Uncommon, Rare, and Collector's Delights.

Vince Lupo said:
Okay I’ll play along — I mean what the heck.

A few things that I’ve posted on RFF over the years — first up is one of my two Ermanoxes. This one is supposedly ‘rarer’ because it’s the early version with the 100/2 Ernostar. Probably even more scarce are the two Rollex-Patent 127 roll film backs.

Ermanox and 127 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

The boy and his Ermanox by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

This is an odd one — It is a real Leica Standard and its serial number corresponds to the ‘official’ list of Luxus Leicas. Additionally I had the gold finish tested and it is in fact 24k gold plate. I have no idea who did the work — I seem to recall hearing the name of George (can’t recall his last name) out of Chicago who did cameras like this, but I can’t be certain. I actually got a phone call from Luigi Cane out of the blue some years ago and he wanted to talk with me about this camera. The camera is now long gone, but it was definitely a neat one to have.

Leica Standard by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Not necessarily rare, but definitely a ‘collector’s delight’. It took me quite a while to amass this Contaflex TLR kit and I used every bit of it. I had the camera completely overhauled and it worked beautifully (even the meter). Actually there is one ‘rare’ item in the mix here, and that’s the 28mm f/5.6 lens in the lower right of this photo. Someone converted the lens to work on this camera — it was a scale focus and it worked great. What I ended up doing for framing was to use a Zeiss 28mm finder and put it in a cold shoe that was screwed into the tripod socket of the camera. So I had to use the camera upside down. Worked just fine that way. The kit was ultimately sold to a collector in South Korea some years ago. A super-duper kit that I unfortunately couldn’t justify keeping.

cont1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

This was a nice lens — a SOOZI Summicron. Supposedly they only made 550 of them. It was the early days of the M-mount and what Leitz did was to glue an M mount onto a screwmount lens. If you’re lucky and the glue has deteriorated enough, you can easily pry it off without resorting to using heat. The M mount on mine came right off and it worked great on both my screwmount and M-mount bodies. With the hood and caps I paid $400 for it.

soozi2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
soozi4 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
soozi1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
K19 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Finally, here is one of those KEH ‘bargains’ that I got a number of years ago when they were asleep at the switch (ah how I miss those days!). It was advertised as a ‘Leica IIIcK repainted black’ for $600. No picture on the website, so I bought it sight-unseen. This is what showed up:

K1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
K10 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
K19 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Yup, was a IIIcK repaint, but look at what else it says — FL 38079. So not only was it a IIIcK but it was a Luftwaffe IIIcK. For $600. Hmm okay.
Click to expand...

Excellent selection. I remember when you had the Contaflex. The closest I've come is a 5cm/2 Sonnar that was originally in Contaflex mount & re-mounted for Contax RF; probably my best rigid 5cm/2 Sonnar.
 
What is the market value for this camera, Vince?

"Yup, was a IIIcK repaint, but look at what else it says — FL No. 38079. So not only was it a IIIcK but it was a Luftwaffe IIIcK. For $600. Hmm okay.Yup, was a IIIcK repaint, but look at what else it says — FL No. 38079. So not only was it a IIIcK but it was a Luftwaffe IIIcK. For $600. Hmm okay."
 
raid said:
What is the market value for this camera, Vince?

"Yup, was a IIIcK repaint, but look at what else it says — FL No. 38079. So not only was it a IIIcK but it was a Luftwaffe IIIcK. For $600. Hmm okay.Yup, was a IIIcK repaint, but look at what else it says — FL No. 38079. So not only was it a IIIcK but it was a Luftwaffe IIIcK. For $600. Hmm okay."
Click to expand...

Well I don’t know how the market is right now for these cameras, as I sold most all of them a number of years ago. For the IIIcK for example, I paid $600 and sold it for $2000 in less than 24 hours after having received it. I’m sure even at that price it was a bargain. For the Contaflex, it’s a bit hard to say what I paid for everything as I bought it all over an extended period of time, plus paying $600 for the overhaul. I sold the entire kit for $6k about 10-12 years ago, so who knows what that all would fetch today. I don’t know about that gold Leica as we never did figure out the complete story of it (although I seem to recall that I only made a few hundred dollars profit on it). I wish I remember what George’s last name was, maybe some of the more knowledgeable Leica folks here might know. As far as the Ermanox goes, fortunately that’s one camera that I have and won’t be selling (promise!). Broken ones are over $3k, and then figure a bunch of money for a total overhaul, as they all need one.
 
pixelated said:
Not a camera or lens, but more or less related. A few years ago, I bought a random collection of machinists guage blocks in an estate auction.
These were part of the collection.
Click to expand...

Regardless of not being a camera or lens - that is way cool.
Thanks for showing!
 
TenEleven said:
Regardless of not being a camera or lens - that is way cool.
Thanks for showing!
Click to expand...

These things are cool. I did not even know such things existed until about a week ago I was watching a Youtube video about a precision wood worker who was setting up his saw table to cut some joints. I don't recall the specifics right now but at one point he had to make a cut precisely 3/8th of an inch in from the edge of the wood for a tenon or something of that sort. He did this by taking a 3/8th gauge such as those you have shown and moved the saw table's fence in till that 3/8th gauge was pressed against the edge of the circular saw. Instant accuracy! As he noted, this is both much quicker and much more accurate than measuring with a ruler. I immediately thought 'I think I need some of those." 😛
 
mconnealy said:
p.giannakis said:
A Voigtlander Brillant V6 Focusing with a Heliar 75f/3.5

Always wanted one of those. I wonder how similar is the Russian Lomo copy?
Click to expand...

