Leica LTM My Leica IIIc -- A Lost Cause?

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
There are many excellent LTM lenses. My 35mm/3.5 LTM Summaron is almost pristine, and there are some fine new CV LTM lenses. For older lenses, always inspect them with a strong flashlight/torch beam, as fungus, haze, and separations do not always show up very well under ordinary lights. The IIIC is a fine camera. I would suggest keeping it.

Richard
 
sircarl said:
With all these words of encouragement, I've sent off an e-mail to a repair outfit called Focal Point Lens (recommended on some photo Websites), asking for an estimate to clean all three lenses. If it's within my budget, I'll ask them to tackle it. Otherwise, I'm afraid they'll have to be sold. Keeping my fingers crossed, for I do want to keep the lenses and finally see what the fuss is all about!
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http://www.angelfire.com/biz/Leica/

Focal Point is quite a few time zones away from the UK, thus you may also wish to check with Luton via the above link. If nothing else, the web site is good, if you can stand the pop-ups! I believe a shop will need to see the lenses to make a proper estimate, as the repair can vary from simple disassembly and cleaning, to complex fungus removal and possible polishing and re-coating.
 
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Suggest you need hoods for these lens if you are to get good results. they are old, and a hood will also protect them from further physical damage - finger prints and consequent cleaning.

CRR Luton have been good (for me).

The 35mm I'd send off ASAP as the fungus may be resent and the lens may still be ok, after a clean. You can get hoods for the other two and see if you can live with them as they are. CRR do recoat the front elements of Elmars but with a hood you may be ok.

Only fondlers recoat lens, CRR make a good business recoating, as there are lots of fondlers and the Leitz glass was soft.

The IIIc wont go on for ever save for a refurb, at the time consider asking for the IIIf film locating finger enhancement, if the IIIC is not a collectors piece, lots of IIIc wont be original, if your is nice leave it as it is.

Noel
 
I was wondering.... other than a clean, can I get the RF window's any brighter? I know Luton resilvers/replaces M mirrors, but is there anything he can do for a IIIc rangefinder??
 
Replacement beam splitter

Replacement beam splitter

Ash said:
I was wondering.... other than a clean, can I get the RF window's any brighter? I know Luton resilvers/replaces M mirrors, but is there anything he can do for a IIIc rangefinder??
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Yep, CRR/ Peter Grisaffi routinely (usually as part of a general service) replaces the beam spliiter on IIIs, bringing the RF & finder windows to much the same brightness- scroll down a bit on the main page.. http://www.angelfire.com/biz/Leica/ .. on the right

David
 
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Ash said:
I was wondering.... other than a clean, can I get the RF window's any brighter? I know Luton resilvers/replaces M mirrors, but is there anything he can do for a IIIc rangefinder??
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I got the orange RF filter from DAG. The cost was quite a surprise as I have seen them selling for 40-50 dollars. Dag was 25 plus shipping. The RF is dim in my IIIa and it actually make an improvement. At the last camera show I picked up an early Canon and it made my Leica look bright. I think the size of the RF viewfinder is one of the drawbacks of this series. I just bought a 50mm bight line finder to use on mine. I love my III series cameras. They also work well with a J12 or J8.
 
Just wanted to loop back with all the people who gave me helpful advice on this thread, which I started. I sent my dirty lenses off to Focal Point for cleaning in November and finally got them back a week ago. While not perfect (I wasn't expecting this), it's a huge improvement. I also decided to do something I've wanted to do for a long time, which is to buy a Leica IIIf. I know, I know, it's practically the same as my IIIc (especially since I rarely take flash pictures). It's irrational, but I had to have one -- and I found a nice one on the Bay. Over the weekend I finally got to test my cleaned lenses with my new camera. What can I say -- awesome! Lovely results, and the camera feels just right. So now I'll sell my IIIc to pay for this extravagance and begin exploring what a LTM really can do with lenses that aren't encrusted with crud. Can't wait...
 
Good move Carl, Focal Point has cleaned all my Leica screw mount lenses ahd does a wonderful job. I even had him do a 135 Hektor. That lens stopped down is alot better than it gets credit for.
 
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