working Ur-Leica?

[mickjazz]

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Ambro

 

Just read the other UR thread on the zeiss kino which was a cine lens. Beautiful images on slow film.

[Ambro51]

Thanks!!!!!! It’s truly a labor of Love. The UR is, and was, an amazing camera, it’s a delight to make it work. OK, the Zeiss Kino Tessar was made for the early wooden hand crank movie cameras in 35 mm (18x24) format. Barnack used this type lens on his metal Cine Camera, you can see a film he done on YouTube, “High Water in Wetzlar). The UR weighs as much as any Leica A or Standard. It feels “smaller” but very heavy for its size. I think it is the best balanced Leica I’ve held.

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[mickjazz]

Ambro

 

Have you ever compared your UR camera with the null 0 series that were sold by Leitz ?

[Ambro51]

It would tell us nothing. The reformulated Leitz Anastigmat on the Null Series replicas is one of the finest 50mm lenses ever made. I do however intend to do comparison photos from the UR/Zeiss and a Model 1A with its uncoated Elmar. George has gotten astonishing images with his UR, with an uncoated Leitz 42mm Mikro Summar lens. He posted many photos on this thread.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Ambro51

[Ambro51]

I heard from George today, he picked up my UR #80, Mr. Kim had a Lot of trouble due to internal workmanship (rather, lack of it), he was “glad to send the toothache off”. Nevertheless the camera is now with George as he heads for the Leica event in Wetzlar. He is scheduled to do a PowerPoint talk Thursday at 3. Below are a few “after” shots. Note the film advance gearing, far different from the Barnack belt system! Also, Mr. Kim devised a far more precise pressure plate! The Big Great Thing Here is George is going to take the cameras first pictures in Wetzlar!

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[Ambro51]

Heard from George, who is in Wetzlar right now. He gave two presentations on the working UR, and generally enjoying the event and activities. I would really like to Thank him for this visit he paid to the resting place of Herr Barnack. Here we se my camera #80 in the presence of its designer....Amazing, and no doubt a dose of Good Karma!

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[willeica]

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I took the photo above with a Leica lens on a Huawei P20 and sent it to George. I subsequently showed it to Jim Lager who had told us earlier at George’s presentation that he believed that a second Ur Leica does not exist. I told Jim that we had been to Oskar’s grave and had discovered the second Ur Leica. On a more serious note, the Leica Archives are developing nicely and will develop further as Leica intend to put considerable resources into preserving their heritage.

 

William

[hoglundtw]

#Ambro51 - wow - what a great birthing event for your new working Ur Leica!

[hoglundtw]

I've made some progress on getting my Ur Leica working.  Been busy at work so it's been slow. As I last posted, I had broken the spring on the roller that provides tension for the shutter.  It was too weak to roll the shutter when the shutter release was pressed and I kept winding it a bit tighterand trying it and then winding it tighter until it finally broke. Here's the broken original roller (left) next to the donor roller.

  

I took the spring roller from the donor camera and use a Dremel tool to cut the shaft to the precise length I needed to fit in the Ur Leica. Then per Ambro51's advice, stuck the shaft into the chuck of my drill to turn it into a makeshift lathe.  With the shaft spinning in the drill, I applied pressure to the last 2mm of the shaft with a fine grained file and was able to reduce the diameter of that portion of the shaft to be small enough to fit into the hole at the top of the camera as the original did.

 

The top of the donor shaft was left hand threaded and larger in diameter than the right hand threads of the original shaft, so it wouldn't nicely screw in the bracket that holds it. I drilled out the hole in the bracket to be slightly smaller than the donor shaft threads, then bought a cheap tap wrench from Amazon and found a cheap left handed 2.5mm tap on eBay and tapped the left handed threads into the hole. This is now working fine.

 

The last step will be to install that assembly in the camera and wind the roller enough to provide the correct tension to release the shutter but not enough to break it like the original.  The donor roller has  lot more inherent tension in the spring so I think I'll be alright. Once I complete this, I will post a complete series of steps on my blog with pictures.

Edited October 6, 2018 by hoglundtw

[hoglundtw]

I wanted to post another pic of the hand drawing I made of how to machine the roller, but it won't let me add another picture to the album I've been using. "Error You are not permitted to upload any more items into this album" Is there a limit of 10 pics per album?  And I can no longer find a way to create a fourth album. Is there a limit on how many albums one can have? I have searched help and can't find it.  The software this forum uses is pretty outdated by modern standards and the menu system is extremely confusing, even for someone like me that makes a living creating web sites for customers.   

