Our feature yesterday on the 1926 Citroën B12 Paris taxi brought several comments to the effect that it was a pity the red Corvette behind one shot of the taxi had been sidelined.
Far from it. I did take some shots of the Chevrolet and, in view of the interest, am publishing them here separately. I’m grateful to reader Alan Chimacoff for identifying it as 1957 model — something I hadn’t bothered to find out, although I was able to date it to within three or four years.
When uploading the taxi pictures I was tempted to include the Corvette but decided not to complicate matters. So now you have a chance to see this beautiful car in its full glory. I will just remind new readers discovering this page that the pictures were all taken with a six-year-old Leica X2 with its fixed f/2.8 35mm lens.
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Excellent snaps as always Michael, there was a Mustang for sale in a corner car sales lot the other day. It was from the similar era, utterly beautiful and £25,000. I believe these cars even have working steering wheels? (Fawlty Towers…)
So much was right about the end of the fifties, as a product thereof, it is a pity I wasn’t more than a stripling, so I have had to learn to appreciate, the music, the books, the design and the outpouring of new ideas.
The only downside being that some of those ideas have proved to be ill thought through.
Those years were significant, in that function had yet to completely eclipse form.
I am the same about the 1920s and 30s in terms of design and music etc, my favourite Leicas (I A and II D) come from that era, but we must live in the present, of course. That is a very nice example of a 1950s Corvette. Photos taken with an M3 would have completed the illusion. Two tone (duotone?) cars are overdue a comeback one of these days.
William
Mike,
Wonderful. Major thanks. Beautiful car; beautiful pics. Under the hood, the engine block is (should be) approximately the same color red. A number of years ago, a client, the dean of a school of architecture building I was designing, insisted that window accents be "Chevy engine-block red." It was a pleasure to oblige.
Alan
Mike , the Corvette looks great and veritably glows even under that leaden sky.
You have to admit that when it comes to IQ the X2 ( and the X1) are all over the overhyped,overpriced CL and the woeful new C-Lux.
John, I do not accept your conjecture that the CL is overhyped, or overpriced, it is a Leica system camera, not a fixed prime compact. All Leicas are expensive.
Now regarding hype, if you had been referring to the Nikon Zzzzz’s….
The C-Lux is a Panny, but is probably better finished than those X cameras.
The CL has a very similar driver and sensor (apart from the size) as the M10/SL, with the same technical specifications of the output. The clear difference being that between APS/C and Full frame in regard to depth of field, and the X’s are similarly designed, if indeed that is an encumbrance anyway.
I have both an X1 and a CL and to my mind the X1/2 "IQ" is easily surpassed by the T/CL cameras.
I have just put my pristine X1 kit onto EBAY, the CL is a much better yoke.
I tend to see both sides here. On the one hand, the X1 and X2 do have a certain charm and both are still quite capable of producing full-bodied shots from their 9/6-year-old technology. But we can’t dismiss the CL out of hand. It is a great little camera and, with either the 18mm Elmarit or 23mm Summicron is a worthy successor to the X models. I own all three of these cameras and, while I am enjoying the X2 again (and I have been using it by choice because I needed to do a few articles to bet this discussion going) but the CL is ultimately a more rounded camera.
Sorry Stephen , I was just being mischievous. I did not mean to start a camera “duel”-not my scene at all.
So ignore my comment-except for the bit about the Corvette veritably glowing.
No need to remind me that Leicas are expensive though. I have owned over 20 of them over the years . Just think how many Porsches I could have owned if I’d stuck with Instamatics….
Thank you, Mike. Now we are all satisfied!
Thank you! I had the same thought: "what about that Little Red Corvette".