old lens, new camera?

[emden]

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I have an old lens from the 1930's and a Leica IIIa. I am interested in getting a new or used M-series camera to use with the old (Hugo Meyer Kino Plasmat 1.5 5cm) lens. I would like a film camera and wanted a recommendation for a camera and adapter. Would the Leica MP work well? Are there any other good options that are less expensive? How different are the results from the IIIa? Also, does anyone have any recommendations for getting the lens cleaned?

[menos I M6]

Welcome to the forum.

I didn't check personally, but I have read, there are several reputable technicians listed in the FAQ on this form, who will take lenses apart and clean, lube and adjust.

 

Basically any Leica M mount camera of your choice will work the same or better than your IIIa.

The negatives should not arrive in a better quality than from the IIIa, but you gain some comfort and ease of use with a nicer finder, maybe even with an internal meter, if you would like, to use that.

 

The MP will work just fine, but bar from the collector special editions, it will be your most expensive option of a Leica film M body, to use your lens on.

 

Basically your choices are an older film body (preferably recently checked for functionality) or a more modern body (like a M6, MP or the electronic M7).

 

If price plays no role, the MP is the nicest camera, to buy and keep for a life time, while the M7 adds even more convenience at the cost of battery dependance and less options of independent camera technicians, who might not work on one.

 

The M6 is a wonderful, very affordable option, which has an internal meter, but a slightly lesser finder than the M3, MP or later M7.

 

Tell us more, what your needs and your budget are.

[earleygallery]

An option to an M camera would be a screw mount Voigtlander Bessa (there are also M mount Bessa options).

 

A screw to M mount adaptor for the 5cm lens is required (which will bring up the 50mm frames on a Leica M - the Voigtlander has manual frame selection so any adaptor will do).

[emden]

Thank you very much for your responses. I really would want one of the M series but given the cost think that I will probably opt for the Zeiss Ikon. I would also like to get a lens too since the the Hugo Meyer is rare and would be difficult to replace. Maybe one day I will be able to spend the money for one of the Leica cameras. I am sure this is a question asked all the time but what would be the lens that you would recommend? This is very new to me but I would like to use film. I do have a high end Nikon camera and love the convenience of digital. I am very happy with it but still do miss the look of the film. I love the pictures that I have developed so far. To get them I picked up a 74 year old camera, loaded some old film from my refrigerator, got it developed at CVS, and scanned it on my CanoScan 8800F scanner.

[gyoung]

You have a wide choice of M cameras second hand which will be cheaper than the Zeiss Ikon.

There are at least two recent threads on choosing between the Zeiis and an M

 

Gerry

[roydonian]

The Hugo Meyer Kino Plasmat 1.5 5cm was probably the first non-Leitz lens to be offered for the Leica, and the earliest examples predate the standardisation of that camera’s lens to film plane distance, so may not be suitable for a modern Leica. However, if your lens has a rangefinder-coupling cam, it should be OK, since standardisation was introduced before the use of the built-in rangefinder.

 

Even after Leitz introduced the coupled-rangefinder camera, not all Meyer lenses were rangefinder coupled, and I don’t know if this applies to some 5cm Kino Plasmats.

 

Best regards,

 

Doug