Is this a flush-glass M4-P?

[Omaroo]

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Hi all

 

I'm new to Leicas, and am doing a whole pile of research - which one tends to do when it's all new to them

 

Anyway - I've just bought an M4-P in brilliant condition from a friend of mine, with serial number 1621778 - which according to Leica Serial Numbers: M's Sorted by Type places it within the 15th April, 1983 batch.

 

Now - according to Leica M4P with M6 Windows mine should have been built prior to the stage where the swap to the newer zinc header and M6-style flush glass took place - so should it, by all rights, have a brass top and recessed features?

 

May I ask - is this what you'd refer to as "flush" glass?

[iphoenix]

Sure looks like flush glass to me. Mine is 1588430 and has obviously recessed glass.

[lars_bergquist]

Yes this is a 'flush window' camera. Also my sources indicate 1983–84 as the production years possible for your camera. My 'jubilee engraved 1913–1983' M4-P #1619895 was one of the last produced with the old brass top, and the changeover to the flush windows top should have taken part during the 1620551–1622550 interval. The flush top was actually lifted from the M6, which was being started up by then in Wetzlar, while the M4-P was still being produced in Midland. Do your finder window have the semi-silvered stripe at the bottom? Most late M4-P cameras got that too, though it is completely non-functional (in the M6 and later cameras it serves to dim the background for the LED exposure display).

 

The old man from the Kodachrome Age

[luigi bertolotti]

Yes, these are undoubtly non-recessed windows : as you pointed, not usual for a M4P with that s/n, but there can be at least a pair of explanations :

- Cameraquest data can be not 100% precise (see the numbers quoted by Lars)... and Stephen Gandy himself writes that he would like to have more data

- The numbering methods at Ontario Factory have often been discussed, in relation with the real manufacturing date of certain assigned numbers... could be that your camera had left the factory about 1 year after the theorical date of its s/n... when the new M6 style top was already the standard component.

- The top - windows included - could have been substituted, for maintenance reasons, some years after the first sale, and the spare part used was of the new M6 type.

 

Anyway, you have an interesting item... btw, I suppose it has the classic DUAL X-sync connectors...

[Omaroo]

Thanks fellas. Lars - no - it doesn't have the half-silvered strip.

 

Here it is from the front:

[Omaroo]

Anyway, you have an interesting item... btw, I suppose it has the classic DUAL X-sync connectors...

 

Thanks Luigi - interesting read!

 

Yes, it has both sync connectors - with caps intact and in perfect health.

[250swb]

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Mine was flush windows, single sync socket, zinc top, and had plastic strap protectors. The number was in the last 400 according to the accepted serial number list.