Leica LTM Leica IIIc sharkskin black.

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
Erik van Straten

Erik van Straten

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I've always found the Leica IIIc sharkskin in black one of the nicest looking Leica's around.

Erik.

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I have a chrome sharkskin IIIc with "Germany" instead of "GERMANY". Is that special Erik?
 
Heaven help us. I see the Lower Case IIIc becoming another variant or sub-variant.

[edit] Erik, the whites on the uppermost deck seem whiter than those which I have marked with red dots.
 

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Erik, I thought you thought lower case "Germany" was special. Indeed for the IIIf "GERMANY" is in capitals, but on the IIIc I think lower case is normal. I now realize you meant the smaller font size of "Germany". On yours it's the same size as on my IIIc, so I assume it's normal.
 
payasam said:
Heaven help us. I see the Lower Case IIIc becoming another variant or sub-variant.

[edit] Erik, the whites on the uppermost deck seem whiter than those which I have marked with red dots.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I took the pictures with my flatbed scanner, so the whites on top will be whiter than the whites on the lower deck.

The logo "Leica D.R.P. Ernst Leitz Wetzlar Germany" is in fact not engraved, but stamped in, like on the M1, M2, M3 and M4 cameras. On black paint cameras this stamp is deeper than on chrome cameras. The only thing engraved on the top plate is the serial number.
This "deep stamp" is a clear sign for a genuine black camera. The stamp on chrome top plates is not as deep and therefore difficult to be filled in with white paint after the top plate has been painted black.

Erik.
 
The reason of the existence of the black paint IIIc could be that they're were ment to match the MOOLY-C black paint motordrives. These are rare, but do exist. How many, nobody knows.

Erik.
 
Erik van Straten said:
The reason of the existence of the black paint IIIc could be that they're were ment to match the MOOLY-C black paint motordrives. These are rare, but do exist. How many, nobody knows.

Erik.
Click to expand...

They made about 400 Black MOOLY C drives all in 1947 to 1949, and the suspected runs of the Black IIIC's are also in that same era.

Leitz had some problems with chrome contamination in some of their 1947/8 batches of IIIC and IIC cameras, and they were considering returning to the Black paint of early/mid 1930's fame, but for some reason or another the factory did'nt run off a major production of them (less then 300 were said to have been made ~ in Black paint).

Black paint came back into VOUGE with some special M3's in 1954/5 and then with the Leica Photo Journalist's dream camera the MP in 1956/7.....and the rest is history concerning Black paint on cameras :D

Lovely Camera Erik :)

Tom
 
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I never had such a camera in my hand so just one question: Is this pinhole in the upper left corner (picture #3) really a viewfinder? Isn't it absolutely small?
 
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