3 very famous leicas at the Ginza Leica Gallery

[john sypal]

<p><a class="imagelink" href="http://kenshukan.net/john/archives/3expensiveleicas.jpg"

title="3expensiveleicas.jpg"><img id="image604" src="http://kenshukan.net/john/archives/

3expensiveleicas.jpg" alt="3expensiveleicas.jpg" /></a></p>

 

<p>I was in Ginza today and stopped in the Leica gallery and was rather suprised to see in a glass case, 3

very interesting and famous Leica cameras.From far left, a Leica II that had deflected a bullet and saved

the photographer's life. The middle camera is the Leica that was found in the Hindenburg wreckage,

melted lenses and all. It was the far left camera that I could not take my eyes off- the SL2 MOT which you

might have heard about before as the "SL2 MOT with Motor and 35 mm Summicron which survived a

25,000 foot (7600 m) fall from a Phantom II fighter jet: battered but in one piece, and deemed repairable

by Leica. " (Thank you wikipedia).</p>

 

<p>Worth a look if you are in Tokyo- and quite a contrast from the display case leicas on the first

floor.</p>

[john sypal]

*AHem* I mean, "from far RIGHT, a Leica II......"

[claude_batmanghelidj]

Stop it!

 

You're giving me a Leica jones.... I used to have a leicaflex, which I sold here in Tokyo, but

the myth lives on. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I just dig these film cameras, and

an all steel leica, ohhhh.

 

Time to dig up another one of those honkers...

[michael_b._elmer]

Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

John, don't you know, that the right hand is where the tumb is to the left and vice versa?

 

Reminds me of the story of a man with a head-ache that visited a brain surgeon. After thorough examination, the doctor gave the man his opinion, stating: there is nothing left in the right half of your brain, and nothing right in your left.

[Craig_Cooper11664875449]

Thanx for postig John... Interesting

 

And Im sure this was really the original pic ;)<div></div>

[elijah_free]

Isn't there some story about a well known leica photographer who whacked his asailant in the jaw when he was being held up. I think he broke the jaw of the thief. Was this Gary Winograd?

[david j.lee]

a couple of guys tried to steal Abbas M3 and he repelled them. i am not sure if he used

the camera as a weapon, but given the state the camera is, i would't doubt..!

[ellis_vener_photography]

I beleive I first posted that story but the camera in question was a Nikon F2 with a

motordrive. And while the event happened in Austin, Texas in the late 1970s while Garry

Winogrand was teaching in the art department at UT, the guy who swung the camera was an

undergrad in UT's photo-journalism program.

[gary_pinkerton1]

The SL2 not only survived the fall, but it also lay out in the desert for several months before it was found [if I remember correctly].

[thomas_smith12]

I remember reading that Ralph Gipson defended himself from an attacker in Central Park, New York with his IIIG.

[edmund_weitz]

<p>The same story (defending himself by using his Leica against a mugger) was also told about (and by) Cartier-Bresson. That would make his story the oldest one, I think.</p>