Marty Forscher, R.I.P.

[julio_m]

<p><a href="http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/content_display/photo-news/obituaries/e3i505f5fdeedc76b425fee7e8424140471">Marty Forscher, Inventor and Camera Repair Guru, Dies at 87</a></p>

[User_502260]

<p>My one and only experience with Professional Camera repair was in 1984. All of my 35mm camera equipment was Konica stuff. I always liked macro photography but didn't like the fact that the Konica cameras didn't have interchangeable focusing screens. The standard screens had focusing aids which would black out. I bought a chrome Konica FT-1 and brought it to PCR for some custom work. I wanted to have the camera disassembled so its focusing screen could be removed and replaced with a grid type screen. At first they didn't want to do it. It may have helped that I worked for my college summers at the Camera Barn chain in NY and kept in touch with them. <br>

The surgery cost more than the FT-1. I also had to pay for a Nikon E screen and then sign a form which prevented me from getting any reimbursement if the camera broke during the modification. Some time later the camera was ready. The screen was fitted in perfectly. Correct infinity focus was maintined and the meter was adjusted. I used that camera for 20 years. By that time I had started to collect other makes, including some which had interchangeable finders and screens. In 2004 the camera was overhauled but by 2008 it needed more work. I hope to have it up and running by the end of the year.<br>

We're now in an entirely different age where modifying and repairing even film cameras requires a completely different set of skills and knowledge. When I think of Marty Forscher I think of other famous tinkerers like Thomas Edison, George Eastman and Henry Ford. As long as there is one machanical film camera still working, Marty Forscher will be remembered as a unique character who helped advance the usability of camera equipment and photography itself. </p>

[rjm photo]

<p>Thanks Jeff for the nice recollection.<br>

Yes in the late sixties Marty Forscher was the name that came up every time camera repair was discussed.</p>

[Alex_Es]

<p>A great technician and above all a great person. Farewell Mary Forscher.</p>

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[35mmdelux]

<p>I recall seeing the name in those days but my evil Yashica slr never broke...God's speed Marty -</p>

[kbg32]

<p>Marty was a great guy. Buddy was the master behind all the great conversions. I still remember Marty's Polaroid back for Nikon F cameras.</p>

[julio_m]

<p>From Bill Pierce, photojournalist - from his column on RFF: "Marty, what an incredibly decent man. When I was in school in the mid 50's the center of the photographic universe was 480 Lexington Ave., the Grand Central Palace. Marty took care of your cameras. Axel Grosser souped your film in a one man (plus a receptionist) branch of Modernage. Katherine Ujeley Bertrand retouched the portraits of girls you wanted to impress (She had learned to retouch small film during WWII when there was no sheet film in Europe.). Actually, they were your family. And Sam Locker at Royaltone, the Fotocare of the Fifties, was the grouchy neighbor. And punk kids from New Jersey were treated as well as their heroes, many of whom they were introduced to at Marty's. <br />People forget, cameras were forever. Every year your cameras would get rotated through Marty's and get a CLA, clean, lubricate and adjust. I remember when one photographer had a camera smashed at a civil rights demonstration, Marty epoxied the main body casting and kept the camera going. Marty was repairing the cameras of the kids covering the movement for free. <br />If you were on the road and needed something repaired or customized, he moved on it, shipped it and trusted you would pay him when you got back. <br />Marty made the first thumb wind; actually it was an index finger wind, an arm that attached to the circular wind knobs of 35mm cameras with a hole that accepted your index finger and allowed you to spin the wind knob. By the time he moved up to 37 W. 47th in the diamond district, all 35 cameras had wind levers, but he started it. The 180 and 300mm Olympic Sonnars, movie camera lenses, were the long lenses of choice and Marty adapted them to everything from Visoflexes to Nikons. If you wanted that extra smooth focusing movement, he showed you how to temporarily replace the lubricant in the lens with valve grinding compound. When the Leicaflex first came out, there were no zoom lenses for it; so, he adapted Nikon lenses for it. When he first made Polaroid backs for Nikons, he made me a Canon "prototype" so I wouldn't feel left out. <br />I don't know how he did it, but Marty knew the name of every photographer that came into that shop. And it wasn't that he checked the name on the repair slip. If he saw you on the street, he called out your name. He didn't pretend to be your friend; he was your friend. What a kind, decent man. There are little pools of goodness in our tiny photo world and Marty's was one of them, thanks to Marty."</p>