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  • 2 weeks later...

Another one:

 

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I was long looking for a affordable Leica I and I found this one. It works quite well, but the Hektor is not so good.

 

Yours sincerely

Thomas

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  • 2 months later...

Hello, nice thread here. Here's my Leica III with serial number from 1934. With it is an early 11 o'clock Elmar 5cm f3.5 in nickel with no serial number. Most likely from 1931.

 

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and here is my IIIF with Elmar 50 f2.8

 

 

Grant

Edited by tenoates
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Leica If

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Bill,

 

Would not the original purpose of the ABLON, at the time it was designed, have been to provide the correct leader shape for film strips when cut from bulk rolls and loaded into Leica cassettes. After all, I don't think it was until the Kodak introduced the Retina camera that the disposable 135 cassette appeared in 1934. I still just remember my father using a daylight loader on Leica and Contax cassettes from bulk film, in I would guess 1950/51. 135 film was not particularly common in the north of Scotland until I would guess the mid 50's. Most chemists only kept 120, 127, 620 and maybe 616. My father used to bring Kodachrome 135's back from J. Lizars, on visits to Aberdeen.

 

Wilson

Not sure that daylight is pretty common in the North of Scotland, either. Back on track, my IIIf came to me in moment of EBay madness with a 50mm f1.5 which I am still trying to find filters for. Later, more EBay madness brought the little 35mm f3.5. Now the camera is with me always, and I think it is a wonderful thing. The Vulcanite is falling off, and I have a new skin from Cameraleather to put on when I have a chance. Otherwise it functions perfectly.

 

A great little camera!, and not to be underestimated because of its age!:):)

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Not sure that daylight is pretty common in the North of Scotland, either. Back on track, my IIIf came to me in moment of EBay madness with a 50mm f1.5 which I am still trying to find filters for. Later, more EBay madness brought the little 35mm f3.5. Now the camera is with me always, and I think it is a wonderful thing. The Vulcanite is falling off, and I have a new skin from Cameraleather to put on when I have a chance. Otherwise it functions perfectly.

 

A great little camera!, and not to be underestimated because of its age!:):)

 

I am afraid my IIF sits unused for the most part. For film cameras, I tend to use mainly my M4 plus occasional use of my Contax IIA-CD and Rolleiflex Planar 3.5E. The IIF is a very neat little camera but the Sonnar on the Contax is so much better than the "cheap" hex diaphragm Summitar on my IIF, that it really is no contest. The Summitar gives rather odd colour rendition on modern colour negative film, with over saturated blues. Maybe it would be better with a UV filter, so I tend to stick to B&W with it. The Sonnar does not seem to suffer from this. Funnily enough my father found the same thing in the 1950's with that same Summitar and as a result, stuck to using his Summar, which he had coated. I am often tempted to get a collapsible Summicron, which is much better than the Summitar but with the Sonnar, do I really need it.

 

Wilson

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I have an uncoated 3.5 Elmar, which is very sharp but also gives 'unusual' colour rendering compared to the 2.8 version

looks a bit like some of the older colour neg films like

agfacolor

Gerry

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I have an uncoated 3.5 Elmar, which is very sharp but also gives 'unusual' colour rendering compared to the 2.8 version

looks a bit like some of the older colour neg films like

agfacolor

Gerry

Gerry,

 

My Summitar is coated so it should be OK. Maybe it's just a Friday one. Just the luck of the draw. I have a fantastic 35 ASPH Summliux, with none of the common issues with this lens, near field back focus, aperture shift and colour haloing, so it all balances out.

 

Wilson

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Gerry,

 

It must be significant that just after my Summitar was made in 1953, Leica brought out the Summicron. They must have recognised that the Summitar was now inadequate for the colour films, appearing in quantity in the early 1950's. In the late 1940's and early 1950's my father used to get most of his Kodachrome from US business visitors bringing a few rolls over with them. I think the first time I ever used colour was when I was 14 years old with my Reid II, on my first trip overseas to Italy in 1960. I think I am right in saying the Summitar is in essence an updated Summar, which in turn I think is a Taylor Hobson-ish design dating from the late 1920's.

 

Wilson

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Thanks Wilson, All these older lenses designed with monochrome in mind presumably, I must try a coated 3.5 Elmar sometime in comparison!

 

Gerry

 

Actually the Summitar was designed with colour film in mind. Mine is a 1950 10-blade aperture coated version which is incredibly good on negative and slides.

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Yes, that was hasty, in retrospect I knew that the faster lenses were for colour, starting with the Agfa system. I stated with 10 ASA Kodachrome and 3.5 was rather limiting, especially as it was a Retina with a Xenar.

 

Gerry

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Actually the Summitar was designed with colour film in mind. Mine is a 1950 10-blade aperture coated version which is incredibly good on negative and slides.

 

In that case the end of term school report might have read "must do better". As I said, my only experience is with my 6 blade model and it is not good on colour and has not been since it was new. My 1950 coated Elmar 50/3.5 is better. If I can find where I have put some of the very colour films I have taken with it, I will scan and post an example.

 

Wilson

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I found some colour shots taken with my IIF and Hex Summitar. The film is Fujicolor 200. You can see there is a bit of flare at the bottom right, as I was not using a hood like I should have been. The colour is typical of what I get from the Summitar with various films and is far from inspiring. Now I have not tried with a UV filter, which may be one of the issues causing the bluish cast. As I use the IIF almost exclusively now with Rollei Retro 80 B&W film or Tri-X, I probably will not bother.

 

Wilson

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  • 1 month later...

Yes, here I am.

I became a Leica IIF for my bachelor (Rotterdam) in 1959 with an Elmar 3.5. I believe, my father started with a IF, later on the IIF was upgraded to a IIIF, due to my master exam (Delft).

The camera is still in a good condition. It was long in the cupboard, because I switched to an EOS in 1982.

 

Last year I have bought a 12mm Heliar. Three films went through.

Now I have the Ricoh M-mount. Digital, I am an electrical engineer, after all. The Heliar herewith delivers a 18mm, that is very wide too.

 

I use a Canon 28/2.8 as a standard lens. My parents gave me an Elmar 90 too. Further I own a Canon 135mm/3.5 (the heavy first version) and I am looking for an adapter to adapt my Telyt 500 R mirror lens to the Ricoh.

Jan

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Three of my favorites, although two of them are not screw mount cameras!

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Edited by mckay3d
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  • 3 months later...

An elderly friend gave me his 1950s Leicas this week, after he found out I had a small collection. A Ic, two IIIf bodies, and a 1955 M3, with a few LTM lenses including a 1939 Summitar, 1937 Elmar 90, 1950 Elmar 50, 1953 Summaron 3.5, and a Nikkor 135 f3.5. They have haze, but lens surfaces are good. Also had a Tokyo Kogaku 50 Elmar clone in bad shape. They've all been in storage a LONG time, all need new shutter curtains, but the range/viewfinders are all good. The 1c has lost nearly all the vulcanite and is missing the bottom plate.

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The IIIf red-dial is interesting, as it has the serial number from a 1936 IIIa. I assume it was sent in for "upgrading" and the same serial kept so the customer wouldn't have to pay full import duties, as the serial number would match what he had sent it for "repair."

This should keep my repair bench busy for a while...

Edited by TomB_tx
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