Focomat IIa Lens Configuration

[Comrade Conrad]

All the Focomat IIa's I've seen or have seen pictures of have had a rotating lens turret to select between a 50mm lens and a 95mm lens. I recently found a IIa which does not have a turret at all, but simply has a single focusing helicoid just like a Focomat Ic. Lens changing is done by unscrewing one lens and replacing it with another. All my literature on the Focomat IIa including a 1938 Leitz catalog shows the IIa with a turret.

Is anyone familiar with the single helicoid version? What is its vintage? (I assume it must be pre-1938; I doubt it would be a later version.) Or was it made for a special market or a special order?

 

[Comrade Conrad]

On closer read, the 1938 catalog describes the Focomat IIa with what sounds like the single helicoid. It's hard to tell from the line drawing, but the description refers to "a tubular mount which receives the enlarging lens." I think if there were a turret, it would be mentioned as such in the text.

So apparently the early IIa's had a single helicoid. It would still be interesting to know when Leitz went to the two-lens turret and what the relative production numbers were. I guess that's getting pretty esoteric...