The M Mount

[ernesto]

This is a dream come true!
A standard mount shared by several of the best makers.

I wonder about the legal issues involved here... or perhaps the M mount is so old that it is a free design?

Ernesto

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

As I understand the situation the M mount was a Leica design which ran out of copyright and other camera makers are now using it.

 

[Tom A]

Leica had a patent on the M-mount and it did run out on Dec 31/1998. There were actually two patents, one for the product and one for the design. As the design patent was the oldest one and had run its 50 year run, once it lapsed it could not be renewed without a great deal of difficulty and rumour has it that Leica forgot about it and thought the patent applied to the M3 (which would have run out in 2004).
Konica had to hold of introducing the KM mount Hexar until Jan1 1999 as it would have been a legal issue if it had been released "officially" at Photokina 1998.

 

[Solinar]

The successor of the M3 was called the... M2 because it was the second M. Like the M3 it had three focal lengths frames (35, 50, 90).

You may know better - but I always thought the M2 designation was a convention carried over from the screw mount cameras. The M2 was the lesser priced alternative to the M3, as was the LTM II series to the III series Barnack's. Hence, the M1 - with no viewfinder or RF - was positioned below the M2 - similar to the Leica I series, a.k.a. the Standard.

 

[Highway 61]

Hence, the M1 - with no viewfinder or RF - was positioned below the M2 - similar to the Leica I series, a.k.a. the Standard.

The M1 did have a viewfinder.

It had no RF but its VF had projected brightlines for 35 and 50 lenses.

It was by no means a "lesser" camera. It was a special tool designed for use with a Visoflex or on microscopes/telescopes benches, for scientific applications.

 

[Solinar]

- Lesser priced - You are correct sans rangefinder. So why did Leica call it an M1? Because it was the first camera to be released after the M2?

 

[Roger Hicks]

- Lesser priced - You are correct sans rangefinder. So why did Leica call it an M1? Because it was the first camera to be released after the M2?

Leica I -- No RF

Leica II -- Speeds 1/20-1/500

Leica III -- Top of the line with all speeds 1-1/500 (1-1/1000 after IIIa)

M3 -- Top-of-the-line

M2 -- Cheaper, like II

M1 -- No RF

Cheers,

R.

 

[Highway 61]

How ironic then... That you should quote incorrect information. 😉

"Mess" (massnehmen) is measure; "Messer" is knife. 😀

http://www.dict.cc/german-english/Messsucher.html

How pityful then... that you should pull your informations off poor online dictionaries as well... 😀

- messen {verb} : to measure
- der Messer {common word, male} : the measurer ; the counter (Werkzeug)
- das Messen {common word, neutral} : the measure
- das Messer {common word, neutral} : the knife

Source : German dictionary by Pierre Grappin, ed. Larousse, pub 1986.

AFAIK Kurt Weil and Bertolt Brecht didn't meet Lotte Lenya at the Leitz Wetzlar factory.

😛

 

[Spider67]

Ok sorry to be such a smart ass as German is my "main language" (although as I am Austrian some friends from Germany may object that it's German at all)
"Messsucher" would mean literally something like "(distance) measuring viewfinder" something of a big leap from the screwmounts (although Contax already had it) it was producing until then. There are German collectors who deny the screwmounts the "Messsucher" epithet as VF and RF where separated. Oh lucky those who spoke English and are comfortable with the definition Rangefinder for all of them. A mere RF (spearte from the Camera was called in German "Entfernungsmesser" or sometimes "Distanzer" (pronounced "diss-tan'tser". So Messer for measuring instrument is a correct option. A person overly concerned with such hairsplitting details in German is sometimes referred to as "Beckmesser" (having its origin in Richard Wagners opera "Die Meistersinger")
And now "Habt euch lieb und alles wird gut!"
Regrads from Vienna/Austria (The city Hitler never was)