to be arround 300 or mor when auctioned off and buy it now for 4 or 5 hundred. Altho i did miss out on a great bargen of an auction for one, when my mother was ill a couple months ago i was watchin on on my watch list. I was away from the computer and internet for about 2 weeks or so and the auction ended at a supprising 163 USD.</p>

<p>Here's another take on the Capa photograph:</p>

<p>http://elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com/2008/08/robert-capa-in-cerro-muriano-day-in.html</p>

<p>Thanks, Robert for that very long link.<br /> Here's the bottom line of what it has to say about the authenticity of the photograph (near the end)</p>

<blockquote>

<p>There must be absolutely no doubt: the photograph is authentic, there wasn´t any trick, Robert Capa was utterly honest, risked his life to take the picture and had the luck of the champions. Everything was true and the gruesome reality of war and what it really means was captured for ever in this both magic and horrifying moment.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>as it says at the end, this is the opinion of the author, but I think he makes a pretty compelling case far deeper than the "pop" journalism of the recent "news"</p>

<p>It depends upon which Minolta f1.2 lens you are talking about. From what I've seen, the 58mm f1.2 MC Rokkor PG is the one reputed to be a bokeh machine, and those lenses tend to close at $300 or more in good shape. The more recent 50mm f1.2 lens is probably sharper, but not as highly regarded for it's out-of-focus rendering, and those tend to close in the $225-$275 range in good shape.</p>

<p>Personally, I'm really happy with both the MC and MD versions of the 50mm f1.4 that can be easily gotten for $30-40. I just don't see the reason to pay 8 times as much for a less sharp f1.2 lens - but then again, I'm not doing portraiture for a living, and if I was, I might feel differently about it. Of course, different strokes for different folks - this is all subjective opinion anyways. I did recently pick up a nice copy of Minolta's last 24mm f2.8 lens, the plain MD, and I am very impressed with it - I should add that it does not rotate when focused, so polarizers are not a problem.</p>

<p>Thanks JDM-I should have summarized the article about the Capa photograph, instead of just providing alink.</p>

<p>¡No pasarán! :-)</p>

<p>Not sure about the W. The earlier version of the 24mm was an -SI, S meaning 7 groups and I meaning 9 elements. It's explained here:<br>

http://www.rokkorfiles.com/Lens%20History.html<br>

But in the late MC period they discontinued this practice, I suppose replacing it with another scheme such as the "W" but I'm not sure where to look up what the W means exactly.</p>

<p>The W stands for wide:<br>

http://www.rokkorfiles.com/24mm.html</p>

<p>Regarding the Capa pic. It was so crap it must be real - if he was going to stage it, it would look far better than that. He heard the shot, saw the soldier falling and, being Capa (or anyone with half a clue with a camera in a war zone) always had his finger on the shutter, so caught the dying soldier as he fell to the ground.</p>

<p>Link to the BBC:</p>

<p>http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/photoblog/2009/07/the_whole_story.html</p>