Leica IIIc sharkskin black.

[Erik van Straten]

I've always found the Leica IIIc sharkskin in black one of the nicest looking Leica's around.

Erik.

 

[Erik van Straten]

 

[Erik van Straten]

 

[Jamie Pillers]

WOW!! Gorgeeeeeous!! Erik, do you know how many of these were made?

 

[Erik van Straten]

Officially they do not exist.

Erik.

 

[ray*j*gun]

Beautiful.....I have a chrome sharkskin also quite nice. Are you sure its not a repaint?

 

[Erik van Straten]

I have never seen such excellent engravings on repainted cameras.

 

[CameraQuest]

I have never seen such excellent engravings on repainted cameras.

I have.

Stephen

 

[Erik van Straten]

I have.

Also those small letters "Germany"?

Erik.

 

[HuubL]

I have a chrome sharkskin IIIc with "Germany" instead of "GERMANY". Is that special Erik?

 

[Erik van Straten]

I have a chrome sharkskin IIIc with "Germany" instead of "GERMANY". Is that special Erik?

Huub, you mean "GERMANY" instead of "Germany"?
I don't know, there are lots of differences in the engraving. D.R.P. is often much larger.

Erik.

 

[payasam]

Heaven help us. I see the Lower Case IIIc becoming another variant or sub-variant.

[edit] Erik, the whites on the uppermost deck seem whiter than those which I have marked with red dots.

 

[HuubL]

Erik, I thought you thought lower case "Germany" was special. Indeed for the IIIf "GERMANY" is in capitals, but on the IIIc I think lower case is normal. I now realize you meant the smaller font size of "Germany". On yours it's the same size as on my IIIc, so I assume it's normal.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Heaven help us. I see the Lower Case IIIc becoming another variant or sub-variant.

[edit] Erik, the whites on the uppermost deck seem whiter than those which I have marked with red dots.

Yes, but I took the pictures with my flatbed scanner, so the whites on top will be whiter than the whites on the lower deck.

The logo "Leica D.R.P. Ernst Leitz Wetzlar Germany" is in fact not engraved, but stamped in, like on the M1, M2, M3 and M4 cameras. On black paint cameras this stamp is deeper than on chrome cameras. The only thing engraved on the top plate is the serial number.
This "deep stamp" is a clear sign for a genuine black camera. The stamp on chrome top plates is not as deep and therefore difficult to be filled in with white paint after the top plate has been painted black.

Erik.

 

[Erik van Straten]

The reason of the existence of the black paint IIIc could be that they're were ment to match the MOOLY-C black paint motordrives. These are rare, but do exist. How many, nobody knows.

Erik.

 

[LeicaTom]

The reason of the existence of the black paint IIIc could be that they're were ment to match the MOOLY-C black paint motordrives. These are rare, but do exist. How many, nobody knows.

Erik.

They made about 400 Black MOOLY C drives all in 1947 to 1949, and the suspected runs of the Black IIIC's are also in that same era.

Leitz had some problems with chrome contamination in some of their 1947/8 batches of IIIC and IIC cameras, and they were considering returning to the Black paint of early/mid 1930's fame, but for some reason or another the factory did'nt run off a major production of them (less then 300 were said to have been made ~ in Black paint).

Black paint came back into VOUGE with some special M3's in 1954/5 and then with the Leica Photo Journalist's dream camera the MP in 1956/7.....and the rest is history concerning Black paint on cameras 😀

Lovely Camera Erik 🙂

Tom

 

[LeicaTom]

Here's your 1949 Black MOOLY C.......

http://cgi.ebay.com/Leica-Mooly-C-M...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35a8a8dcb0

Somewhat "overpriced" (it's worth about $2,500 to $2,800) just add that and a 1949 #491xxx Taylor-Hobson Xenon/Summarit and a Black "prewar" Rosol sportsfinder.....and your ready to go shoot some football games!!!!! 😀

That would be a "wild" looking rig for sure 🙂

Tom

 

[Erik van Straten]

Thank you Tom. Now we all can hunt for the remaining 299 black IIIc's.

Erik.

 

[user237428934]

I never had such a camera in my hand so just one question: Is this pinhole in the upper left corner (picture #3) really a viewfinder? Isn't it absolutely small?

 

[Erik van Straten]

I never had such a camera in my hand so just one question: Is this pinhole in the upper left corner (picture #3) really a viewfinder? Isn't it absolutely small?

Yes, the viewfinder is small.

Erik.