Leica books

[willeica]

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6 hours ago, tranquilo67 said:

Hi William,

I'm through the process of reading every Viewfinder issue and fully agree that it would be great to have a kind of subject index. If you're interested on a given topic i.e. Leica-0 there are articles, references to it in one of the yearly meetings, references to it in articles about visit to the museum etc. if not, that information has low utility.

I remember some time ago, when "I reach de conclusion" about early IIIc logged in the books Leica as IIIb, I shared it with Jim Lager and he kindly pointed me to his Viewfinder article written 40 years ago "Believing what you see" (not bad, only 40 year delay!! )

There is a lot of extremely interesting information there that is not accessed more (or at all) because it's not know that it even exists. Even the Leica Wiki (to me one of the best online references) starts to be a bit out of date.

 

Agree!! Many of them command a very high price but even more, there are some that take years to find a sample (even if willing to pay a nice amount of money).

Best wishes,

Augusto

 

5 hours ago, sandro said:

I agree about Laney's book. It is usually the first book I take when I need information about some Leitz/Leica topic. When I am looking for information on lenses Erwin Puts' Leica Compendium is the second one I use.

Several topics about which articles in Viewfinder have been published I trace with the CD-rom with the contents of volumes 1-37 (1968-2004). For member of Leica Historica it is possible to read Vidom articles on the website of Leica Historica in the Vidom archive section. But it would indeed be wonderful if a new book could be published, or a revised edition of Laney's Leica Collector's guide or Jim Lager's books.

Lex

The new system for Viewfinder will have 'look up' for topics in more recent electronic copies of Viewfinder which have the possibility of word search, but for 40 year old scans this will not be possible. If anyone feels like they have the time and energy for a lot of unremunerated work they can take on the task. Don't forget that none of these things happen unless someone makes them happen. What the new version of the website will have is a huge amount of material including old manuals, old catalogues, and old articles which have not been available before. I have a lot of this material already myself, but I suspect most collectors will not have much of what is there, which will now be provided to LHSA members free of additional charge. 

Only a small amount of the material on VIDOM is available in English, most of it is in German only. Much of it is of a very high quality and I have arranged for one such article about the Kochmann Korelle K with Leitz Elmar to be translated into English. This will appear shortly in Viewfinder. I hope that this might be start of a closer working arrangement between the German Society and LHSA. 

I am not aware that anyone is preparing or 'updating' printed books about vintage Leicas. While reprints are a possibility, I believe that most future developments will be online. I will be in Wetzlar next month for the opening of the new Leica Museum and Archives. I am hoping to have discussions with the Leica Archives people about possibilities for services to collectors and closer links with Leica societies. We should not forget, though, that the Archives currently provide such services to collectors free of charge. If these services were fully costed out people here might be surprised what any charges might be.

William

Edited August 25, 2021 by willeica

[sandro]

29 minutes ago, willeica said:

 

 

Only a small amount of the material on VIDOM is available in English, most of it is in German only. Much of it is of a very high quality and I have arranged for one such article about the Kochmann Korelle K with Leitz Elmar to be translated into English. This will appear shortly in Viewfinder. I hope that this might be start of a closer working arrangement between the German Society and LHSA. 

 

William, that article by Claus Walter was published in the latest Viewfinder, which by the way also has an interesting article by Marc Hoch, who regularly publishes in Vidom. 

Lex

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[zeitz]

30 minutes ago, willeica said:

Archives currently provide such services to collectors free of charge. If these services were fully costed out people here might be surprised what any charges might be.

Will, maybe you can get them to answer inquires.  I have never gotten a response.  All I hear is excuses about someone retiring, etc.  I would be happy to pay an appreciable fee if the Archives would actually respond.

[tranquilo67]

4 hours ago, willeica said:

 

The new system for Viewfinder will have 'look up' for topics in more recent electronic copies of Viewfinder which have the possibility of word search, but for 40 year old scans this will not be possible. If anyone feels like they have the time and energy for a lot of unremunerated work they can take on the task. Don't forget that none of these things happen unless someone makes them happen. What the new version of the website will have is a huge amount of material including old manuals, old catalogues, and old articles which have not been available before. I have a lot of this material already myself, but I suspect most collectors will not have much of what is there, which will now be provided to LHSA members free of additional charge. 

...

William

Absolutely. Anyway, my comment was more in the sense of "what a pity" than "I cannot understand how this has not been done". I do know that it is a lot of work and once I'll finish my current project, that could be an interesting and challenging one, because for doing it properly every single article should be read and understood in order to be indexed properly.

Best wishes,

Augusto

[willeica]

4 hours ago, sandro said:

William, that article by Claus Walter was published in the latest Viewfinder, which by the way also has an interesting article by Marc Hoch, who regularly publishes in Vidom. 

Lex

Thanks Lex

I have not yet seen that yet. I'm sure my hard copy is on its way to me. If I get some time tomorrow I will look at the online version . I have seen the Korelle article already and I will also look for the Hoch article. I recently obtained one of those Kochmann Korelle Ks and separately I found one of the special 3.5cm Leitz Elmar lenses ( not the same as any Leica 35mm lens and super rare). Lars was amazed that I had managed to find one separately from the camera. It just needs a bit of work from my CLA man to get it all working. 

 

1 hour ago, tranquilo67 said:

Absolutely. Anyway, my comment was more in the sense of "what a pity" than "I cannot understand how this has not been done". I do know that it is a lot of work and once I'll finish my current project, that could be an interesting and challenging one, because for doing it properly every single article should be read and understood in order to be indexed properly.

Best wishes,

Augusto

Thanks Augusto. I know well the research which yourself, Lex and others here have done. I was just trying to make the point that we are unlikely to find someone else doing the work for us.

