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Summilux Brass Bayonet


sail222

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I am curious as to what reason Leica made Summilux's and Summicron's with the brass bayonet chromed and then some have no chrome and just are bare brass. What purpose does this serve? I also have seen the Leica M body caps with Chrome backside and then some with bare brass backing. Maybe its useless information .... but Im really interested. Thanks

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OK .... Well I can see I didn't set the world on fire with this question .... haha !! I did hear from another site that the plain brass backings were needed because they were not shiny like chrome is, and during wartime photography the lenses would be hard for the enemy to spot the photographer ...... that's does sound like a good idea but I don't know if that was Leica's intent. Can anyone please add to this post. Many Thanks !!! Seriously .... Thanks !

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OK .... I did hear from another site that the plain brass backings were needed because they were not shiny like chrome is, and during wartime photography the lenses would be hard for the enemy to spot the photographer ....

 

Good idea ... pity it is not true.

 

cheers.

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The main fact is that these lenses were not delivered to the Army, they were mainly sent to photojournalists (mainly for black paint cameras). If you control the Leitz registers of the time (supposedly late '50 till '70'), you will find that all the official shipments to the various armies had no painted bayonets.

BUT: it is known that the black paint lenses were especially finished because they had even more restricted tolerances, in which the thickness of the chrome may have had its importance.

 

Best regards.

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Yes, they sold them even individually but as a special order and they were not so requested.

The lenses were especially developed to work at full aperture, presumably more interested in this were the reporters, this is the reason why, for this perfect focusing request, was used also the thickness of the chrome. Remaining stationary in this priority starting from a later moment the fine tuning of the lenses were done all inside, that is the reason why we have black paint lenses with chrome-plated bayonet.

However both the black paint variants (telling the true they are a lot more as we have found mixed black paint, black anodized lenses) are rare and very valuable from a collecting point of view.

 

Kind regards.

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Sabears .... I truly do appreciate you ... You have taught me so much and I am truly grateful to you for tolerating my questions. It must get annoying .... having guys like me bother you for information, information and then some more information. I Thank you once again. Sail

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Sabears .... I truly do appreciate you ... You have taught me so much and I am truly grateful to you for tolerating my questions. It must get annoying .... having guys like me bother you for information, information and then some more information. I Thank you once again. Sail

 

Too kind, it costs anything because it's nice to share.

 

Best regards.

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