[Leica] Re Old Stuff

[lrzeitlin at aol.com (lrzeitlin at aol.com)]

 Jim,
        It is good to see that another old timer recognizes the wonders of 
the slide rule. When you used a slide rule you had to partially solve the 
problem in your head. The slide rule simply gave you the mantissa, the 
significant figures, not the exponent. So you had to have some idea of the 
magnitude of the answer. Thus .03 and 300 look alike. The learned ability to 
estimate the magnitude of an answer is lost with most modern computing 
methods. I often got absurd answers from many of my students who used the 
latest electronic calculators.?
        The slide rule is still the best tool for figuring out proportions. 
A circular slide rule was awkward to carry but it never went off the scale 
and the length was far greater than the physical dimension. A 6 inch 
circular rule is equivalent to an 18 inch linear one. It could be easily 
read to three significant figures and a fourth figure could be estimated. I 
believe that a number of pilots still use E6B circular slide rules, 
reddubbed as ?Aviation Flight Computers.? Again, no batteries needed.
        As I said there is a lot of other stuff interred in the bottom 
drawers, including 8, yes 8, Leicas ranging from a IIIb to a pair of M3s, an 
old digital Leica (rebadged from a Fuji), a Russian imitation of a Nazi 
Luftwaffe Leica. a 1927 Leica 1 and a CL. I?m not a collector, just a pack 
rat. I bought cheap stuff, Leicas, Robots, Contaxes and Minoxes from old 
camera stores and put them back in working condition, although I had the M3s 
CLAd by Sherri Krauter. But as I said in a long ago post my kids will 
probably discard all the antique cameras, wondering what the old man did 
with all that mechanical junk when all photography is digital.?
        I confess that I gave into the siren song of electronics by buying 
one of the first HP 35 calculators for the outrageous sum of $395. It was 
replaced with an HP 45 and then an HP 65. All at ever lowering prices. A 
couple of years ago I bought a half dozen Chinese made calculators with far 
more capability than the HP models. They cost $1 each. I can afford to throw 
them away when the batteries die. Digital photography seems to be following 
the same route.
        Larry Z?