Leica LTM Which version ABLON is this?

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
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xavyr

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Among my photo stuff, I recently found this Leitz trimmer. Can anyone tell me what version of the ABLON this is? Thanks for your help!

 
From the photo, it looks like nickel-plated brass; if so, it's probably pre-war ?

If aluminum, post-war ?

Slightly educated guess on my part. All the generic ones I've seen are aluminum.
 
Thanks, Frank.

Yellowish cast in the cellphone photo is my fault; from the desk lamp!

Fairly modern-looking, marked with the logo & "E.LEITZ WETZLAR Germany";
inside, "Schichseite" "Coated side" "Cote' e'mulsionne'". Non-ferrous, though I can't say just what metal it is.
 
HOLY JUMPIN' CATFISH!

Just spent five minutes searching the 'net for info. about Ablon variants. Not much luck, but I cannot believe the prices people are actually fetching for these things
 
xavyr said:
And thank you, David. I had no idea of what sort of variants have been made.
Click to expand...

Hi,

It's difficult to nail down when it changed, some say 1938 but I just don't know for sure.

The later version had a the same curve at each end. As though just one cut was needed to make two from the metal. The trouble is that small items like this are seldom mentioned or illustrated at the time. Luckily ebay will show all the variations.

Regards, David
 
I tried the Prinz or similar variant that came with a bulk film loader from e-bay; I found it to be more trouble than I felt it is worth.

I'm content with my Revlon curved cuticle scissors. ;)
 
You need the arrow head end if you are loading Leica cassette. No way to make a proper point positioned properly in the dark.

If you want it to trim the end for the camera spool, count back 22 holes and use the scissors in your knife. Do not cut thru a sprocket hole
 
Thanks to all.

Hmmm. Looking through eBay open and closed items, I become ... more confused. I gather that it was last in Leitz's catalog in 1965 (?).

What's puzzling is that it looks so "new", and that its says "Germany", rather than "West Germany." Am I to infer that it was before the divide post WWII, or after reunification (by when it was supposedly long out of production), or did goods produced in the pre-reunification era sometimes just say "Germany"?

As to the construction, this example lacks the horizontal "slot" on the long side (the purpose of which I also cannot guess).
 
Hi,

I had a look in some old catalogues and these might help...

ABLON%201931-L.jpg


From the 1931 catalogue.

ABLON%201936-L.jpg


And from the 1936 catalogue; it's the same in the 1938 catalogue. The price then was 6/= (six shillings or UKP 0-30).

Trying to be exact about small or cheap Leitz parts from before the war is always difficult. The printing blocks were used after the models had changed and, although I've seen their "General Catalogue" for 1929, 31, 33, 36 and 38 the 1938 one is called edition four but I make that edition five.

It's easy to get your hands on these old catalogues, they often appear at various prices from nearly130 UK pounds for the 1929 one to pennies. Hove Foto Books also reprinted them and these vary in price as well. In general terms the reprints have "Catalogue for 1936" and so on on the cover. Dealers often confuse the two...

Looking in the 1960 code conversion index the ABLON is shown as No 14126E but has disappeared by the 1966 catalogue.

You'll also see trimmers made by R G Lewis, a famous dealer in London.

Regards, David
 
Ronald M said:
You need the arrow head end if you are loading Leica cassette. No way to make a proper point positioned properly in the dark.

If you want it to trim the end for the camera spool, count back 22 holes and use the scissors in your knife. Do not cut thru a sprocket hole
Click to expand...

I spent years waiting for a reasonably priced ABLON or Prinz template for years and gave up after a while. Toyed with the idea of making my own, how complicated can it be? But eventually I came up a technique I could replicate while watching TV and loading film in a dark bag.

I'd fold the film width-wise into half.. you can do it easily by getting to two end edges to touch, and quickly squeezing the center so that it forms a crease. Then the scissors comes and I'd estimate a 45deg angle starting from the crease. I get pretty good arrow point that works with IXMOOs and Nikon F/S canisters all the time.

And just like that, I've almost forgotten about ABLON till I saw this thread.
 
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