Leica LTM Leica Screw Mount Conversions - Show Yours

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
MikeL said:
Looking at some of these conversions, it would appear the lug the base plate hooks onto has been upgraded to the larger size. Mine still has the smaller original lug (and vulcanite). I guess they replaced the whole shell and baseplate on some conversions?
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I think the upgrade to a bigger shell and baseplate was done after WWII when the regular LTM cameras (the IIf and IIIf) had these bigger bodies. Probably yours is likely a pre WWII conversion: does it have a flash connector?

Btw pre-war conversions sometimes got a flash connector, but no synchronization since that was only introduced with the IIf and IIIf?
 
Dralowid said:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LEICA-CAMERA-...ography_VintageCameras_SM&hash=item25609d9c42

Johan, try this...age is upon me, I am starting to make mistakes...or is it the emotional turmoil of disposing of gear....?

Michael
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Got it, Michael!

Nice stuff in that sale, I like the Zeiss Jena lens but I've got one and have no need for two. WRT the Leica body, can't say I'm enough of a scholar to distinguish the cobbled-up ones from the factory-converted ones. What is the tell-tale here?
 
Slow speed blanking plate and later non stepped viewfinder window are plusses...maybe.

The minuses are chrome screws (which tell a tale) on the front and chrome accessory shoe.

One other plus can be that there is less paint on the top plate (which is often not replaced) than there is on the top housing (which often is).

Frankly, with those photos I just can't tell and at that price with all those other bits and pieces it is of academic interest only.

Caveat emptor!

Michael
 
"But I just saw that it was a fake sale, see here were the seller is offering it again against a much higher price:

http://cgi.ebay.nl/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...ht_5492wt_1140"

In my opinion just under £300 (UK) is roughly what these things are fetching right now. The II syn or IIa syn is probably the commonest of postwar conversions and they come up for sale fairly regularly, often in quite good condition.

The values of post war black conversions are on the up and higher than an equivalent 'normal' camera (not that there is such a thing of course).

Pre-war conversions do not seem to command this difference so much though a low numbered I to IIIa is desirable.

However the values of very original barely brassed, unconverted black IIs and IIIs are stratospheric from the main dealers.

BUT the value of an old camera is really meaningless unless someone is prepared to hand over money for it....

Michael
 
Standard Leica with two accessory shoes and no 50mm finder.


standardleica.jpg


standardleica3-1.jpg
 
Hi Michael,
The width of the shoes is not "standard" for some of my finders.
Still, I am now using mainly a 20mm Russar VF on it, and I use either the Canon 19mm or the Minolta 21mm lenses. The camera has a very smooth shutter release.
 
Reading through these topics is depressing me no end 😉
I'm in the same boat Johan; no spending cash, and so many nice shiny toys on offer.

Hope this latest ebay offer goes to a good home, 22 bids so far..
 
Has anyone seen one of these conversions lately?

A IIIC Grey or IIIC K Grey to IIIFBD ~ it's the only conversion I desire, but they seem to have all evaporated away just like the normal IIIC/IIIC K Grey cameras have from the market..... 🙁

Tom
 
Leica News & Technique 1936, a monthly publication by E.Leitz (London) shows the costs of the then current conversion options. From an online calculator a 1935 pound is equivalent to £36.98 in today's money, so to convert a model II to a IIIa would cost today £395.69. What I need to do is explore the income equivalents for each period and then calculate how long you would have to work in 1936 to pay for a conversion compared with today. I suspect in real terms it was more expensive in 1936. NB In 1935 one pound = 20 shillings, I shilling = 12 pence or one pound = 240 pence (imagine adding up your weekly shopping at the till) and for those historians amongst us the UK decimalised its currency 40 years ago yesterday in 1971.
 
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Greyelm,

Thanks for posting this interesting price list. It is a good companion to the postwar one that used to be up on this thread but is no more.

Intersting that they will not convert a III to a IIIa...

Michael
 
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