It\u2019s the first Saturday in May 1947, and while Eric Guerin whips his steed around Churchill Downs, there\u2019s a balding man with a funny accent among all the preposterous headpieces in the mint julep-infused crowd, looking upon the spectacle with pride.<\/p>\n
While Frank Gerhard Back probably didn\u2019t get too excited about the Run for the Roses, the Austrian-born engineer\u2019s focus on this day was rather on the first commercial use of his milestone invention.<\/p>\n
The Zoomar was the first zoom lens that was truly practical for professional use. CBS used it at the 1947 Kentucky Derby, and that single broadcast changed how the world consumed visual media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s the first Saturday in May 1947, and while Eric Guerin whips his steed around Churchill Downs, there\u2019s a balding man with a funny accent among all the preposterous headpieces in the mint julep-infused crowd, looking upon the spectacle with pride. While Frank Gerhard Back probably didn\u2019t get too excited about the Run for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[121,42,120,119,39,43],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lens-history","tag-churchill-downs","tag-frank-back","tag-kentucky-derby","tag-voigtlander","tag-zoom-lens","tag-zoomar"],"yoast_head":"\n