A Real Luftwaffen iiic-K?

[Erik van Straten]

1-IMG_2219 by dralowid, on Flickr

I think the dimple in the shutter release is OK

I think I read as serial nr. 951, but I may be wrong. So I thought the camera was too early for a dimple.

Yes, the engraving of the lens is correct. I think that the complete lens assembly is original Leitz. It is not a Russian lens, I think.

In any case, a very interesting camera, also as a fake. Russians make wonderful fakes. A fake can be better than the original.

Erik.

 

[Dralowid]

Erik,

Ah, I understand your reasoning now, if it had been 951 it would indeed have been as you described. However it is 9517, I am not sure it is indeed a fake from this distance...

 

[E__WOK]

I came across a gentleman selling his late mother's camera on Craigslist just now. He isn't sure what he is selling, but it seems to be a military Leica with the ball bearing upgrade. I think this is a real deal so I told him I would help him verify the authenticity... because if it's real, I think this worths way more than what I can offer to him!

Mechanically the camera definitely needs some CLA, VF looks a bit unclear, and the lens (an Elmar that also bear the marking of Luftwaffe-eigentum) have a bit of dust and maybe some haze too. But cosmetically this camera seems to be in really good shape. It even comes with a Luftwaffen-eigentum leather case, plus a Gossen light meter, and even the box. The camera could even come from someone in his family who served in the air force around WW2 time. All these tell me it's a real thing. What do you think this worth?

I also saw that ad but I can't even afford a regular iiic, lol.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Recently I've been going through a heap of old magazines from the 30's and 40's and found an article about a new, captured Leica in a magazine dated May 1941.

Obviously to me it was a IIIc but they didn't know that and called it a model 4. They added that the blinds were red one side and black the other and they'd heard rumours that the USA source had dried up. Comments were also made about the speed changes and the differences on the base plate (2 screws missing and a Contax type lock).

They described it as being finished in Luffwaffe grey and having the word "Luffewaffe" in silver. Also noticed was the frame counter and redesign at the top; described as tidying up. In other words nothing new except that this was the first one seen.

The joke is that a couple of months later, in a very short article, they added that a few people had contacted the magazine to say that they'd seen them (second-hand IIIc cameras) in dealers and a pawnshop or two. It was assumed that refuges had owned them and sold them on arrival in the UK.

Regards, David

 

[Sparrow]

My uncle served with the Airborne in WWII in western europe, he bought a second hand Leica as a gift for my granddad, he said the surviving german civilians were selling anything and everything simply to eat ... he had little sympathy at the time so he paid very little for it I understaqnd

 

[Roger Hicks]

As far as I recall, it was worth selling cameras for next to nothing as the alternative was confiscation without compensation by Allied authorities. Perhaps someone who knows more than I can confirm or deny this.

Cheers,

R.

 

[sevo]

As far as I recall, it was worth selling cameras for next to nothing as the alternative was confiscation without compensation by Allied authorities. Perhaps someone who knows more than I can confirm or deny this.

Unlikely - as far as I can make out, what confiscation from private households there was happened immediately after the occupation. Looting and theft will have continued for longer, but at least in the US and British occupied zones hardly more than a few weeks into the occupation. Trading will only have picked up momentum after that.

As far as the low value is concerned, bear in mind that a camera is rather a useless lump of metal in a world where you cannot buy film or chemistry and while you are starving. Besides, most men were dead, or away as POWs - the people that sold the cameras usually weren't the owners, but their children, wives or even some distant relation sharing the flat. That is, people that often did not know the value - and what is more, they assigned no emotional value to it.