Hello:

Can anyone please refer me to any info identifying which published (available on the 'Web hopefully) photos by Andreas Feininger were made with magniying glass lenses? I was thinking the 'derelict vessel area' shipyard photo may have been, but can't find where I read that.

Also, anyone know which book described his 'Big Bertha' telephoto camera?

Thank you

Murray

His "big bertha" was (as I remember) in a book he authored and was published in the early fifties. I can't remember the title but the paper cover had a picture of a photographer holding a leica with an accessory viewfinder which was superimposed over his eyes (lens over the right and viewfinder over the left). My only suggestion for a starting point would be the Library of Congress.
This was one of the first books about photography that I read (and, hopefully, learned from).

I have a book titled: Andreas Feininger Photographer (Harry N. Abrahms Inc, NY 1986- ISBN 0-8109-0919-7) author was Feininger.


It is basically a coffee table autobiography that contains a great number of images covering all aspects of his career.

There are photos and a description of a 4x5 camera he built that allowed for extreme telephoto shots.

"I combined a retired 4x5 view camera body and a boxlike wooden extension tube and equipped this contraption with a Dallmeyer Grandac variable-focus telephoto lens set at a focal length of 40" which I picked up at the odds-and-ends counter of a large photo store"

He also discusses inventing a "five-pod" to keep the 2 and a half foot long monster stable. He does not use the term "big Bertha" but i would guess that this is the camera you are curious about.

Yes, thank you.

That was a 'real' lens.

That answers the question of how homebrew the lens was!

Murray