Leica LTM Show off your Leica I/II/III/LTM Camera

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
Yup, 'spares or repairs' has worked for me too. It is a 'barn find' mentality.

The behaviour of bidders on Ebay has become increasingly odd. Not that they don't pay or anything like that, just that they will buy absolute junk if you hit the right note.
 
I saw this camera somewhere on the internet. I immediatly fell in love. It has something very special. Do you see it?

Erik.

50321908057_d88acf68b9_c.jpg
 
Shac, the beginner, guessed it. He is talented.

Strap lugs on a Leica II are really rare. Not rare on the post-war remade Leica II's, but these have always the ugly, immutable slow speed cover.

On pre-war II's original (nickel or chrome) straplugs are very rare.

It is difficult to guess why that is. Perhaps because in Leitz's eyes the Leica II was an amateur camera that was always in an ever-ready case. But that is strange, because before the war Leicas, including the Leica III, were practically always amateur cameras. Professionals worked on large format.

Erik.
 
This is surely the rare brown Leica for use in a smoke filled koffie huis?

Maybe they just wanted to emphasis as many differences as they could between II and III to justify the significant difference in cost.

Somewhere I have the 1935 catalogue with price list...somewhere...
 
Hmmm

This is from the the Negretti & Zambra (remember them?) catalogue dated August 1933. Three things stand out for me:

Black and chrome is offered for an extra £1.4s.0d on the II and III

Bottom of page 28 offers strap lugs for your II

Difference between same spec II LYKUP and III LYMAR much less than I thought, £3.0s.0d

1933511 by dralowid, on Flickr
 
Mr_Flibble said:
Looks like a Factory upgrade. Not a 3rd party one.
Click to expand...

I think it is a very early upgrade, a customer wish. No nickel was used on Leicas after the Anschlüß because nickel was in Germany essential for the "defense" industry.

Thank you Michael for submitting the brochure. At the bottom of page 28: "(...) can be carried out (...) the fixing of metal eyelets at the sides, as in the Model III".

But it was hardly ever done on prewar Leica II's. People who wanted them choose for an upgrade into Model III I guess.

Erik.
 
The cover for the rangefinder looks different to me. But it can be the photo angle and I am not very knowledgeable. Only ever owned my IIIf
 
Although from one of the main London dealers the brochure was printed in Germany. I am sure we could find examples of it in a number of languages, it would only require a single plate change to achieve this using exactly the same layout etc.

Thus Leitz would be able to maintain a common standard across the whole export operation.
 
Although from one of the main London dealers the brochure was printed in Germany. I am sure we could find examples of it in a number of languages, it would only require a single plate change to achieve this using exactly the same layout etc.

Thus Leitz would be able to maintain a common standard across the whole export operation.
 
besk said:
The cover for the rangefinder looks different to me. But it can be the photo angle and I am not very knowledgeable. Only ever owned my IIIf
Click to expand...

The earliest Model II cameras had a different housing. It looks a bit like a lavatory seat: under the speed knob it is rounded, half a circle. Later models provided space for the slow-speed mechanism, so they looked different, more angular.

Erik.
 
We should take the illustrations on the pages I have just posted as 'artist's impressions'. To my knowledge there was never a lavatory bowl III like the one illustrated. Also, on another page, a lavatory bowl II in chrome is illustrated. Something I have never seen.

Someone was saving money...
 
Interesting...thanks for posting the Negretti catalog info. :) Inflation calculator says £22 is 1500+ in today’s money.
 
And here, just to prove that my memory is going to bits, is a picture of a a camera I used to have. It has ended up as a black IIIa with a lavatory bowl style moulding. It has been suggested that it might have been a Mortimer Street Special but who knows?

If nothing else it shows that the slow speed shutter does fit in the early moulding.

The camera? It was a melange of bits, some II some III. How one arrives at a moulding that has both diopter and lavatory seat I know not.

Despite a detailed description I sold it to someone who gave me the impression that he was not particularly happy with it.

Ah well...

IMG_1214 by dralowid, on Flickr
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom