Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/10/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search] Jim,
Thanks for your comments on mechanical calculating machines. Those
were the good old days that in retrospect were not that good. At various
times I owned both Monroe and Marchant mechanical calculators that were
reasonably reliable and needed repair only every few months. I did the
calculations for a Ph.D thesis on a Facit handcranked machine that, as you
said, had to have the carriage shifted manually. In the early 50?s, on a
European trip,? I bought a Curta hand held machine, a complex thing of real
beauty, that I used on auto rallies. It still functions flawlessly 65 years
later. At the same time I picked up a Leica M3 with an f2 Summicron for a
bit over $150 at a duty free shop. That still works too.
But then I had an epiphany, I attended an IBM computer
demonstration. The customer rep solicited problems to solve and I gave him
the problem set that took three months to complete on the Facet. The IBM
1620 machine did it in 30 seconds. I was hooked.
Now I even use simpler cameras. Olympus 4/3 models with my old Leica
lenses. My kids will probably junk all the old mechanical hardware.
Regards,
Larry Z