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Fontenelle archives 7 : UR-PLOOT follow-up


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When investigating, years ago, about the PLOOT prototype presented here earlier, I received from a French collector the seven photos included, of what could well have been the next step between "my" prototype and the first commercialised PLOOT. It is interesting to note that the piece came with a pre-production 20 cm Telyt, probably lended for tests to the French rep Tyranty.

Some details to be noted : the body is still much more "cubic" than on the final PLOOT (and very similar to the one appearing in several early Leitz literature), still no strap eyelets but the release button is now to its "normal" side, and there are two IDENTICAL tripod bushes in the base. As for this last point, my guess is that the front one seved for heavier assemblies (a projected 400 mm?) and the rear one for the Telyt 20 cm.

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I'm not convinced this was made by Leica. The machining looks like a basement job. From a competant machinist, but not a master that you would find at Leica making prototypes. There is no rectangular mask at the camera end that I can see. The eye-piece may have been lifted from a PLOOT. There are a lot of PLOOT clones out there.

 

I'ld like to hear other thoughts.

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I'm not convinced this was made by Leica. The machining looks like a basement job. From a competant machinist, but not a master that you would find at Leica making prototypes. There is no rectangular mask at the camera end that I can see. The eye-piece may have been lifted from a PLOOT. There are a lot of PLOOT clones out there.

 

I'ld like to hear other thoughts.

 

I share the same feeling... there is something "un-Leitz" in machining details, shape, surface finishings... even for a prototype, a bit too much roughness

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The UR PLOOT is an absolutely exquisit piece. The production PLOOT is built to the normal standard for the day. This interim piece wouldn't get Leica anywhere from UR to production. Also the left side panel don't seem to be removable,

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The UR PLOOT is an absolutely exquisit piece. The production PLOOT is built to the normal standard for the day. This interim piece wouldn't get Leica anywhere from UR to production. Also the left side panel don't seem to be removable,

 

You are probably right. I just quoted the French collector who sent me the photos, and the former Tiranty rep who confirmed that the associated Telyt 20 cm pre-series had well been leased for tests in 1934.

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