Unidentified Leica Equipment

[casc]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I am trying to identify a piece of equipment I have found . Please see photos attached. There is a Leica lens mount on the top, two dials are branded Carl Mahr Esslingen. This is the only text I can find apart from what is possibly a serial number that is on the unit (which is extremely heavy around 14kg!) and the wooden box it came in.

 

Any information of what it is /used for and indication of age would be fantastic.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited October 17, 2014 by casc
Photos did not upload

[DigitalHeMan]

I don't think this is necessarily a Leica product. Carl Mahr make measuring devices, and the dial in the photo is a dial gauge for measuring thickness/distance. The Leica lens mount looks like a standard LTM to M adapter.

 

My guess (and it is only a guess) is that this might be some sort of collimator that may have been used for Leica rangefinder adjustment - the mirror attachment may have been used to enable precise distance focusing at known distances.

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[luigi bertolotti]

Welcome to the Forum !!!

The above hipotesis is surely very next to reality : it has undoubtly a Leica thread mount, and also a M bayonet adapter (probably original) fitted onto... then there is a movable vertical assembly whose movement (probably) can be precisely read from the Mahr gage/indicator fitted in front (a Mahr device that is familiar to people who know calipers... there are thousands around Europe). All in all, I speculate that it can measure precisely the step/inclination of a lens' rangefinder cam : a device for photo (Leica) repairing / adjusting labs : fine device to have for a passionate.

 

Just for further investigation... would be interesting to see a clear picture of the indicator' scale(s) : maybe they are not simply in millimeters and fractions of, but "customized" for the measures taken by the instrument... (if my hipotesis is true, there would be the way to relate the measured distance with an angle of rotation)

Edited October 18, 2014 by luigi bertolotti

[casc]

I'll try to get a close up picture of the dials and post. Thanks for responding

 

regards

cas

[casc]

I don't think this is necessarily a Leica product. Carl Mahr make measuring devices, and the dial in the photo is a dial gauge for measuring thickness/distance. The Leica lens mount looks like a standard LTM to M adapter.

 

My guess (and it is only a guess) is that this might be some sort of collimator that may have been used for Leica rangefinder adjustment - the mirror attachment may have been used to enable precise distance focusing at known distances.

Thanks for responding . I am enjoying researching this piece of equipment

 

regards

 

cas

[casc]

Hi I have added a couple of photos of the dials as requested regards cas

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[luigi bertolotti]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

THANKS !!! The 2nd one is VERY interesting... and it would take time to interpretate it... ), because from a quick view seems to have referenced also the DISTANCE SCALE of lenses (see the infinity symbol...)

[luigi bertolotti]

Looking well at the indicator... I do confirm my hipotesis in post #3 : the indicator clearly has a special ring in which are written the typical distances (in meters and feet - to 1m / 3'4', apparently') that are engraved on Leitz lenses : the instrument is registered / zeroed so that when a calibrated lens focused at infinity is mounted, the indicator's needle points to infinity; then, rotating the lens' focus ring, the instrument gauges the rangefinder's cam step... it measures a distance (typical job of Mahr's calipers... ) which is read on the indicator as the corresponding distance to which the lens is focused at : of course, if the lens is ok (to say, its rangefinder cam is correctly stepped and mounted) the distance on the indicator must match the distance one can read on the lens' scale.

 

Just to be a little pedantic, indeed it seems to me that some feet distances, written on the indicator, ar not tyipically engraved on Leitz lenses.... but can be wrong...

Edited October 21, 2014 by luigi bertolotti

[casc]

Grazie Luigi

 

It is certainly a mystery! Any thoughts on age? My guess is 1950's, 1960's but could be way out

 

thanks

cas

[luigi bertolotti]

More 60's than 50's in my opinion... based on the "graphics" of the indicators...

[wlaidlaw]

For checking the grind on the rangefinder cam? What a lovely bit of equipment. Some of the older people in the lens department at Wetzlar might recognise it.

 

Wilson

[casc]

Thanks Wilson

 

It is a well made, fascinating piece of equipment and incredibly heavy

 

Is Wetzar the Befort Wetzlar company? I found a website Befort Wetzlar Is this who you mean?

 

cheers

 

cas

[DigitalHeMan]

Thanks Wilson

 

 

 

It is a well made, fascinating piece of equipment and incredibly heavy

 

 

 

Is Wetzar the Befort Wetzlar company? I found a website Befort Wetzlar Is this who you mean?

 

 

 

cheers

 

 

 

cas

 

 

No, Wetzlar is where the Leica HQ is based....

[wlaidlaw]

I have to admit that I would be surprised if such a sophisticated piece of equipment was resident at old Leica. I always assumed that the RF cam checking was done by an elderly man in a brown overall, with a wooden ruler

 

The same level of technology as the bedsheet with the cross on it, that used to hang up at the end of the lens assembly building, for Mr. Magoo to check focus with.

 

Wilson

[luigi bertolotti]

For checking the grind on the rangefinder cam? What a lovely bit of equipment. Some of the older people in the lens department at Wetzlar might recognise it.

 

Wilson

 

Indeed, so heavy and "stable" as it looks, it could have been an instrument inside the production department of Wetzlar, in the final Quality Control office...

[casc]

I am still trying to find out where the extra piece fits and why so heavy and with a dedicated box?

 

Would it have been a portable equipment to taken from location to location. Could it have been for military use?

 

cheers

 

cas

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Cas,

 

Welcome to the Forum.

 

It MIGHT be that the additional weight is to more quickly damp the vibrations created while using the meter. Time is money.

 

Similar to when a person adds a heavy weight to an otherwise light tripod & waits for a minute or so after everything is set up & done before releasing the shutter. The additional weight is added so they don't have to wait even longer to damp the internal vibrationns.

 

The additional weight might also be for additional strength for the long term durability of the instrument which needs to repeatedly make accurate fine differentiations any number of times during every workday.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[pop]

I think the mirror is there to let the operator observe the two dials at the same time. Am I mistaken or are the numbers on the dial within the apparatus printed so that they can be read in the mirror?

 

The instrument within the apparatus seems to measure the position of the arm which couples the lens to the range finder. The axis of the upper (horizontally arranged) instrument appears to be tangential to the lens mount. I think it might serve to sense the rotational position of some part of the lens, possibly the optical assembly. If so, the device possibly might be used to adjust the optical elements within the barrel to the proper distance from the film plane.

 

It's all iffy, of course, since the innards of the apparatus can not be discerned.

[casc]

Yes the numbers on the dial are reversed (mirror image) so they can be read in the mirror only

 

 

regards

 

cas

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[stuny]

Philipp -

 

This is far from the first time you've impressed me. Well done.