Quote:
Originally Posted by doubice
Not too many of these upgrades survived, particularly those done before the war - you have a relatively rare camera, in what appears to be very nice condition.
All the best,
Jan
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Dear Jan,
The most unusual upgrade is my "IIa". Yes I know; there never was such model, however have a look at the picture. The archivist at Solms looked at their records for me, which state "wurde übrigens am 18 Okt 1929 nach Frankfurt geliefert".
The camera has factory fitted flash synchronisation and the lens-cap is the style fitted to A36 lenses after 1951. The service department has been unable to locate its records of the period, so I am yet to find out what were the instructions for the upgrade and what was actually done. I also don't know whether it has a 46-215 "15er" or 46-216 "16er"shutter.
The strangest factor to my mind is the retention of the original uncoated 1929 lens cell and its installation in a chrome 1950s mount, rather than buying the latest "red-scale" lens. It is also the pre 1930 short Elmar as fitted to the Leica I prior to the recomputation and colour correction around 1930 when as a result the lens became a few millimetres longer.
As you can see from the condition, the camera had very little if any use after the upgrade. Maybe the owner died when he got the bill!