Leica LTM Leica Screw Mount Conversions - Show Yours

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
There are no rules but around 300 good old fashioned worthless British pounds seems to be the going rate for a 'fairly interesting' conversion body.

Quite how one defines 'fairly interesting' is moot. For me, the more the camera is a mixture of old and new the better. Or I look at a theme, for example, two posts up, I illustrate a II and a III both postwar conversions without sync. one with new knobs, one retaining the older nickel ones.

Having said all that, I would go over the top to capture a postwar I to I conversion...yes, they do exist.
 
The reproduction release guards that I have seen all have vertical milling (as have early FED ones).

I would suggest that this one may have come from our friends at Michelin though it is quite a tidy job. The flat bit at the base of the release guard (if it is indeed on the relase guide) may confirm this.

Erik, whatever it is, it is not one I've made, I may be selling cameras to fund something digital but I'm keeping cameras like this!


Michael
 
Erik van Straten said:
A SCNOO-C should fit any IIIc, IIIf or IIIg without conversion.
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Not all. My IIIf required a new take-up shaft, and some grinding down of a couple of gears to get it to fit properly and function. Youxin said that the SCNOO was not compatible with my IIIf, but that he knew what he would have to do to make it work, and he sure enough did.
 
What did I buy?

What did I buy?

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I bought this for next to nothing. Was listed as a Leica copy. Not a clue on the serial number yet but I'm guessing it's a conversion and the number and camera don't 'add up'.

The lens was already sold and the curtains are thrashed. Guess this is going to be my first attempt at fixing curtains on a Leica.
 

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buzzardkid said:
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I bought this for next to nothing. Was listed as a Leica copy. Not a clue on the serial number yet but I'm guessing it's a conversion and the number and camera don't 'add up'.

The lens was already sold and the curtains are thrashed. Guess this is going to be my first attempt at fixing curtains on a Leica.
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Its a beauty Johan! Would you reveal part of the serialnumber? A comparable one is right now in the classifieds, and that surely is a Leica Factory Conversion from a Leica I from 1928.
 
Hi Ron,

I don't know the serial yet! Price was really low so I jumped on it straight away.
Fact thats it's likely an original while being listed as a copy makes me think the seller has looked up the number but it doesn't match the current model so he considers it a fake...

This week it should arrive in the mail. Until then, nothing's certain I guess.
 
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Hi Johan, Nice camera and interesting too!
Apart from the listing what clues lead you toward it being a conversion? Screws seem to be in the right place, shape around the shutter release dial later and appropriate to a III. Accessory shoe is 'low'. Also shutter dial is nickel suggesting it cannot be a IIIa.

Looking forward to the serial number...

Michael
 
Hi Michael,

it was no rocket science on my behalf, I simply know that the only cameras ever made with a slow speed dial were a certain type of Zorki-3 (totally different top plate) and the Shanghai types I and II (never made in black, only chrome).

So, if it's likely a true Leica, why would a seller still claim it's a copy (a.k.a. fake)? Probably because the serial number points toward a different type of camera. Reasoning as the seller likely did: looks real but serial is wrong, must be copy or fake after all. Or, it could be a five-digit serial number, or even four-digit, dismissing it as a copy.

I'll take my chances and see if I can study and repair it's shutter mechanism. Maybe it just needs a CLA to get cracking again.
 
buzzardkid said:
I bought this for next to nothing. Was listed as a Leica copy. Not a clue on the serial number yet but I'm guessing it's a conversion and the number and camera don't 'add up'.

The lens was already sold and the curtains are thrashed. Guess this is going to be my first attempt at fixing curtains on a Leica.
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Johan,

Nice find - if you need any curtain material, let me know. I have some lovely rubberised Japanese silk that I got from John Goodman - very similar to the original material, and much thinner than the Aki Asaki or Microtools double-sided stuff.
 
buzzardkid said:
Was listed as a Leica copy. Not a clue on the serial number yet but I'm guessing it's a conversion and the number and camera don't 'add up'.

Guess this is going to be my first attempt at fixing curtains on a Leica.
Click to expand...

What makes you think it is a copy? Looks like a real Leica III to me, with a non-Leitz flash synch added.

Don't think too lightly on replacing the curtains. It is a hell of a job. It is better to give the camera to Mr Scherpenborg in Nijmegen. He'll replace the curtains for a very reasonable fee and he will check the other functions of the camera too.

Erik.
 
Well,

this is bit of a downer. I felt I was in for a huge deal. The camera and lens were listed together for EUR 100.00 but as it turned out the lens was already sold. The seller was real sorry and offered me the camera for EUR 25 😱 Of course I took the offer.

Turns out there was more wrong on his website so today a re-chromed and re-engraved FED arrived for EUR 25 including shipping. Obviously he had not only listed a camera and lens of which the lens was already sold, but also mixed up the photos that accompanied the sale...

Since the camera I now received is actually worth EUR 25 and I hardly can ask someone to sell me a camera which I know to be worth much more for EUR 25 after a mix-up, I'll just keep the re-chromed FED and try my luck on the shutter curtains.

But I sure am not gonna buy anymore from this shop. Last time I bought an M2 there and the shutter had pinholes. The seller was very helpful then. Now two more mistakes: three strikes he's out!
 
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