New member/Barnack Leica identification help

[splitimageview]

It's difficult to tell from the photos, but does the finish/feel/sheen of the top plate match the bottom, or is it somewhat different?

 

[gokullm]

It's difficult to tell from the photos, but does the finish/feel/sheen of the top plate match the bottom, or is it somewhat different?

From what I can tell, the top is more of a chrome and the bottom is more flat. A brass color is coming through on both.

http://imgur.com/gallery/BNPhPHM

 

[Rob-F]

IIIc stepper for sure, but the eyepieces...They don't look like Leitz at all. So someone has taken an unused top housing and modified it. Indeed the whole r/f inside will be like a III ...probably. That 'someone' must have been Leitz accredited to have the serial number engraved...so maybe factory.

I wonder, can you look through the camera OK or are these mods for some serious sort of eye defect and everything is out of focus?

They must have modified the original IIIc top plate, since it has the step. In that case it could be the correct original serial number. And then they could have added the bump--which looks like nice work! The mushroom cup on the shutter release isn't factory!

I wonder what the point was of doing all That?

 

[David Hughes]

...I wonder what the point was of doing all That?

The IIIc was a wartime camera and parts were not so readily available from Germany. In fact the IIIc never reached (meaning imported and sold in) Britain until long after the war apart from captured/liberated ones. So other cameras' parts were cannibalised to keep them all going and so on.

Some wartime camera magazines here had articles about captured IIIc's which they thought were IV's only Leitz stopped the Roman numbers at 3 for some reason I've never understood. (So you get the old and new (die cast) as variations of the III's, weird... It seems sensible to call the die cast versions IV's, but there you are.)

Anyway, that might explain how a IIIc became a unique Leica BITSA*.

Regards, David


* Cultural Note; the word BITSA is a corruption of "bits of this and bits of that" and was in widespread use once upon a time

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

* Cultural Note; the word BITSA is a corruption of "bits of this and bits of that" and was in widespread use once upon a time

Still in use in the classic car trade (weirdly not to customers, I wonder why?). Generally sold as original and unrestored!

 

[gokullm]

The IIIc was a wartime camera and parts were not so readily available from Germany. In fact the IIIc never reached (meaning imported and sold in) Britain until long after the war apart from captured/liberated ones. So other cameras' parts were cannibalised to keep them all going and so on.

Some wartime camera magazines here had articles about captured IIIc's which they thought were IV's only Leitz stopped the Roman numbers at 3 for some reason I've never understood. (So you get the old and new (die cast) as variations of the III's, weird... It seems sensible to call the die cast versions IV's, but there you are.)

Anyway, that might explain how a IIIc became a unique Leica BITSA*.

Regards, David


* Cultural Note; the word BITSA is a corruption of "bits of this and bits of that" and was in widespread use once upon a time

That is a very cool bit of history. Amazing to think all the lives this camera traded.