IIIF. (???????) Couple questions. Lens opinion.

[arevalo]

My first Leica which was recently handed to me by my grandpa.

Now I have a couple questions.

The body is in great shape, the shutter gets sticky so I'll probably send it in to get CLA'd.

My final question is that the lens has some debris rolling around.

If I give it a tap, some of it goes away. Is this repairable? Can I bring it in to get fixed? Or would I be better off buying another lens?

If so, I'd love some recommendations for another 50mm lens. Would forking out extra cash be worth it compared to buying a FSU lens? (Jupiter8, Industar 50/22/61) ???


Thanks in advance!

 

[FrankS]

Hello and welcome! Send both the camera and lens in for a CLA. The black stuff in the lens is paint flakes from the edges of lens elements. DON"T sell off that lens. A screw mount Summarit is worth quite a few bucks. If you really want to sell it,let me know, but you shouldn't!

BTW, your grandfather has great taste in camera gear! You're a lucky guy.

 

[Ash]

You should be able to get someone to fix both those problems, it'll still cost a little though.

I'd recommend getting a Jupiter-8 or maybe even the Helios, just so you can see how well a russian lens compares 😀

 

[arevalo]

Hello and welcome! Send both the camera and lens in for a CLA. The black stuff in the lens is paint flakes from the edges of lens elements. DON"T sell off that lens. A screw mount Summarit is worth quite a few bucks. If you really want to sell it,let me know, but you shouldn't!

BTW, your grandfather has great taste in camera gear! You're a lucky guy.

Thanks for the welcome and the good news. Glad that I can keep everything the way it came.


How much for a CLA on both the camera/lens? I've read about $250 for the body alone, but how much extra for the lens?


I totally went nuts when my dad told me my grandpa had a Leica stashed in a cabinet. 🙂 It also came with the original leather case.

 

[Graybeard]

Congratulations. You have a fine camera - the IIIf is my favorite among the Leica RF's and SLR's.

To respond to your questions:

1) For a CLA:

a) Essex Camera Service in NJ will probably give you the quickest turnaround time (ca. two weeks) with reasonably competent service and no hassles correcting problems if everything is not as you expect. Price probably about $125 if the shutter curtains are OK.

b) DAG is one of two major gurus for LTM service but his turnaround time can be long. Call him and ask what you can expect - he is a great fellow to converse with. He will charge more than Essex.

c) John Maddox in South Carolina is the other LTM guru. He can charge less than Essex and has done simple repairs for me at no cost - I had to recently insist that he permit me to reimburse him for the return shipping on a freebie repair. His turnaround time can be months, but he often charges less than Essex. When he began work on a IIIf for me recently, he called to let me know what he found and what he proposed to do to repair the problem (an incompetent shutter curtain replacement done for a previous owner). John is a one-of-a-kind good guy.


2) About your lens:

The debris in the lens is probably flakes of anti-reflection paint from inside the lens barrel that has let go after 55 years. A lens cleaning should take care of it. In addition to the technicians which I've mentioned above, Sherry Krauter will service LTM lenses (but not LTM bodies). She did a Summarit for me some time back. Figure $50 to $80 - call her and ask about it.


3) New Lenses

You might conside a black Jupiter-8 AND one of the collapsible Industar f3,5 lenses. To really appreciate a LTM Leica, one needs a collapsible lens which will allow you to carry the camera in a coat pocket. To the extent that I've been able to tell (and I've used quite a large number of the FSU lenses), the Russian f3.5 collapsible are a match for the f3.5 Elmar, really.

Good light and good shooting.

--Graybeard

 

[FrankS]

CLA on a lens runs about $80 to $100. If you are in the US, then DAG or Sherry Krauter are the 2 top places to send your gear.

 

[arevalo]

Awesome!

I'm over in San Francisco, so I'll def take a look at the following and make some calls.

 

[ffttklackdedeng]

Welcome, arevalo!

Btw: the OKARO on yours is on the wrong window 😉

The contrast enhacing small orange filter is usually put on the other window, so the 'big' image is orange and the rangefinder patch is 'white' (since the rf patch is often dimmer).. So changing could improve focussing

What do you mean by sticky shutter? Maybe you could even start w/o the CLAs..?

Why do you want another lens?

 

[arevalo]

Hey ff.

Thanks for the tip, just switched it.

The shutter seems to stay open sometimes until I release it, if I continuously do it, it seems to work fine for about 5 more shots then may stick again. I'm planning to shoot a couple rolls before sending it in.

Wasn't looking for another lens, just needed opinions in case my current lens could not be repaired.

 

[aad]

My favorite camera, and definitely get a collapsible lens.

 

[Elmar Fudd]

Essex camera and DAG are both excellent recommendations for servicing your IIIF. DAG will be charge more, but he does very good work and would be my preference. As for your lens, consider sending it to John Van Stelten at Focal Point in Colorado. He specializes in vintage lens repair and recently did great work on two older Leica screw mount lenses for our store.

 

[arevalo]

I will look at a collapsible lens in the future, recommendations?


Also, I am sort of confused with the ASA setting.

 

[wlewisiii]

Any of the FSU collapsibles are cheap and of decent quality. Industar 22 or 50 would be your best bet.

As for ASA setting, this is a totally manual camera. You don't have to set anything. I'm not as familier with the IIIF but there might be something to remind you of what film you have loaded.

William

 

[arevalo]

What confuses me is that it says ...

100, 80, 50, 40, 25, 20, 16, 10, 8.

I'm used to seeing 100, 200, 400, etc.


My guess is 80 = 800, 10 = 100 and so on, which seems completely right but would just need clarification.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

This is an OLD camera. 100 speed film was pretty fast back then. The ASA dial is correct...those are the real ASA values.

 

[FrankS]

Nope. "Back in the day", 100 asa film was super high speed. No need to worry though, this is just a reminder, and this dial is not coupled to a light meter becasue there is none in this camera.

 

[edodo]

I may advise you to CLA the lens and the body. That is one nice outfit you are blessed by you gran pa! I may be wrong but I think that the flange on FSU lens differs a little from the leica flange (at least my jupiter 11 gets wrong focus on my IIIa). As long as you use big DOF lens like a 3.5 fed you should be fine most of the time but if you want a fast lens you should stay with leicas or even LTM voigtlanders lens. But if you can get a decent CLA for this jewel, the summarit will give you nice negs!

 

[edodo]

Here is some old comparaison on Pnet. I have an early summicron from 1952, and I like the glow\softness wide open for portraiture especially. The summarit beats it I guess unless one is searching for the ultima ultra megapixel sharpness! http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003VfI

 

[Xmas]

Arevalo

You could try removing the lens and setting the camera in a window in the sun, until it warms a little and then operating the shutter 100 times at 1 second. This may free any stiff lubs sufficiently. The lens does not need to be cooked and if you left the cap off you might have a Sunday (holy) shutter.

If it works ok at 1/100 I'd use it as it is until something breaks. the lens wont mind the lose black paint.

For CLA $ you can instead get a Ru J12 wide angle 35mm lens and Ru turret viewfinder and go wild... the photos you take will be nice whatever you do enjoy. Take some shots of the old guy as well, he musta got you in the past...

Noel