Just Your Common Ordinary Nikon S

Hi Fred,

I am skeptical of it being the real thing too, but not not nearly as skeptical as you.

If that is a fake black Nikon S Life camera, from what I can see in the pics it is extremely well done.

But without a guarantee of authenticity and its documented history, there is no way I would pay anywhere near that kind of money for it.

Stephen
 
The black Nikon S shown in Robert Rotoloni's book does not have the hi-knobs, but he does not state that the example he shows in the book is a Life-mag camera ( this could be a painted former chrome S).
But he first mentions that" little is known about the black Nikon S with special wind and rewind knobs that were made for Life magazine ".
So this could be the real Mcoy but there is no provenance for it which is kind of suspect.
Is there any period photos of any of the Life photographers or any photographers like Hank Walker or Horace Bristol with a black Nikon S in their hand or around their neck?
 
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OK, I have to admit taht is is a bit "retentive'! The pictures of the two "Life" S's in the latest NHS journal are different. The knurling is not the same on the knobs. If they were special order, I would have suspected that Nikon would have made a series of these knobs all the same and fitted them. I dont have the magazine handy right now, but i did count the "knurls" and one was 18 and the other one 24!
It would be quite easy to do these knobs - all you need is a small milling machine and a dividing head with a chuck in it.
I do have a fake/replica black paint S - maybe I should make my own Life camera, but I would add the rewind crank to the rewind knob!
 
How about the black Nikon I nr. 609431, shown in Rotoloni's book.
Don't tell me thats fake too.
BTW, who is the famous american photojournalist that (suposedly) own this rare camera?
 
Jun Miki is the japanese photographer that showed David Douglas Duncan the sharp photos taken by the 85/f2 Nikkor lens, this got DDD to start using Nikkors on his Leica IIIc's.
 
Are any of the LIFE shooters still around, aside from DDD? Would they recognize the camera, if they had it in hand?

Could it be that some one had their Nikon S modified to LIFE spec after encountering one in the field? There were a lot of people shooting in Korea etc, but only a limited amount of LIFE cameras modified for use with gloves. Did people start to copy the features of cameras modified to LIFE spec? Not a very difficult thing to do, even in the field (think Army repair depot or someone in Japan)

Would the serial numbers of these cameras show up on a inventory list of the LIFE camera department? I suspect that you had to sign out gear from somewhere and that records were kept.

HL
 
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tell us more about the Jack Ruby S3.
I am thinking this was the camera Bob Jackson used to capture the killing of Lee Oswald by Jack Rubenstein
 
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