Leica LTM Leica IIIC K - share info and questions

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
Mr_Flibble said:
I'm having trouble finding just a "k"-marked one...and here someone goes and buys 3....geez 🙂

391xxx came back from its CLA today. Running some film throug it tout de suite.

Shutter should run fine again. And the rewind knob actually extends now. 😉
Click to expand...

He's just JOKING, I'm sure.....he is not serious. 😛

The type of cameras you and I have are RARER than the Grey K cameras anyway, the original 1945 US Army issued IIIC K chrome camera has a production total of less than 250 cameras PERIOD!

Your camera looks great, I'm happy it went to a good home, the (non-serial stamped Kugellager) 45's are as rare now as "hens teeth" 🙂

Happy Shooting!

Tom
 
I took the freshly serviced camera with me on the "Footsteps of the 82nd Airborne" Walk last February. The snow had melted the week before, so it wasn't a real test for the "K"s shutter. Used the '43 Summitar that came with it and some Spector 200 Color film.

The scans aren't super (had to squeeze the negatives under plexiglass to get them to stay flat), but you can't have everything.

FS120230.jpg

Noirfontaine Farm

FS120232.jpg

Some Dutch friends

Camera runs fine now. The exposure doesn't change across the film plane as before.

Yay!
 
Newly Re-Assembled IIIcK

Newly Re-Assembled IIIcK

Got my second IIIcK via LeicaTom from John Neal and it came to me in a box of pieces with a chrome bottom plate. I have stripped and repainted the bottom, re-assembled the camera and it now is fully functioning and SMOOTH running. I use a fluorocarbon lubricant from the hard disk industry and the paint used was an etching primer (olive green) covered with a black primer followed by the correct RLM colors. Now shooting with my NEW (to me) IIIcK. Thanks John and Tom. I also got a sweet L.E. gray case for it. Camera is basically a complete rebuild. Was sold first time in 1944 (per LeicaTom).
 
It did take one sacrificial body and a number of other parts to actually get it working again. I had enough parts in my supplies to actually get the sacrificial body working again, too. I've also redeveloped the "K" stamp with some research in the old fonts and will restore the curtain marking also.
 
Yep, fits right in for both body serial number and lens serial number with my excel spreadsheet of grey and K cameras. All of the primary characteristics are right. Does not look like the right shutter release collar, tho. Many of the early gray cameras had the extended D shaped lock ring, too.
 
Hi Tom!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Leica-IIIc-/221134148157?ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:NL:1123

That was a nice price for a wartime Leica IIIc. But, that camera wasn't original anymore, right? At least it had a sync plug installed. The seller questioned the paint job and it has a III bottom plate, not the 'dog leg' plate.

Tom, wartime IIIc variations and provenance are your field of expertise. What is your verdict? I'm particularly interested in the 'off' paint job for which the seller suggested
'...possibly because Leitz Wetzler was not overly concerned with an exact mix or match in paint jobs'
Click to expand...
 
buzzardkid said:
Hi Tom!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Leica-IIIc-/221134148157?ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:NL:1123

That was a nice price for a wartime Leica IIIc. But, that camera wasn't original anymore, right? At least it had a sync plug installed. The seller questioned the paint job and it has a III bottom plate, not the 'dog leg' plate.

Tom, wartime IIIc variations and provenance are your field of expertise. What is your verdict? I'm particularly interested in the 'off' paint job for which the seller suggested
Click to expand...

That camera was *repainted* and that line they added about Leitz not doing a quality paintjob, is BUL*S*IT........Even in the middle of the worst fighting and at the end (when the US Army cameras were made before the Factory was captured by the American's) the build/paint quality was very high.

The painted IIIC's BTW NEVER had "dogleg" bottoms and a III bottom/base would NEVER fit on a IIIC chassis, it's too short.......

The "dogleg" bottom was used 1940/41 and then again very shortly in 1942 (maybe less than 500 cameras) in a special series of cameras that were sent to the EAST ZONE.

Tom
 
Funny, while I am aware that the III size bottom plate will not fit the IIIc, IIIf and IIIg models due to the added 3mm body length, I was under the impression that all IIIc K bodies had the 'dog leg' bottom catch, never occurred to me that most painted IIIc K's have the round bottom catch, 'earlier' III style

Learn something new every day, thanks Tom!
 
Friend of mine recently acquired a IIIc with serial number 395803. He'd like to know if this was one of those delivered to the US Army of the Occupation or just a very late-war production IIIc.

Could it be an unmarked "K" like mine?
 
Mr_Flibble said:
Friend of mine recently acquired a IIIc with serial number 395803. He'd like to know if this was one of those delivered to the US Army of the Occupation or just a very late-war production IIIc.

Could it be an unmarked "K" like mine?
Click to expand...

#395xxx era cameras are 1946 "stepper" models, no race bearings or K specs, normal IIIC camera shutter.

Most were sold at the Army PX Jan to June 1946, some Military Police units received them as well.

Tom
 
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