Fontenelle archives 46 : craftman's Leica 250

[Pecole]

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When a friend of mine called on a sunny Sunday in May, 1986 to warn that he had seen a Leica 250 on show for sale at an incredibly low price, in a photo shop downtown, I decided to rush the next morning before the opening hour. And I hardly slept that night.

When I arrived at the shop 10 minutes before opening, I had a shock : nothing more like a 250 in the window. But when he opened the door, the shopkeeper smiled at me and said : "You must be the Leica guy". It appeared that my friend had traced the private telephone number of the guy, and had asked him to reserve the "piece" for me.

Well, disappointment swiftly followed hope : the so-called "Leica 250" was in fact a quite roughly home-made copy, crafted from a Leica Standard nº 147616. It was working, yes, but certainly not worth the asked price. When I finished explaining all the evidences to the seller, he finally agreed to sell it for the price I offered.

Here are the photos of the "beast". The two first ones don't need any explanation. The third one shows the wind-on knob, simply taken from the Standard and even with no frame counter; also noticeable is the way the film chamber extension has been riveted to the original body. Same remarks for photo nº 4 illustrating the rewind knob. On photo nº 5, details of the new base and of the chambers' interior. And finally, one of the two "simplicist" cassettes and spools, to be loaded and unloaded in darkroom.

Just for the fun, I add a photo of this "250" with another - but better - craftman's Leica . a "500" made from a IIf (nº 571392) which will be the subject of a next "archive" (It has been illustrated by Jim Lager in his Illustrated History-Volume I-Cameras, on page 119).

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