Bought my first screw mount leica

[ozarktax]

Hello
Long time lurker, finally created an account to post.

So I bought this camera sold as a Leica 1, however with the addition of a rangefinder, I believe it may have gone back to the factory for modification.

What I didnt notice when purchasing was the missing screw on the elmar and the lens appears to be a bit cross-threaded, oops. Ive probably overpaid at £260 given the work it might need, but
I was drawn to the heavy brassing and wondered where the camera has been and what it has seen.
I was wondering if anyone knows any more about this camera and particularly what modifications its likely had.
The serial is 210446, which puts it at 1936 i believe.

 

[ozarktax]

 

[Valkir1987]

Very nice find! The lens looks two decades younger than the camera. The missing infinity stop is easily found, (or made on a lathe)

 

[splitimageview]

ebay link to screw

lens serial #223301 is 1934, but with modern aperture numbers that looks like an old lens in a new barrel

 

[JeffS7444]

It appears to be a straightforward Leica Standard -> Leica II conversion, and in good condition for it's age.

You'll spend more than £260 to have it restored to working condition (if that's your intent), but it looks like a decent buy to me. Fortunately, the cross-threaded part appears to be the lens helicoid, not the camera body. Lens can maybe be salvaged, but if not, it has value as a parts unit. Am guessing lens was frozen on camera body, and someone attempted to remove it by brute force, shearing off the infinity stop. Worst-case scenario is that the lens's mounting flange may need to be cut from the camera body, but most of your value is in that camera body, not the lens.

 

[ozarktax]

Thank you all for your replies, really really helpful.
I've emailed Leica to see if they can dig out any information for me, I will try and see when it turns up if the lens helicoid is damaged or the camera body, if it's the camera body I will probably send it back. More inclined to try and get a new Elmar than find a spare lens bayonet.

 

[ozarktax]

Unfortunately it is the mount on the camera that is damaged, I will be sending it back! such a shame

 

[Dralowid]

Is there damage on the focus helical thread? If it is not too bad it should be possible to re assemble the lens properly.

 

[GMOG]

I agree with Dralowid. The lens's base appears to thread into the mount just fine. This doesn't look like a camera problem.

It looks like the lens's helical threads are not lined up well enough to go together. If it's not been forced/damaged then there's a decent chance that it could be assembled properly. It might require experimentation to determine where to start the threads so that the lens is positioned properly. Some helicals are harder to line up and start than others.

 

[Dralowid]

Having written my post it occurred to me that the first thing to do would be to get the lens's mount off the camera, then after that, getting the helical back together correctly is done by trail and error.

 

[Vince Lupo]

I think the body is pretty cool for what it is. Additionally, I don’t think all is quite lost — if you happen to have a set of those hard rubber lens ‘vacuum pad’ sets, you may be able to get the lens’s mount off, with maybe a tiny bit of Liquid Wrench. And I don’t think that fixing the lens is going to be a big deal. If that screw on the back of the infinity lock button is missing (as well as the spring), they’re easily found on eBay (either originals or repros from China). You might actually have a bit of an easier time threading the lens back into the mount if the lens barrel was extended and locked (it is an extensible lens). Have you corresponded with the seller about paying for a possible repair?

BTW you didn’t mention if the camera is working — is it?

 

[Erik van Straten]

It seems that all the nickel is removed wich is rather difficult to do. Maybe someone tried to get an "all black" leica ll but couldn't finish the job.