How to ruin a classic IIIc (sad, sad, sad!)

[john neal]

OMG! 😱

How to ruin a classic stepper - this item on ohboy: 140300437883 - check that serial #

There are two others from the same seller, and they are red curtain models, but I can't bring myself to post the numbers

How to ruin a great camera - this sort of thing should definitely be illegal 😡

Tom, I suggest you don't look 😉

 

[xayraa33]

Wow, that is seriously pimped out.
a mack daddy stepper.

 

[Solinar]

I see what you mean. The plated Summarit is the icing on the cake.

After viewing his other auctions - it looks like this seller will be a repeat offender in the plating realm.

 

[crawdiddy]

OMG! 😱

How to ruin a classic stepper -

OK, stupid question I know. What is meant by the term "stepper"? I keep hearing it, but I dont know what it means.

 

[laptoprob]

The rewind lever is on a raised 'step'.

 

[ElectroWNED]

That camera would go perfect with this leisure-suit while stalking the streets...

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Never heard off Auric Goldfinger?
Mind you, he is still out there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3id9Ruka6GQ&feature=related

 

[Rob-F]

Well, it is very pretty, if you're into that sort of thing.

 

[sweathog]

I just cannot understand who would want a camera like that.
It just does not look right!

 

[Rhodes]

Look here:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68660

I thought this camera type looked familiar...

 

[bucks11]

I love goooold....😛

 

[mynikonf2]

What kills me is that there are so many IIIc's made from 48 thru 51 that have their chrome peeling off that he could have picked from. To take a camera with that serial number is truely a crime!

 

[Rhodes]

Imagine having a black ltm model and that gold lens on hit...That would be something! ehehhehe

 

[Melvin]

I would buy it, but I would only use it to photograph lilies and candy.

 

[LeicaTom]

John,

I can remember when that camera was SOLD on ebay in it`s ORIGINAL condition!!!!!!!!!!
(about 1.5 years ago)

It came from a an ex-US Army estate here in the US, and the Polish buyer payed stupid money for it (like $450).

Seems like EVERY postwar Stepper camera that`s sold over the net, I seem to find out it`s history so I can add it to what I know, each becomes a survivor in one big happy family, but it`s really sad what`s happened to this particular camera 🙁

It was a real rough camera, (dirty and lot`s of chrome wear, not peel) though the vulcanite was intact and in very good shape, from what I can remember, it also had a nasty fogged up *non original* Summar on it.

It was way overpriced, but perhaps in a way it was really worth the money it sold for, (to a real collector or someone who understood what it was) while this was a VERY RARE 1946 US Army "crossover" issue stepper (from June 1946 production) and one of the LAST steppers ever made.

Really criminal what he`s done, the camera was worth more in the poor original condition it was in, now it`s a worthless gold paperweight.
(done with like $25 of vacu plated gold, when you touch it I`m sure the gold will rub off, or it will just turn green) 🙁

It would have been a better BLACK PAINT camera, at least it would have had some character (*note I didn`t say Grey paint*)

Hmmm damm shame, well there`s another #396xxx issue camera lost to history 🙁

Tom

 

[gavinlg]

I'm surprised it's not a chinese guy that did it - the chinese seem to love their gold stuff.

 

[john neal]

John,

I can remember when that camera was SOLD on ebay in it`s ORIGINAL condition!!!!!!!!!!
(about 1.5 years ago)

Tom,

It's a shame I wasn't into these beauties at that time - I would gladly have paid that much for it.

I like the black paint idea - done well by the right person, it would have made an outstanding collectors piece. In its present state, I wouldn't even put it in a glass case and throw sugar at it!

Ah well, the search continues....

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

 

[sanmich]

I propose to gather some cash on RFF to pay the ransom, release the princess from its torturer, deplate it and black paint it.

 

[LeicaTom]

Yeah, it makes me sick just to think about this camera........... 😛

I`m sure John knows what I mean - ugggh!!!! *I can`t even take an asprin, that won`t take the pain away*

Even all beat up (as it was originally at auction) it still would have been a scream to use (I LOVE the 1945/46 issues, due to their smoothness of operation, and the good looks of the Series One body help too) 😀 ~ plus there was only a run of less than 1,000 cameras at this time of issue (April to June 1946) while Leitz was retooling for the Series Two body Leica IIIC`s ~ so this is a very rare camera!

A really badass semi-gloss Leitz like Black paintjob would have been so nice (I saw a #3964xx era camera painted this way before) and that camera SOLD at auction in Austria 2 years ago for like $1,500!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I`m sure due to the camera`s rarity it would bring just as much now, maybe even more?)

So even painted and that WAS`NT original......a BLACK paintjob just would have made this camera alot more practial to use.

Sad it`s another really rare era postwar "stepper" that will never take a picture again, that`s what makes me sad 🙁

Tom