Early vs. Late Leica shutters

[Melvin]

Is there a reason later barnacks would have smoother shutter releases? My IIIf has a hair trigger, I barely have to touch it. But with the Leica II the shutter release is stiffer and louder. They've both been recently overhauled. Is this just a difference between my two cameras, or do early Leicas have a stiffer shutter release in general? This is just curiosity, they both take sharp pictures.

 

[Rob-F]

No, it's more than a random difference between your two cameras. There were improvements with successive models. During WWII, some examples of the IIIc had ball bearing shutters, for instance. By the time of the IIIf red dial, ball bearings were standard. There were also advances in the shutter brake. I am not sure when that started, but I think it was as early as the IIIa (or so). My II is louder and more metallic sounding than either of my IIIcs. Improvements in the state of the art with time.

 

[Marc James Small]

The shutter curtains have rollers onto which they wind, like a window blind. On the II, these have pin bearings -- a simple metal pin going into a simple hole in the shutter crate. On the IIIf, the right side will have a pin bearing but the left will be a roller bearing. The WWII IIIcK cameras had roller bearings on both sides, but that turned out to be overkill. I am not certain just what the arrangement was on the early IIIc production from 1940. I might have to run down Jim Lager and ask him.

I do know that the shutter on my IIIc and IIIf RDST and on my IIIg are all of a sort, and I have no problem shooting with any of them. The IIIc was my first really SERIOUS camera (purchased in 1989, when I was 39), and it is the one they will be prying out of my cold, dead hands after I have left this mortal coil. It is a most wonderful camera, and John Van Stelten has worked to keep it up to snuff despite my occasional, er, bounce testings of it on hard concrete. I carry a Rollei 35 (no RF!) as my glovebox camera, and I have three kits to take out to do shoots -- one with my Leica Wetzlar M6, another with my Rolleiflex 2.8GX, and a third with my Hasselblad 2000FCM. But, when I just want to make some fun photographs, I take the IIIc or a Contax II or my Werra III. Stay focused, guys!

Marc

 

[payasam]

Well, well. I too was 39 in 1989: but four years before that I'd bought an M3. Rob-F: "Improvements in the state of the art with time."

Melvin, I understand that the travel of the shutter release button can be adjusted to suit your preference.

 

[Marc James Small]

I bought my first M3 a month after I bought my IIIc. I stupidly later sold the M3. I later was given a very friendly price on a late M3 DS, and scored it in a heartbeat. It is a grand camera.

Marc