The Benser Letter & the Coming of the SLR Avalanche
Several months ago, I received Georg Mann’s magnum opus on the Leicaflex camera. This is an incredible 525 page volume on the history and development of the Leicaflex camera, with which Herr Mann was intimately involved with during his career at Leitz. The book is profusely illustrated, with a very attractive and innovative layout. It does a thorough job of documenting the story of the Leicaflex through the Standard, SL, SL2 and the still-born SL3 to the R3, with design drawings, design concept models and prototypes through finished production models. There are only two criticisms to be made; the text is only in German and you had to have been a member of Leica Historica to have received one! There is a wealth of information contained in its pages, with many documents never seen before, and we are presenting one of those previously unknown documents here.
Now, nearly sixty years later, this letter dated December 21, 1957 from Walther Benser to Gunther Leitz, warns of the coming SLR avalanche onto the photo market. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, we know that the SLR camera has reigned supreme in 35mm photography ever since the introduction of the Nikon F in 1959. I was astonished when I first read this letter and realized that Benser’s vision was so clear back in those early days of the SLR camera. Keep in mind that the M3 had been introduced only three years earlier in the fall of 1954, and the IIIg was new to the market in 1957. Benser reports in his letter that the IIIg “barely moves” and the M3 moves “only with difficulty”, according to complaints of slow Leica sales from the small and medium size dealers Benser was in contact with in Germany. Indeed, Mann’s book also presents a letter dated November 3, 1953, from the large Leica dealer (Grosshandler) Hans Bauer reporting to Leitz on the excellent sales of the Zeiss-Ikon Contaflex cameras in their stores in Germany. Benser does not feel price is the issue, because as he points out there should be many potential Leica buyers in this group. Bear in mind that at the time the Benser letter was written, Germany was in the midst of the Wirtschaftswunder (the German economic miracle) of the late fifties – early sixties. Dealers are reporting to him that the number of Contaflex cameras sold is “huge”, and Benser feels that among these buyers, there are many who can certainly afford an even more expensive product of this kind from Leica. Benser also came into regular contact with the potential customer base as well while “on the road” with his Leica slide lectures in Europe, the US and Asia. I am certain that he fielded many questions from the eager attendees about the revolutionary SLR cameras just coming onto the market. This is at odds with the accepted story that the M3 was unchallenged in 35mm photography until the coming of the Nikon F.
In his letter, Benser himself affirms his belief in the Leica rangefinder system, with its main advantage of providing for accurate and fast focusing with standard lenses, being far better than any existing SLR setup. He uses the colorful biblical allegory of the “dance around the golden calf” for those who have been seduced by the Contaflex SLR, and that it is a passing fad. However, in the very next sentence, he admits that the move to the SLR is unstoppable and that the majority of amateurs and professionals will move to it in the future.
He states that the handwriting will be on the wall at the next Photokina (1958). He predicts that the interchangeable lens SLR will be the center of attention at the show, with nothing from Leitz to compete with it. He further warns, “that not a single day can be lost”, in coming up with a competitive response from Leitz.
For Benser, to be successful the future reflex camera from Leitz must have a focal plane shutter and interchangeable lenses, with a bright viewfinder which allows focusing to be accomplished with the lens at its full open aperture. Being a true Leica, with superior mechanical construction to all other competitors, it would of course be more expensive than the Contaflex. But as Benser notes, it would have to be superior “to all existing cameras” in these attributes to justify its high price.
In the subsequent pages of Georg Mann’s book, we see that Benser’s warning was apparently heeded at Leitz, with the illustration of some initial sketches of what the new reflex camera and its mechanisms from Leitz would look like, with follow up internal memos about the Spiegelreflex camera under development. In subsequent pages we see the progression of mock up and prototype cameras for the future Leicaflex. However, as we all know and Leitz being Leitz, it took them until 1965 to bring the Leicaflex to market. Unfortunately, it was a case of too little, too late for the company. In the opinion of many, the Leicaflex was obsolete before it came to market. While typically Leitz in its execution and mechanical excel-lence with superior optics, the original Leicaflex unfortunately lacked through the lens (TTL) metering which virtually every one of its main competitors had incorporated into their top of the line models by then. Two years later, Leitz introduced the Leicaflex SL, with its TTL metering system. As Leitz brochures at the time pointed out, this camera’s name indicated Selective Light measurement. Once again, another case of too little, too late. The follow on SL2 reportedly lost money for Leitz on every unit made. The precarious position that the SL2 and M5 put the company in forced Leitz to seek an outside partner from Japan for future product development. The subsequent co-operation with Minolta spawned the R3 through R7 models, which were excellent cameras, but were still no match for their Japanese competitors. The home grown R8 and R9 models could not turn the tide, and the R system was finally killed off in early 2009. Ironically, later that year, the M9 was introduced on September 9, 2009. Many credit this camera with saving Leica, putting the company on a sound financial footing for the first time in decades. The success of the M9 allowed the company to move back to Wetzlar with a world-class new headquarters and production facility from its former location in Solms, along with the expansion of Leica’s other product lines.