5 hours ago, zeitz said:

Will, maybe you can get them to answer inquires.  I have never gotten a response.  All I hear is excuses about someone retiring, etc.  I would be happy to pay an appreciable fee if the Archives would actually respond.

Currently, I believe that if you write to info@leica-camera.com , you should get a reply. Leica has now got a 'look up' system that will provide initial delivery details for any vintage Leica when the serial number is keyed in. I will try to see how this can be developed within reason. The issue is that this allows look up of scans of old handwritten registers, but for various reasons Leica may not want this to become a fully online service. I'm not aware of any other camera company which provides such a service and I'm not sure how all of this fits in with data protection legislation, particularly when some of the cameras are over 95 years old. The data I have received has generally related to dealers rather than individuals.

William

[sandro]

Zeitz, I agree with William about the email to use to get information from Leica. I have used it a few times and I received rather quick and accurate and friendly response. I asked for specific camera's and lenses.

Lex

[zeitz]

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1 hour ago, willeica said:

I will try to see how this can be developed within reason.

Thanks, Will.  And I would happily pay for Leica's service in this regard.  I do agree with you that this service, when it is provided, is unique in the industry.  The on-line Canon History Museum has many errors and with each update the errors get worse.

 

1 hour ago, willeica said:

info@leica-camera.com

Attached is the invitation to submit questions to the Leica Archives.  Maybe I have no success because the email address is wrong - archiv@leica-camera.com.  Will, maybe that is something Leica could fix easily although I can't find this invitation on the current Leica Museum website.

Leica Archive.jpf

[willeica]

9 hours ago, zeitz said:

Thanks, Will.  And I would happily pay for Leica's service in this regard.  I do agree with you that this service, when it is provided, is unique in the industry.  The on-line Canon History Museum has many errors and with each update the errors get worse.

 

Attached is the invitation to submit questions to the Leica Archives.  Maybe I have no success because the email address is wrong - archiv@leica-camera.com.  Will, maybe that is something Leica could fix easily although I can't find this invitation on the current Leica Museum website.

Leica Archive.jpf 123.92 kB · 3 downloads

If you use the address I gave you, for the time being, that should give you what you want. The Museum website https://ernst-leitz-museum.de/?lang=en is mainly about photography exhibitions, which should, of course, feature in the Museum. There is also mention of an interactive feature which seems to be aimed at a broad audience rather than a specialist one. There is nothing there about the type of items which featured in the 2018 book 'Museum Leica' by Lars Netopil, which I reviewed for a number of collector publications. I have to assume that the glass cases with cameras which I saw in 2014 and 2018 in the lobby and behind the factory area are still there.

I am attending an opening on 30th September and that fits with the Museum being open to the public from 1st October. I will talk to the Archives people while I am there and write an article about what services they can provide and also about the new Museum. I will post a link in a thread on this Forum, of course.

William 

[Al Brown]

Sometimes you can find a nice book at a nice price. Like this Rogliatti below.

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[Studienkamera]

Are the three volumes of Lager's "Illustrated History" revised versions of the three volumes of the "Illustrated Guide" by the same author or do they complement each other?

[derleicaman]

On 9/9/2021 at 10:03 PM, Studienkamera said:

Are the three volumes of Lager's "Illustrated History" revised versions of the three volumes of the "Illustrated Guide" by the same author or do they complement each other?

Comparing the two sets is like comparing apples and oranges. The “Illustrated History” books are greatly expanded with more images on each subject reproduced and printed to a much higher quality. They are organized as follows: Book 1 - Cameras, Book 2 - Lenses, Book 3 - Accessories. 

I can highly recommend them. They are considered the Bible for serious Leica collectors/historians. Unfortunately books 1 and 2 can be hard to find. Jim still has new volume 3’s he would love to sell!

[beoon]

When I first became interested in Leica cameras in 1980 they were far too expensive for me as a young apprentice, so I started buying and collecting any literature or books to learn about the system. 40+ years later I am still collecting Leica books, my personal favourite is the Leica Handbooks by Fritz Vith.

This was first published in February 1930 (in German only), the first English edition appeared in summer 1933 and I also have the German editions from summer 1932,  February 1940 and January 1943. I also have a "proof" copy of edition 1942 for someone to read and correct any mistakes etc.

The wartime editions are very much slimmed down from the original editions in the 1930's

I have recently purchased a first edition complete with its original dust cover and also an "original-Leica-Diapositiv" which was enclosed in a small paper wallet inside the back cover of the first edition only.

Fritz Vith was a resident of Wetzlar, but apart from that I don't know much else about him (can anyone help?) and are there other published editions out there not listed above?

 

 

 

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[thomas_schertel]

According to Fritz Vith:

There have been two main writers about Leica before the war: Fritz Vith and Curt Emmermann. They explained the Leica system in several editions of their books.

Emmermann edited also the journal "Die Leica", later called "Kleinfilmtechnik".

Emmermann dies in 1945 (or was missed?).

In the german journal "Vidom" of the Leica Historica Klaus Walter has written an article oabout Fritz Vith and his books. Maybe he knows more about Vith. He is photo dealer in Tübingen/Germany.

yours sincerely
Thomas

[alan mcfall]

A repost of my Leica Handbuch, Vith collection.  The dust covers and diapositives are very rare. Your proof copy for editing must be nearly one of a kind.

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[Guest]

∙  A Leica book I always enjoy reading  ∙

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[willeica]

6 hours ago, mnutzer said:

∙  A Leica book I always enjoy reading  ∙

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I bought this one from my friend Alfonso (m9reno). I paid him a year later at the next meeting of The Leica Society as I did not have the correct change at the time of purchase . Pages 30  to 32 contain technical data for the photos which were taken on 17/10 DIN panchromatic film. The data includes lens used, aperture, shutter speed and some notes.

William