War photographers, equipment, and photographs.

BMbikerider · Jun 17, 2022

Nitroplait said:
I can show you my Rolleiflex T.
The model was favoured by the British Ministry of Defence - to an extent where the T model was brought back into production in 1971 due to an order of several thousands cameras.
The deliveries continued up to 1976.
It was used by the Army and Royal Navy.
It was said to have replaced Hasselblad due to the latter requiring too much service.
The T was claimed to last up to 15 years of hard use before requiring service.
The T model is said to have been used actively by BMoD well into the 90's or longer, thus theoretically also during British engagement in armed conflict and war - such as the Falkland War.

I can verify that I used a Rollie T in 1965 when in the British Army where I was tasked to photograph a catastrophic road crash from the cockpit of a Bell Helicopter. It was chosen to do it this way because the crash scene in Cyprus was over 100 yards long involving several vehicles on and off the road when the driver of a Saracen APC had suffered a heart attack at the controls and it could not be stopped until it hit a very solid tree. A 16 ton, 6 wheel drive armoured vehicle takes a lot of stopping.

gordrob · Jun 17, 2022

If you sift through some of the articles at this site it will give you an idea of what motion picture and still cameras the Canadian Army used in WWII

Welcome to the Canadian Film and Photo Unit website

canadianfilmandphotounit.ca

KerrKid · Jun 17, 2022

BMbikerider said:
I can verify that I used a Rollie T in 1965 when in the British Army where I was tasked to photograph a catastrophic road crash from the cockpit of a Bell Helicopter. It was chosen to do it this way because the crash scene in Cyprus was over 100 yards long involving several vehicles on and off the road when the driver of a Saracen APC had suffered a heart attack at the controls and it could not be stopped until it hit a very solid tree. A 16 ton, 6 wheel drive armoured vehicle takes a lot of stopping.

Ouch.

BMbikerider · Jun 18, 2022

gordrob said:
If you sift through some of the articles at this site it will give you an idea of what motion picture and still cameras the Canadian Army used in WWII

Welcome to the Canadian Film and Photo Unit website

canadianfilmandphotounit.ca

I have looked at the link and what struck home was the seriously injured man trapped in the tank taking his own life. So tragic but what can you say?

Nitroplait · Jun 18, 2022

flavio81 said:
OMG

I had exactly the same model. Identical, same lens and everything. And mint.

Now you've made me regret selling it.

For that final production order of around 6000 units, Rollei could only source half of the Tessar lenses needed. BMoD found the Xenar to fulfil requirements, which is the reason for the last batches of Rolleiflex T's had that lens.

Apparently BMoD didn't need all the ordered cameras anyway and quite a few NOS were released on the market somewhere around year 2000 - or at least so I have heard. That would also explain why I have seen quite a few mint White Face Xenar equipped T's for sale during the past decade or two.

jtk · Jun 18, 2022

KerrKid said:
Helicopter rescue/door gunners had short life expectancies. Glad he could get a camera and pass it on to you. Wonder what pictures that camera took in the hands of the enemy?

The nominal enemy didn't get his hands on the XL and it wasn't "passed on to me, it was sold to me for cash money, which was used to partially pay for his Norton Commando when he got home.

AgX · Jun 19, 2022

gordrob said:
If you sift through some of the articles at this site it will give you an idea of what motion picture and still cameras the Canadian Army used in WWII

Welcome to the Canadian Film and Photo Unit website

canadianfilmandphotounit.ca

For those interested into history beyond photography, the article at that site on the "dutch starvation-winter" relating to its causes is a mere transcription of allied war propaganda and the postwar dutch narrative. Which however had been refuted by dutch academic research within the last two decades. For a site on a topic where the dutch campaign is important this raises doubt on its generic credibility. (Which of course applies on many amateur sites.)

jtk · Jun 19, 2022

What in particular calls for damning of that interesting website?

KerrKid · Jun 19, 2022

jtk said:
The nominal enemy didn't get his hands on the XL and it wasn't "passed on to me, it was sold to me for cash money, which was used to partially pay for his Norton Commando when he got home.

Norton Commando. Wow. The man has good taste.

jtk · Jun 21, 2022

I knew a commercial photographer who positioned a Commando at entrance to his studio in order to mesmerize visiting art directors. Another uses Porsche Speedsters for the same purpose...he had several of those and crashed/rebuilt them in sequence. Choosing Commandos vs Speedsters told some kind of tale.

wiltw · Jun 21, 2022

flavio81 said:
It's horrible that we can still find any war acceptable. The world should evolve.

Unfortunately there are always the power hungry 'leaders' in the world (many of whom whom strive to conquer much of the rest of the world), who lead their armies in the conquest...some of the more notable ones in history...

Putin
Hitler
Mussolini
Tojo
Napoleon
Genghis Khan
Alexander the Great
Atilla
Tamerlane

AgX · Jun 21, 2022

I miss american leaders in your listing.

AgX · Jun 21, 2022

When did war photography start? I assume it was the Crimean War.

KerrKid · Jun 21, 2022

AgX said:
When did war photography start? I assume it was the Crimean War.

Interesting question.

Also, when were the first air combat photographs taken?

MattKing · Jun 22, 2022

AgX said:
When did war photography start? I assume it was the Crimean War.

US Civil War?

gordrob · Jun 22, 2022

It looks like the Crimean War was the first war where the camera recorded images. Although there were not a lot of graphic war images there was a record of daily events in the area.

"Valley Of Death": 33 Pictures From The Conflict That Gave Birth To War Photography 160 Years Ago

These photos gave many their first true glimpse of what war really looked like.

allthatsinteresting.com

About this Collection | Fenton Crimean War Photographs | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

Roger Fenton's Crimean War photographs represent one of the earliest systematic attempts to document a war through the medium of photography. Fenton, who spent fewer than four months in the Crimea (March 8 to June 26, 1855), produced 360 photographs under extremely trying conditions. While these...

www.loc.gov

AgX · Jun 22, 2022

The Crimean War was before the US Civil War.

The interesting thing was that photographs in these wars were taken with a different clientele in mind. Moreover on the Crimean only on the side of one ally.

In the Crimnean that clientele was british aristrocracy, whereas in the US it was the mass media.

War photographers, equipment, and photographs.

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