A rangefinder camera focuses by displaying two images in the viewfinder. You then twiddle a knob to bring the two images into alignment and, if everything is calibrated correctly, the lens will then have your subject in focus. I have never owned a rangefinder camera; but have always fancied playing with one.

The first rangefinder was made by Kodak in 1916; but the most famous rangefinder brand is Leica, mainly because Leica rangefinders are still in production; albeit at a price. The latest Leica M Monochrom (which as the name suggests, only shoots black and white images); together with the latest 50mm F2 Summicron lens, is available in Bangkok for the modest sum of 550,000 baht.

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How about an old Leica then? Maybe one of the first pre-production models which, although not a rangefinder, would be fun to play with. They don’t come up for sale very often, but last month this one sold for $2.8 million…

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The first Leica rangefinder was the Leica II, introduced in 1932; the start of a line of cameras that continues until today. But it was not the best rangefinder of the 1930s. The Leitz company of Dresden decided to produce something better, The Contax 1. The Contax had a better rangefinder mechanism and a metal shutter rather than the Leica cloth shutter, allowing higher shutter speeds and enabling you to point the camera roughly in the direction of the sun without the internals of the camera bursting into flames.

The Contax 1 became the Contax 2 in 1936 and with the accompanying Zeiss lenses (which were also considered superior to Leica), Contax had the best rangefinder on the market.

And then came the war.

At the end of the war, Dresden was initially within the area controlled by the USA; but eventually the Contax factory came under Russian control. How to compensate for the 23 million Russians who died? We’ll have this factory for a start, thank you.

As a first step, a production line was set up at Saalfeld near Jena in East Germany and a limited production took place in 1946 and 1947. The camera was still called a Contax; but had Contax Jena on the top plate.

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With production issues resolved, the Russians loaded all the parts, blueprints, and manufacturing tools on to trains and, together with selected German personnel who were no doubt delighted at the prospect of a holiday, transported everything to the Arsenal factory in Kiev. After a late night and several vodkas, someone had a flash of inspiration and the brand was renamed Kiev. The Kiev II was the continued production of the Contax II, and early models used Contax parts left over from production in Germany. Very limited production took place in 1947 and cameras from this year fetch heady prices.

Full production started in 1949 and continued through to the 1980s. Over the years, the focus on the continuation of German precision engineering was overshadowed by the need to meet ever-increasing production targets and towards the end quality control went down the drain. There are stories of entire production runs being thrown on the dump because the cameras just didn’t work; so the trick is to get an earlier model.

Along with the cameras, the Russians took along finished lenses, glass and designs for the wonderful Zeiss lenses that came with the Contax. In the very early periods of production, the Kiev 2 came with Zeiss components inside a Russian-made lens housing and the lens was called the Zorki-ZK. These of course are very collectible and if I finally get my hands on the 1950 Kiev 2 with a Zorki-ZK lens that I am after; then I will keep it for ever and hand it down to The Son when I depart.

Meantime, I have this:

Found this during a trawl through Lightroom, taken in 2007. Stuck it through Topaz Black & White Effects.

Most people don’t mind being photographed, but there are a few who don’t seem so keen; hookers on Beach Road for example. And hookers have pimps, and pimps have drugs inside them and assorted weaponry to hand (based on the movies I have seen); so it is best to be cautious.

In pursuit of stealth, I spent $25 dollars (including postage) on eBay for one of these:

Off to Bangkok yesterday in preparation for visiting my thyroid doctor this morning. Arrived mid-afternoon and for the want of something better to do, I went and saw Prometheus.

I used to think that Ridley Scott hadn’t made a bad film; but then I watched Grey. Two hours of macho posturing in a constant blizzard, interrupted occasionally by the appearance of some unconvincing wolves. Sorry for the plot spoilers.

And to be honest, Prometheus isn’t one of his greatest efforts either. I went to watch it at one of the high end screens in Paragon, and 280 baht got me a comfy seat, a fantastic sound system and a crisp 3D picture. And the movie certainly delivered in terms of visuals and sound; it’s easy to see how they spent $150 million making it. I just wish they had spent some of the money on the script and the story.

But I do occasionally get invited to them; and today it was an event on the beach at Jomtien. Pretty location and I was soon snapping away. I used to photograph motorbikes for the groom and he felt obliged to come over and tell me that this was not an assignment, I was just invited to enjoy the wedding and was not required to take photos. But I had my GX1 and three lovely lenses; so I was not to be thwarted.

There were at least three official photographers who stuck their lenses in the happy couple’s faces at every opportunity. I had to stay out of their way and get my shots when I could; but I managed at least 40 I was happy with, a selection of which here:

Some more SUP shooting at Mabrachan reservoir, and the sun obliged by shining; albeit straight into the camera. Gave the water an appealing shimmer.

Food consumed, extensive stroking demanded and received; time for a nice sleep:

Up early (0900) yesterday with the intention of witnessing Venus cutting down available light from the sun by about 0.0001%.

I am old enough to understand that you never look at the sun directly, so I looked at the sun directly just to check where it was, and spent the next ten minutes with impaired vision. I am also old enough to understand that you don’t try and undertake complex tasks such as foaming milk with steam when your vision is impaired. So the cappuccino was not up to the usual standard and I had a scalded finger.