Have you seen this one before?

Benser baseplate

-- Bert Keuken (bkkn@wanadoo.nl), November 23, 2001

Answers

Oops! This should work:

Benser baseplate

-- Bert Keuken (bkkn@wanadoo.nl), November 23, 2001.

Yes. It is a real pain to reload. Go with Leica's carrier instead.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), November 23, 2001.

Never seen it before, but yuck! That's like putting red velvet upholstery on an Eames lounge chair. And it looks like it would make the elegant M a real pain in the ass to use.

-- Luke Dunlap (luked@mail.utexas.edu), November 24, 2001.

Hallo Bert,

this is the original BENSER baseplate invented in the sixties (last century) by Walter Benser a well known Leica- Photographer. He also toured the US with his slide shows several times promoting the LEICA. W. B. is still alive and lives in the Netherlands as far as I know.

A successor of this gadged is still available from LEICA today, but the recent one is made for one lens only.

I had one of the old style baseplates and sold it later. With the lenses getting bigger in time you had quite a bit of weight to carry. But with the older tiny lenses it did make a very compact outfit.

Best wishes

-- K. G. Wolf (k.g.wolf@web.de), November 24, 2001.

I have heard of Walter Benser before. I know he wrote the book 'My Life with the Leica'. I read somewhere he toured with a slide show, my grandfather once told me he even attended one of those. W.B. is living in the Netherlands? Wasn't he German by birth?

-- Bert Keuken (bkkn@wanadoo.nl), November 24, 2001.

Hallo Bert,

try to get hold of Benser´s book My Life with the LEICA. It´s worthwile!

W. Benser is German and got to know the LEICA as an apprentice in the Leitzfactory in Wetzlar in the early 30ies. Later he became a renowned photographer and founder of a photoagency, the ZEFA in Düsseldorf. ZEFA is still working successfully.

W. B. is now about 85 yrs. old and decided to live in Holland some time back. Seems to be a good place to get old.

There are also other books available s/h, for example on colourphotography. They have a lot of useful information even for the photog of today.

Best wishes

-- K. G. Wolf (k.g.wolf@web.de), November 24, 2001.

The Benser baseplate is the fastest way to scratch the edge of a Leica baseplate, because it cover it and don't replace it.

-- Lucien (lucien_vd@yahoo.fr), November 24, 2001.

Benser also invented the "Benser Bag," a leather case that holds a Leica body, with no lens, plus several lenses, filters, film, etc. It had removable inserts that let you customize the bag depending on which lenses and accessories you are carrying. I loved the modular design, but a Leica dealer in Frankfort actually talked me out of it because the Leica comes out of the case with no lens fitted, so that you are not quickly ready to shoot when you see something. I always sort of regretted not buying it even though I know it's probably not practical.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), November 24, 2001.

Oh, and I would also recommend his book, "Color Magic." It's probably out of print, but might turn up in a used book store.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), November 24, 2001.

In connection with the old BENSER- books, this one comes into my mind:

On a very early one on colourphotography, a book with a blue linen cover, there is a stamped picture of a seated photographer hugging a huge (screwmount) LEICA.

If anyone has this book and knows how to put a repro of this into this forum, this would be great fun ...

Best wishes

-- K. G. Wolf (k.g.wolf@web.de), November 25, 2001.