[willeica]

My article about the LHSA visit to Wetzlar includes some details about George Furst's working Ur-Leica replica which was presented and on display at the event.

http://macfilos.com/photo/2018/10/18/lhsa-meeting-in-wetzlar-cruising-down-the-rhine-and-losing-my-heart-in-heidelberg

George has an enthusiasm which is infectious. I nearly felt like starting on my own replica when I got home.

William

[Ambro51]

The “birthing” of a working UR, and how it becomes a “real camera”, instead of a shelf display, is a Beautiful thing. It’s addictive, highly addictive.  A tiny thing, it fits your pocket perfectly.  The cameras George had represent Many Hours of precision work by a highly skilled technician.  His Art is hidden inside...where we cannot see it.  But, in another way, art is the concealment of effort.  And, great effort was made to put true Leica precision into the UR camera George had.

[frame-it]

very nice..

and  by the way Mr. Kim's daughter is now learning about camera repair from him, she seems to have a keen interest in continuing his work

6 hours ago, Ambro51 said:

The “birthing” of a working UR, and how it becomes a “real camera”, instead of a shelf display, is a Beautiful thing. It’s addictive, highly addictive.  A tiny thing, it fits your pocket perfectly.  The cameras George had represent Many Hours of precision work by a highly skilled technician.  His Art is hidden inside...where we cannot see it.  But, in another way, art is the concealment of effort.  And, great effort was made to put true Leica precision into the UR camera George had.

 

[frame-it]

7 hours ago, willeica said:

My article about the LHSA visit to Wetzlar includes some details about George Furst's working Ur-Leica replica which was presented and on display at the event.

http://macfilos.com/photo/2018/10/18/lhsa-meeting-in-wetzlar-cruising-down-the-rhine-and-losing-my-heart-in-heidelberg

George has an enthusiasm which is infectious. I nearly felt like starting on my own replica when I got home.

William

anymore details to add about the notebook?

[willeica]

4 hours ago, frame-it said:

anymore details to add about the notebook?

I presume that this question relates to the notebook shown in my article. I have nothing further to add about that one , but the contents of many such notebooks and factory notes are contained in the book by Richter (and translated by Fricke) which is also referenced in my article https://lhsa.org/shop/oskar-barnack-from-the-idea-to-the-leica-ulf-richter-english translation/ . In fact, I would go so far as to say that this book is essential reading for anyone with a deep interest in the development of early Leicas. As for the topic on the page open in that notebook- the insertion of numbers behind the infinity knob to indicate actual focal length- this has been discussed on this forum many times.

William

[Dopaco]

I'm curious to know:
How to focus with an Ur-Leica? ..
I am aware that with the level that there is, this question will seem absurd and out of place.
I apologize if someone thinks like that.

Some of the topics discussed are totally new to me and the difficulty I have in understanding the language means that I have to work harder to understand things.

a greeting

[willeica]

1 hour ago, Dopaco said:

I'm curious to know:
How to focus with an Ur-Leica? ..
I am aware that with the level that there is, this question will seem absurd and out of place.
I apologize if someone thinks like that.

Some of the topics discussed are totally new to me and the difficulty I have in understanding the language means that I have to work harder to understand things.

 a greeting

Two ways. A separate rangefinder or the more common method of zone focus, relying on depth of field to keep all relevant subject material in focus. It takes a bit of practice, but, over time, it becomes natural. I have not used an Ur-Leica replica, but I have used I Model As with no built in rangefinders from the 1920s and this works for them.

William

[Ambro51]

The lens assembly is helical focusing like any Leica 

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[Ambro51]

Way too much emphasis is put on “exact focus”.  Depth of field, especially with a 42mm fl lens like the UR evolved to have,  is very deep and increasss as the lens is stopped down.  When Dr. Leitz took the UR to New York City,  Barnack told him to always shoot F8 and let depth of field take care of focus.  With this lens, at F8, depth of field encompasses 10 feet to infinity. ••••••••• Oskar wanted a small precise “point and shoot” camera that made a manageable number of  high quality negatives as easily as possible.  No Fuss.  In fact, the UR did not have a tripod screw mount, a real break with tradition.

Edited October 20, 2018 by Ambro51

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Hallo,

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[Dopaco]

Wllica, Ambro51. Thank you:
I think I understand that if the objectives give you the distances to which they focus, you just have to practice and guess those distances.
The Visor that it carries, only serves to make frames ... Is that so? ...
regards