Late last year, Leica introduced its new mirrorless DSLR model, the SL, writing a new chapter in the Leica reflex camera story. So far, it has been well received, with the expected Leica excellence in both the body and its excellent lenses. But the photography world is in a state of turmoil at present. In the age of the iPhone and Android, what is the role of traditional photography and cameras? What is the future of entry level cameras (that pay the bills), and that of pro grade cameras, which depend on the sales of entry level gear and the amateurs upgrading to pro systems from them? The big players (Canon and Nikon) are certainly feeling the negative effects of this sea change. How will Leica fare with their SL in this environment? Only time will tell.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mann, Georg, Leicaflex, Die Entwicklung Einer Legende, Staufenberg, Germany. Limited edition publication of Leica Historica 2015
Walther Benser Dusseldorf-Oberkassel Achilles-Str. 10th 21 December 1957
Mr. Günther Leitz House Friedwart Wetzlar (Lahn)
My dear esteemed Günther Leitz,
I was glad to hear that you are back at home and intending to stay there a while.
Between two lectures at Mainz I was indeed in Wetzlar on the 5th December for some hours, the result of various “commissions”, however it did not allow me time to arrange a visit with you.
I am, however, in January very often in the vicinity of Wetzlar with lectures in Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Koblenz, etc. I will also be in Giessen on 12.1. In the case that you want to see the development of my material: I have enclosed a few cards, if you come across interested buyers, should you not be able to come.
Allow me now, this letter, which includes of course my cordial greetings to you and your family for Christmas and the New Year, yet to add some thoughts that for you are - basically - certainly not new. But the last few months have shown me very clearly that we in the field of small-screen camera design are at a crucial turning point and this development is relentlessly approaching us.
Since I organize my lectures in Germany alone and extensive correspondence with the largest dealers I have visited myself, what I am offering to write today is the essence of discussions with about 30 distributors, all of which have the same tendency, with few exceptions.
Here are the main points:
Small and medium size photographic dealers complain that Leica sales are more difficult month by month. The IIIg barely ‘moves’, and the M3 only with difficulty. The reason is to be sought not in the price, because such money today should be easy enough, but in the fact that the trend of more and more amateurs is for SLR cameras in 24 x 36mm format. The number of Contaflex cameras sold is huge.
Among these Contaflex buyers are many who would be able to purchase a more expensive Leica. But the final decision came down to the very comfortable focusing screen, together with ease of use for close-up shots.
I would remind you that in the USA the same arguments were decisive for the excellent sales of the Exacta.
It is my own conviction that the great advantages of the M3 finder system, is that for standard lenses it provides accurate and fast photography far better than any present day SLR setup, and this means I believe that this dance around the golden calf Contaflex and similar constructions is a fad. I now know, however, that this move to the bright focusing screen image is unstoppable and the mass of amateurs and successful professionals will give preference to this system in the long run. In short, I like many others have often viewed the future of the Leica as very black, yet over and over again, the design and the quality of Leitz has prevailed. The fact that there are delivery problems to this day and the sales curve probably has no kinks may distract those responsible men in Wetzlar. But you know yourself that if the curve once starts running down, it does so very rapidly and woe to anyone who is not up to date then, by eluding the fall into the abyss with correspondingly contemporary constructions.
It is – I say it with greatest seriousness - necessary not to lose a single day more. At the latest, during the Photokina you will see for yourself the painting on the wall: The small SLR camera with interchangeable lenses will be there at the top and Leitz will not be present!
There are photo dealers, who on the basis of a thousand sales talks, have very clear ideas of what the SLR camera of the future should be based upon. They are:35mm camera with focal plane shutter and interchangeable lenses. Bright viewfinder with adjustments always at open aperture.
Such a construction can be more expensive, even more expensive than the Contaflex. I even think it could be as a Leitz camera and the 1,000 Mark border. But it would need to be superior mechanically and in terms of construction to all existing cameras, in order to justify the high price. The attempt to create a Contaflex competition with similar price would be too difficult and with the highest precision ‘Leitzian’ habit probably not possible.
It is possible that I run through open doors with what I write from my heart here. All the better. So I am ‘one more’ sounding the alarm.
Many greetings and hope to see you again soon.
Many thanks to Theodore Diehl for the translation of the Benser Letter from German to English.