So, what is it with WWII Axis Powers and camera making?
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whilst germany and japan were busy making cameras and optics, the rest were busy making art
>>2799438
I think after WWII Germany and Japan weren't allowed to make weapons so so concentrated on making precision instruments such as cameras for export.
>>2799438
that should tell you where the world would be right now if they had won the war.
>>2799502
Basically this.
Germany and (especially) Japan had to find something they could specialise at creating in the wake of the war. Japans specialist engineers had predominantly survived the war and started up tech and optics companies, while germany (which had lost a lot of its scientific specialists) still had a very capable steel industry and a lot of talented engineers.
Cameras were simply the way forwards.
>>2799539
>To have such destructive and innovative forces working towards hobby tech is pretty cool.
yikes.
>>2799539
>hobby
Yes, photography has only been used to capture images of cups of coffee in the last 60 years.
>>2799438
America tried but like everything else they make, it sucked shit
>>2799569
lol my contact lens fluids are from Bausch&Lomb
>>2799569
Funny thing is that Bausch & Lomb were probably german immigrants lol
>>2799438
FWIW Germany had long-standing and very strong optics industry long before WW2.
As for Jaypan, they kick-started their industry simply by copying/stealing from the germans before they figured out how things actually work on their own and actually started having genuine original products.
When your country is in shambles it's difficult to defend market positions, more over, you don't really get to complain about people stealing your designs and IP either.
It'd be interesting ti know in which aspects the world would be different if not for the war leaving europe in shambles and having bombed european manufacturing capability to the stoneage, plus with the massive plunder/transfer of IP and tech knowledge from europe to the US that took place after it not happening...
>>2799805
>It'd be interesting ti know in which aspects the world would be different if not for the war leaving europe in shambles and having bombed european manufacturing capability to the stoneage, plus with the massive plunder/transfer of IP and tech knowledge from europe to the US that took place after it not happening...
Why did it all go so wrong for the USSR?
>>2800220
They tried to outspend the US at the peak of the US's economic power while the old Communists were dying off.
>>2799438
Germany was Europe's industrial and scientific center long before WW2, little wonder they has advanced optics. The upcomming war effort sped up technological advances, if anything. Nazi-era contaflex ad always relevant.
>>2799569
my 90s ray-ban sunglasses are made by B&L
they are not that great but it might be the design and not the glasses
>>2799502
And let's not forget that after the second World War Germany lost a lot of their patents. Even though they were the allied power at the time the soviets began copying many old Lecia designs, trying very hard yet only making sub-par knockoffs to the classics.
>>2799438
As for Japan, just watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKyR9Z_ZUsU
it's probably cultural too. i'm sure every country's manufacturing could be likewise generalized towards some strength
>>2799805
>As for Jaypan, they kick-started their industry simply by copying/stealing from the germans before they figured out how things actually work on their own and actually started having genuine original products.
>be Nippon Kogaku
>war ends
>start making lenses for Leicas
>sell lenses to gaijin photojournalists
>start building bodies to mount lenses on
>convert rangefinder body to SLR
>gaijin government and civilians buy tons of SLR's
Is the tv show any good?
>>2800243
that's not because they can't make good knockoffs
it's because they were making volume for the People, not some richfag snapshit shooter
>>2800228
why this nigga is so angry
is that from the fact he can only shoot with shitty camera instead of glorious mp40 like in good ol days
>>2802263
Pretty sure Kurwa's side would have been rocking these instead.
I think Germany was already well known and famous for optical instruments. I think of Fraunhofer's glass technique and Jenoptik.
>>2799805
>>2802333
>I think Germany was already well known and famous for optical instruments.
It was also in South Germany they made many scientific breakthroughs when they played around with the optics they had in the 1800's, they were the first to discover the phenomenon of invisible light (infrared) which could still heat up things just like normal sunlight even though it wasn't visible.
>>2800587
>it's probably cultural too.
I'd says it's mainly a tradition for expert craftmanship. Making good optics was a very complicated skill, not everybody could just copy it, since it was considered a state secret in the 1800s.
The Britbongistans got jealous and tried to emulate the German optics, but they utterly failed at it every time. Their scientists couldn't emulate the craftmanship that went into it.
>>2802408
>The Britbongistans got jealous and tried to emulate the German optics, but they utterly failed at it every time. Their scientists couldn't emulate the craftmanship that went into it.
if other people tried their best and couldnt get even close, then its not only cultural. its genetic.
>>2802500
Genetics for intelligence is real. But the Brits had many brilliant mathematicians and scientists on their side, so the brain power isn't the issue here.
It's the craft itself they lacked. They misunderstood the subject and thought all of their brilliant mathematicians could make up for the craftsmanship behind these lenses.
>>2799569
Invent something and then suck at making it
Seriously we're like the England of inventions
Patton was right when he said that he dorsn't really want to fight Europes only true master race in WW2 (not trolling).
The Germans always knew their shit. Whatever they do or invent, they obsessively work on it until it is perfect.
>>2802505
>But the Brits had many brilliant mathematicians and scientists on their side, so the brain power isn't the issue here.
>It's the craft itself they lacked.
what do you think craft is? a function of what, muscles?
its intelligence too. applied intelligence, knowing the what and the how for best results.
>>2802569
Haha, that's because when an American invents something, their first thought is how to market it, and their second thought is how they can make it cheaper.
Fisting the gap between cost of production and market value to the point of prolapse is how they operate. They call this a "profit margin".
Foreign competitors witness all of this, and allow the first to market to build demand, meanwhile conducting R&D to improve the product, and hopefully create something sufficiently differentiated to avoid paying licensing fees. They must then attempt to sell their superior product at a relative discount, to woo the consumer away from the brand prestige of the Original & Best.
This is less risky, but also much less profitable, at least in the short term, until the market matures to the point that the product becomes generic and consumers start choosing based on price and features.
>>2802602
They are traditions that are passed down from master to apprentices.
You don't need high intelligence to copy your master, but it's needed to improve on what he taught you. The brits couldn't do even the former.
>>2801655
You'd think they'd at least be more accurate when putting it all together with all of that "workers pride" Soviet Communism provided because the motherland didn't seem care to much for how well most cameras were put together. Muh shutter dial on one of my rangefinders is off quite a bit (unserexposed) and lens aperature on the lens is off by nearly a stop.
At least they didn't put in a dated sensor and price it for nearly double of what it was worth 5 years ago.
>>2799443
This is true