I had also a Lubitel and in all honesty I preferred the Lubitel. The retaining ring of the taking lens would always become slightly loose and the gear teeth between the taking and viewing lens would come off alignment. It constantly needed calibrating- I never saw the benefits of the Heliar. Maybe the bakelite was becoming brittle or something - never had this problem with the Lubitel.

Having said all this, my old Rolleicord Ia with an uncoated Triotar is by far my favourite user TLR (and I had a yashicamat and an Ikoflex with Tessar lenses too).
Click to expand...
 
dexdog said:
Vince, that is an impressive collection!
Click to expand...

Well it was — all gone now except for the Ermanoxes (I now have two), plus I have a number of stereo and glass plate cameras. Not sure if they’re either rare or ‘collector’s delights’.

A couple more from the good old days…

A Luftwaffe IIIc with a black MOOLY-C motor. I think they only made a few hundred MOOLY-C’s, can’t recall offhand the delivery date of the IIIc. Cool thing is I paid $400 for the motor at the time.


FL3 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Hugo Meyer Megoflex — turns your Leica into a TLR! Pretty neat item which I didn’t use very much. It’s affixed to a very shiny chrome Standard C — another one of those weird KEH sight-unseen ‘bargain’ purchases.


Megoflex by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Stereoly attachment for screw mount Leicas. Supposedly this is the last version — not sure how ‘rare’ it is.


stereoly10 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
My father had one, it is long ago, to take stereo pictures. I remember results. He sold it, because the portrait format is/was not optimal for stereo pictures.
 
Final Version 4x5 5x7 TLR Sinar Norma by Nokton48, on Flickr
  • This is my final version of the 4x5/9x12 and also 5x7/13x18 Twin Lens Reflex Sinar Norma. Very new in the front is Riser Rods which I made from some excess Norma Riser Rods, I cut them down with my Lil' Machine Shop Band Saw, then flipped them over, and inserted a bolt (also cut with Band Saw). So now I have a custom made "Shorty Riser Rod Set" which is perfect for my uses. I went through my Normas and selected the best pieces, and put them together for a really tight working and smooth Norma which I will leave set up permanently in my studio.

    The new lens matching pair I have been looking at on and off for six months. It's a matching set of 360mm Schneider Tele-Xenars" same vintage. It took a while to find cheaply a second barrel lens, the flanges I got stock from SK Grimes. The Top Hats came from China (Wista clones) which I cut down with Electric Coping Saw and a LOT of hand filing. Then 32 holes drilled with drill press to hold the hobby modeling nuts and bolts, and steel metric machine bolts to secure the lenses. It took a while to cut and fit the TOP Hats to the flat Norma Boards, which needed some extra holes plugged firstly.

    Now it just needs final finishing; shortening the hobby bolts, and touch up color front, and Flat Black Krylon Back. So this one took a good while but good to have it in the arsenal
300mm F4.5 Xenar matched pair TLR Norma by Nokton48, on Flickr

Here's another Norma TLR matched pair which has taken a lot of time to finish. 300mm F4.5 chrome Schneider Xenars, I had a couple of Norma 300mm Symmar Tophats which I neatly removed with electric coping saw, then attached to flat Norma boards with hobby brass modeling screws. Xenars are attached to the tophats for now, with Hollywood Gaffer Tape (LOL!) Eventually I may have SK Grimes machine custom Xenar Cones on their CNC machines. All this pair needs is final painting with flat black Krylon, on the exterior of the cones, as they have some marks to cover up, from when I drill pressed the cones. Good enough for now. This set is excellent for 5x7/13x18 and 8x10/18x24 head shots, a classic for this type of photo job
 
Some years ago I bid on a poorly photographed black Leica Standard on Ebay that appeared to have a rough looking Elmar. The camera turned out as expected but the lens didn't. It was particularly rare Anastigmat that had been standardised at some point. Shame it had lost touch with its camera. Anyway, I used it for a film (seemed to perform in a similar way to an old Elmar) and sent it to auction in Vienna. Here it is in the auction catalogue.

It kept me in beer money for some years.

anastigmat003.jpg

Yes, there was a time when one could take risks with poorly described stuff on Ebay and come out of it OK...no longer I fear...
 
Not 'rare' per se; the 5cm Summitar is quite common, but this example is #341 of the first production run. Although the Summitar was officially introduced in 1939, this lens from the factory records lens serial numbers is 1938. The earliest example I've come across. What makes it more unusual is that this lens has the famous Leitz blue/purple lens coatings of the 1950s/60s. At some time in that period it was sent to Wetzlar for an overhaul and given the 'full treatment.' Very nice optical quality, sharp with character, flare resistant, but also a 'vintage' look with natural color. The dedicated Summitar filter is kind of unique too, came in the original 1930s red box, Leica N.Y. Type A (light orange), heavy brass/chrome, and has the grooved side grip but also a front retaining ring worked grip.
 

Attachments

  • early 5cm Summitar.jpeg
    early 5cm Summitar.jpeg
    279.8 KB · Views: 3
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom