Leica LTM Leica IIIc early post war s/n info

[colyn]

As many here know a lot of the early post war (1946-47) IIIc's has issues. Sherry even says she does not like working on them.

At what serial number range were these issues corrected and quality IIIc's began leaving the factory??

I had a 416xxx IIIc that would skip frames mainly near the end of the roll and Germany was engraved "Gern". See photo below. Sherry said the skipping was unfixable so I sold the camera as a show piece..

The problem was the rewind lever as seen in this photo. Note how far back it points to the shutter release button.

 

[easyrider]

Very strange

Very strange

This is very strange. Why would the word "Germany" and the serial number not be completed? Maybe it was a reject from the production line because it was defective?

 

[colyn]

This is very strange. Why would the word "Germany" and the serial number not be completed? Maybe it was a reject from the production line because it was defective?

The serial number was edited out by me with the x's added also by me.

Some early IIIc's were known to have incomplete engraving because of untrained assemblers right after the war. They were not rejects.

 

[LeicaTom]

I would say that your camera was a "fluke" a freak of the production line, which maybe happened with a few hundred cameras in that era.

1945/46 and part of 47 the cameras were being made in great haste for the US Army and for the Armed Forces Exchange Services in Europe, the resposten "Stepper" cameras on the most part were, thrown together quickly to meet the demands of the servicemen's orders....many cameras of this era have failed shutters.

There's also about 800 to 1,000 or so "Stepper" cameras in 1945/46 that had their instruction plates fastened on backwards (upside down) which confused many American GI's returning home from Germany.....some so much that they never put a roll through their cameras, thankfully for collectors leaving a near mint condition camera over 60 years later.

Your camera is a late 1946/early 1947 era "Flat top" IIIC, the engraving is a "Quality Control" issue that slipped through the inspectors.....

The *Quailty Control* as it was before WW2 at Leitz didn`t improve until the issue of the IIIF RD and the M3 in 1954 in my personal opinion.......while even more problems are also to be found in later 1948/50 IIIC's and the 1951 to 53 IIIFBD cameras, it also had alot to do with the quality of raw materials in that era too, Germany really didn`t get back on it's feet till after 1955 with most things, especially luxury items like Leica cameras.

Tom

 

[Santafecino]

I owned IIIc number 401842 -- a very early postwar camera -- and it was flawless, as far as I could tell. No problems with chrome or anything else.

 

[colyn]

I owned IIIc number 401842 -- a very early postwar camera -- and it was flawless, as far as I could tell. No problems with chrome or anything else.

I've owned 2 early post war models and both had problems. The one above which would skip frames and the other had overlapping frames. My current IIIc is s/n 525xxx and works as it should..

 

[cnphoto]

My IIIC - 4397XX - has no framing issues, or other problems aside from a louder shutter (markedly louder than the M series cameras I own) but this is known to be common.

I do find though, that the noise of the shutter rarely draws attention. I was pondering this the other day. I think may be because the sound of the IIIc shutter is not immediately recognisable to most people as a camera shutter firing? Maybe. My M3 also doesn;t draw attention... because it is virtually silent, as far as camera shutters go.