18 December 2011
Leica knowledge
22/12/11 09:40
Hardly noticed in the Leica world is the decease of two import ant persons in the field of Leica information. Dennis Laney died in 2010 and recently I learned that Franz Steimer of the Steimer Fotoliste collection of CDs had died also. Facts and figures about the Leica range of products are abundantly available, but not always reliable and often incomplete, and these two individuals did their best to fill in gaps and stick to the known knowns as one famous person once noted. There is so much confusion about the facts and figures because the official historical records are sometimes inconclusive or even unreadable (legend has it that Germans are experts in meticulously accounting every part and action, but this allegedly teutonic attitude is overtrumped by human nature), a state of affairs that promotes interpretation and therefore dispute. Another source of confusion is caused by the tendency of writers to rely on other authorities in the absence of access to the original documents.
And exactitude with numbers is not always important.
For the collector and the historian it is of the utmost importance to research the definitive amount of cameras produced in the famous Null-series (Leica 0). The maximum amount is 31 cameras (serial numbers 100 - 130), but most historians agree that a lower amount (perhaps 25) have been made or at least identified. On the other hand no one knows for sure if more cameras have been built without a serial number before the official registration of the number 100 (in itself this is a strange starting number as it was and is common practice to start with 101). This is a bit like the Black Swan principle: the statement that every swan is white is true until one finds a black swan, but not having found one does not imply that a black swan does not exist!
The history of Leica does not have to be rewritten if the number of cameras of the type Leica I is not exactly 58919 and it may be safer to state that about 60000 have been produced. The production numbers for the Leica Luxus have been claimed to range from 60 to 100 and again in this case the exact amount is not important or impossible to finalize, partly because of the habit of the Leitz factory to cater for individual requests (an early idea of the a-la-carte style of production).
The fascination with the exact production numbers is in itself trivial unless when there is a case of considerable collector value. The value of the individual models of the Null-series would drop when it became known that there were fifty more cameras of this type produced. Historians refer to the writings of Barnack to document their case, but no one can be sure that 1) these writings are complete or accurate and 2) that there have been more documents that have been lost.
I am more interested in the question how the relatively low amount of cameras of the type Leica I (the 60000!), made in the period 1925 to 1932 could have had such an impact that the global world of photography changed in a fundamental way. This is the big and important theme and one may add in the same league as when art historians argue that the 100 or so paintings of the Impressionists changed the world of painting.
And even more interesting is it to observe the current changes in the Leica factory where a new élan is creating the products that will define the role and place of Leica in the digital world. Let us hope that a modern Barnack is working at new products ( a modern Berek is already active in the company).
Just as Leica is now forward looking and only pays token tribute to the Leitz heritage, the friends of Leica should start doing the same: the history has been copiously documented and some unknown knowns might still wait to be discovered, but the survival of Leica depends on the future and on persons that produce new knowledge, new insights and new visions.
And exactitude with numbers is not always important.
For the collector and the historian it is of the utmost importance to research the definitive amount of cameras produced in the famous Null-series (Leica 0). The maximum amount is 31 cameras (serial numbers 100 - 130), but most historians agree that a lower amount (perhaps 25) have been made or at least identified. On the other hand no one knows for sure if more cameras have been built without a serial number before the official registration of the number 100 (in itself this is a strange starting number as it was and is common practice to start with 101). This is a bit like the Black Swan principle: the statement that every swan is white is true until one finds a black swan, but not having found one does not imply that a black swan does not exist!
The history of Leica does not have to be rewritten if the number of cameras of the type Leica I is not exactly 58919 and it may be safer to state that about 60000 have been produced. The production numbers for the Leica Luxus have been claimed to range from 60 to 100 and again in this case the exact amount is not important or impossible to finalize, partly because of the habit of the Leitz factory to cater for individual requests (an early idea of the a-la-carte style of production).
The fascination with the exact production numbers is in itself trivial unless when there is a case of considerable collector value. The value of the individual models of the Null-series would drop when it became known that there were fifty more cameras of this type produced. Historians refer to the writings of Barnack to document their case, but no one can be sure that 1) these writings are complete or accurate and 2) that there have been more documents that have been lost.
I am more interested in the question how the relatively low amount of cameras of the type Leica I (the 60000!), made in the period 1925 to 1932 could have had such an impact that the global world of photography changed in a fundamental way. This is the big and important theme and one may add in the same league as when art historians argue that the 100 or so paintings of the Impressionists changed the world of painting.
And even more interesting is it to observe the current changes in the Leica factory where a new élan is creating the products that will define the role and place of Leica in the digital world. Let us hope that a modern Barnack is working at new products ( a modern Berek is already active in the company).
Just as Leica is now forward looking and only pays token tribute to the Leitz heritage, the friends of Leica should start doing the same: the history has been copiously documented and some unknown knowns might still wait to be discovered, but the survival of Leica depends on the future and on persons that produce new knowledge, new insights and new visions.