Re: crazed communist market - ignorant economic system

[P3D Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxx>]

In responce to the comment:

> "(who else would put thousand dollar lenses in a 20
> dollar body?)"

John Slivon wrote:

> My response is - no one but a genius. After all is said and done, the most
> important part of a camera is the lenses. The body is there only to house
> the the two really essential ingredients in the equation, the lenses and
> the film.

To a point, yes. But the body has to be engineered and fabricated well
enough to perform its essential tasks reliably:

- consistent lens positioning for focus (the aluminum focus mount is a
weak point on belplascas and can fail)
- a light tight box (some problems here. Not to mention the door latch
which is prone to accidental opening)
- a bright, accurate finder (belps are prone to viewfinder clouding)
- convenient carriage (the camera lacks strap lugs)

I agree that the other extreme is less desireable, and is I think
largely what F40 owners contend with - an impressive body with a
undistinguished optical system (prone to excessive flare). But most
better cameras represent a middle ground of reasonable compromise
between how much goes into optics and how much goes into the rest of the
box. In a perfect world, I think belplasca shooters would have liked a
bit better balance between the two, to see those beautiful coated zeiss
tessars strapped to a slightly more substantial camera... 

As was pointed out a couple of weeks ago in response to a Bob Howard
question, and as Dennis Sherwood also pointed out, even the better east
german post war cameras, such as the Exactas and Pentacons, suffered
structural problems do to lack of availability of decent materials and
design problems do to difficulties with retooling after the war. But
these better cameras often had excellent lenses, some of which were
recalculated/redesigned from prewar configurations, some of which were
redesigns;  almost all showed obviously improved resolution and
contrast. The belplasca's lenses are a good example of improved
performance compared with prewar designs, with performance comparable to
most modern consumer grade prime lenses I have shot with, and better
than most modern consumer grade zooms I have tried.

I would however hesitate to characterize the unavoidable compromises
these makers had to endure in their box designs and fabrications as
examples of genius...


Eric G.


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