PLOOT
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| PLOOT + Telyt 200mm image by Toyofusa (Image rights) |
PLOOT is the designation used by Leitz for an early accessory reflex finder, announced 1934-5,[1][2] which adapts one of their screw-mount rangefinder cameras into an approximation of an SLR. The device comprises a mirror, set in the optical path, which directs the image-forming light from the lens upward to a ground-glass focusing screen, with a vertically-mounted viewfinder eyepiece. The mirror is swung up out of the light-path just before exposure, using a double cable-release.[1] The PLOOT is used with telephoto and macro lenses, which are a range made specially for the system, in tubes allowing for the extra depth of the mirror-box on the front of the camera body. For shorter lenses, this extra depth would make focusing to useful distances impossible; however, critical ground-glass focusing is undoubtedly most useful with long lenses.
The PLOOT was superceded by several generations of Visoflex housing.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 A set comprising a Telyt 20 cm f/4.5, serial no. 230214 and PLOOT housing dated to 1934 by the auctioneer, with double cable release, sold at the first Westlicht Photographica Auction, on 15 November 2002.
- ↑ French Patent 782058 (filed 1934 and granted 1935 to Ernst Leitz GmbH), Appareil photographique, at Espacenet, the patent search facility of the European Patent Office.
Links
- Leica PLOOT and Visoflex I illustrated at Photography in Malaysia
- Leica III outfit including 1940 Telyt 40 cm f/5 serial no. 540503 and PLOOT serial no. 2169, sold at the 22nd Westlicht auction, on 24 November 2012
