Search the Community

There is a Vidom article on this camera model which I had translated recently for LHSA Viewfinder - has yet to appear. I bought a Korelle K around the same time and it had a Leitz 5cm for a Nagel in the Compur mount, which was incorrect. Recently I came across the correct Leitz Elmar 3.5cm lens on EBay. The lens has its own tiny aperture scale and can be focussed independently of the Compur mount. It is much smaller than the 3.5 cm Elmar for LTM. The bidding for the lens was fierce, as we are talking about hen’s teeth here. I lost out in the bidding but the seller came back to me afterwards as the winner did not want to buy at the closing price. I negotiated with the seller and got about 200 Euro knocked off the winning bid. It fits in the Compur mount, but the camera and shutter need a CLA from my guy here in Dublin, who is great at this type of work. Both Jim Lager and Lars Netopil were amazed that I found this. Jim has only seen and photographed one and Lars has only seen the one in the Vidom article. It is great as a collector to find something as rare as this. There were 200 SNs for the lens, but the number I have actually seen online is only in single figures. The Leitz lens option was late arriving and most people seem to have taken Zeiss or Schneider options. Most people would think that this is weird, but for a collector these things are a big event as they come along so rarely. The luck of the Irish in this case, I think. The Leitz lens was advertised as being available in 3 sizes, 3.5 cm for which 200 SNs were assigned, but only a handful have been seen. The 5cm of which none have been seen and the 7.5cm model of which only one seems to exist and that is now in the Leica Museum. I would love to hear from anyone else who has one with a Leitz lens. William

I'm looking for a small lens for my Leica M240 (preferably a 35mm lens). I came across the Leitz Elmar 3.5cm, anyone use the Leitz Elmar 3.5cm on a digital M body? how does it render? Thanks.