Military Cameras

[Niels - NHSN]

This late Rolleiflex T from first half of 1970 was part of the last production of T's (version 4, "white face"). 
The British Ministry of Defence (BMoD) is said to have ordered 3500 cameras, and Rollei made 4640. The remaining 1140 were sold to the public.
There are no known markings differentiating the BMoD cameras from those publicly available.

At the time, the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, previously used in the T models, was no longer available to Rollei (Zeiss didn't want to make any more) and since the Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar performed within the specifications agreed with BMoD,  it was used instead.

My camera, shown above, is in mint condition, so it was likely not in actual BMoD use.

Ian Parker writes in his book "Complete Rollei TLR Collector's Guide" (1993):

"The Rolleiflex T, a budget priced Rolleiflex, is today in great demand by wedding photographers, costing a third less than the 3.5F second hand. The largest single order coming from the UK Ministry of Defence and used extensively by the British Army and Royal Navy.  
So popular was the Rollei TLR with the British Army that Rollei had to restart their production line in late 1971 when they received an order for 5000 Rollei T's to be taken over the next five years, with the last camera completed on the 12th of May, 1976".

On another forum, a member confirmed he had frequently used the Rolleiflex T as an enlisted person under BMoD.

Rumour has it that BMoD was tired of problems with Hasselblad cameras and decided to switch to the less jamming-prone Rolleiflex T.
(Same thing was said about NASA's choice to favour Nikon F and F3/4 over Hasselblad on later missions).

Edited March 29, 2023 by Niels - NHSN

[rodeo_joe1]

20 hours ago, Niels - NHSN said:

The largest single order coming from the UK Ministry of Defence and used extensively by the British Army and Royal Navy.  

Whaaa? Can anyone imagine a more ridiculous camera design to take on a military operation? 

Wheel to the right. I said right! 

Oooops! My mistake... stupid viewfinder.. 

Makes you wonder what planet the string-pullers in the civil service live on. 

[Rick_van_Nooij]

Just added this US Army Signal Corps version of the Bolsey B2 to my collection. Designated the "PH-324A", the follow-up camera to the Kodak 35 "PH-324".
I recall it was used in the post-war version of PH-261 "Darkroom in a box", until it was replaced in 1954 by the ES-12(1) Photographic Set, that came with a Kodak Signet 35.

[Niels - NHSN]

7 hours ago, rodeo_joe1 said:

Whaaa? Can anyone imagine a more ridiculous camera design to take on a military operation? 

Wheel to the right. I said right! 

Oooops! My mistake... stupid viewfinder.. 

Makes you wonder what planet the string-pullers in the civil service live on. 

What robust and economical medium format camera would you have chosen in the early 70’s for users who were presumably not experienced photographers? 
I can certainly understand that Hasselblad would be disqualified in above use-case.

[marc_rochkind]

By the early 1970s, medium format would have been unnecessary because 35mm film was very good, either Tri-X or Ektachrome. (Maybe Kodachrome wouldn't have been a good choice because it couldn't have been processed in the field.) There were no suitable medium format cameras. A Nikon F would have been the most rugged camera available, save maybe a Leica. But what worked for photojournalists surely would have worked for military purposes.

Edited March 30, 2023 by marc_rochkind

[Niels - NHSN]

4 minutes ago, marc_rochkind said:

By the early 1970s, medium format would have been unnecessary because 35mm film was very good…

Really!

[marc_rochkind]

11 hours ago, Niels - NHSN said:

Really!

The subject here is military, not fashion, family, wedding, etc.

[rodeo_joe1]

13 hours ago, Niels - NHSN said:

What robust and economical medium format camera would you have chosen in the early 70’s for users who were presumably not experienced photographers? 

The days of the local newspaper snapper dragging a Rollei or other TLR around were well and truly over by the 1970s. PJs had definitely turned to 35mm as their day-to-day tool by that time. So I'm not sure why the military felt they needed the slight improvement in IQ of rollfilm, especially with its increased awkwardness of loading in the field.

Plus the only sensible way to use a Rollei for capturing action is to ignore the viewing lens and use the 'sports finder' (ha ha) with guesswork focussing. Might as well just chop the top off the thing and use it as a glorified box camera. 

There was the rangefinder Mamiya press. A big and heavy thing, but since when has that worried the military? 

The folding Mamiya 6 springs to mind as being eminently suitable, but folders with bellows were seen as old fashioned at that time. However a rangefinder folder would definitely have been a far better choice. 

The Bronica S2 would have been a creditable alternative in 1970, and by 1975 the tank-like and totally reliable Mamiya 645 series were on the market. OTOH, it would have been a big mistake to go with the flakey Kowa 6 that had been introduced a few years earlier. 

The 1970s was the height of the cold war, and the military easily had the clout and budget to commission a new design; but they didn't, and instead wasted taxpayer's money on an eminently unsuitable-for-the-task camera. Otherwise we could have had something like a Fuji 6x7 years earlier. 

And where are all the pictures taken with those thousands of M.O.D Rolleis? Did none of them 'come out'?

[Rick_van_Nooij]

Concerning US military cameras, particularly around World War 2, there is a difference between military photographers and accredited civilian war correspondents.
The men of the Army Pictorial Service, Yank, Stars&Stripes, Signal Photography Companies were issued their main camera equipment straight from Uncle Sam, with the Graflex Anniversary Model Speed Graphic being the workhorse.

Officers in the SPCs were to be issued a Leica IIIa. Though these were not officially accepted cameras, they are part of the Table of Organisation and Equipment from 1944. The Kodak 35 was part of the Photographic Set for reproduction work, but also appears in the hands of identification units in the field, and with men out on leave.

Of course they also carried personal (non-military) cameras for less official work. Like Mac Flemming who shot with a Kodak Vollenda in Germany in 1945.
Vaccaro with his Argus C-3 ended up as a regimental photographer, but officially it was not part of his job/MOS.

Accredited Correspondents, like Miller and Capa, while wearing military uniforms, were still civilians and had to supply their own cameras.