Leica IIIa flash terminals (?)

[petrelman]

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Hi

 

I'm a new and rather nervous member - although I have been an amateur photographer for more years than I can remember!

 

 

I have a several Leicas, M type and screw thread, but my favourite is the one shown in the photos.

 

 

The photos show my pre-war Leica IIIa fitted with what looks like a set of flash synchronisation terminals. It is a well-made fitting – Bakelite and brass – but what I would like to know is a) has anyone seen a fitting like it before ?, and, if so, was a factory fit, a dealer fit, or a gifted DIYer fit?

 

Hopefully

 

David P

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[giordano]

I've never seen one like this and am fairly confident it's a third-party mod. Reasons:

 

* The finish on the bakelite looks as if it came out of a proper heated mould, so it's probably not home-made.

* Unless you're hiding something, there's no synch timing adjustment. This makes it very unlikely to be a Leitz product, because most flashbulbs required the flash to be triggered before the shutter opened so the light could build up to maximum intensity - and the necessary delay was different for different kinds of flashbulb. So without a timing adjustment, flash shots could only be taken with particular kinds of bulbs and a limited range of shutter speeds. AFAIK the official Leitz synch adapters (e.g. SELSY) all had this adjustment. (So of course do the factory-synched -f series and the many earlier cameras that went back to Wetzlar to have synchronisation added.)