I Am Mannes

Een roerige week in de hoofdstad der Drenthen, met als uiteindelijke uitkomst dat de Gemeenteraad van Assen een knoop doorhakt: de zwarte hond Mannes komt op het nieuwe Stationsplein van Assen te staan. Niet om wat hij is (want daar gaat politiek niet over) maar om hoe het ging. Ik betoog dat het beter was geweest om anders te beslissen. Niet om de inhoud of de procedure, maar om de (onhoudbare) belofte die Mannes is.

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De journalist van de toekomst: Gutmensch-met-baangarantie

In het artikel ‘Vijf tips om Wilders te verslaan’ van Ad van Liempt op Villamedia (zie link onderaan dit artikel) wordt een vijftal strategieën ten tonele gevoerd die door de media kunnen worden ingezet om verslag te doen van hetgeen Geert Wilders doet of laat. Sommige strategieën blijken na analyse tekort te schieten, maar Van Liempt constateert in zijn artikel dat ‘journalisten geen antwoord hebben op schaarste en negativisme’, met de noodzaak tot bijscholing als uitkomst.

Ik signaleer twee tekortkomingen in de Nederlandse en internationale journalistiek die noodzakelijk dienen te worden aangepakt. Zodat de rechtstaat weer stevig op poten kan worden gezet.

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DIY repair a SCNOO triggerwinder for Barnack Leicas

Some time ago, I suddenly was certain I needed a trigger winder on my 1938 Leica IIIa. Not having a transport lever on the camera made it a bit slow in use when I am shooting in the streets.

The Leica-made trigger winder is in fact a trigger bottom plate. It takes the place of the normal bottom plate, it has a spring to make the trigger return and that construction has one flaw: the trigger is connected to the film winder axle with the spring by means of a silk ribbon. And these ribbons sooner or later always snap.

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The Tower model 45 rangefinder, the improved Barnack Leica

The Tower type ’45’ camera was a screw mount Leica clone built by Nicca from Japan. It was sold exclusively by Sears in the United States, who commissioned cameras with their ‘Sears’ brand name with various Japanese and German camera manufacturers in the late 1950s and 1960s.

The second half of the 1950s saw the Japanese camera manufacturers face some difficulties in their production. Many of them (Canon, Nicca, Leotax, even the British Reid & Sigrist) had built their empires on copying the German design of the Leica IIIc. The Germans had lost their patents after World War II and the Japanese and other manufacturers had jumped on the opportunity to create their own versions of what had proven to be very well-built and highly effective cameras. But then, the Germans took the market back by releasing the Leica M3, which was a whole new level of camera and it was patented again too! The Japanese copy-cats were left lightyears behind.

But, they quickly figured out that Leitz had filed for a combined patent of all new features and had not filed the single alterations and improvements for patent too. And they set out to close the gap between their own (very capable!) models and the Leica M3.

And it got us some interesting developments. 

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The rare Beautyflex 2.8

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The Beautyflex 2.8 was the only TLR (twin Lens Reflex) camera ever to compete with the high-end Rolleiflex models of the 1950s and 1960s, the only non-Rolleiflex ever built that had a 2.8 lens. The Cantor lens on the Beautyflex 2.8 resembles the image quality of the Xenotar lenses on the Rolleiflex 2.8C.

This is a rarely seen camera. I was lucky to purchase it online a while ago and was totally amazed when I finally found one in good working condition after looking for it for over a year.

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Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta overview

Zeiss-Ikon Super Ikonta B, 1937. The Way-Back Portrait Machine.
The Super Ikonta series from Zeiss Ikon started their life in 1934. In that year, Zeiss Ikon released three Super Ikonta cameras for the 120 format. They were remarkable cameras and continue to be so until present day. A good Super Ikonta has unprecedented image quality, they are the Rolls Royces in build quality when it comes to medium format folder cameras. 
 
The three cameras that were launched in 1934 very nicely had their own strengths and there was a model for every wallet.
 
Read on to see if the Super Ikontas fit your bill!