The current issue of DoubleTake has an article about Gene Smith's Detroit photo essay of 1955. Many of the images have a very compressed feel, as though they were shot with a modern telephoto such as a 200mm. There is also a shot of Smith holding a Leica with a long, silver barrel telephoto which looks like it might have been collapsable. Does anyone know what the longest lens available for a Leica was in 1955? I wasn't aware that such long telephotos existed at that time. Perhaps Smith also cropped his images to enhance the compressed look.

-- Joel Pickford (pickimage@csufresno.edu), February 23, 1998

Answers

I dunno anything about Smith or what he used, but a Leica Guide from 1944 lists a 200/4.5 and 400/5, both for the screw-thread Leica. They weren't coupled with the rangefinder, but needed a reflex housing, with a mirror, ground-glass screen and magnifier (but no pentaprism!), and were genuine telephotos. The shorter lenses, which went up to 135mm, weren't telephotos.

Could the collapsable thing you saw have been a lens hood?

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), February 25, 1998.

Thanks for your reply. A Leica enthusiast posted a response in another discussion forum informing me that Smith did indeed use a 200/4.5 with a Visoflex housing on his Leica IIIf. If you're a Gene Smith fan or just curious about him, the article in the current issue of DoubleTake is both informative and inspiring.

-- Joel Pickford (pickimage@csufresno.edu), February 26, 1998.