Lens and camera collector guide or guide books

[reddot925]

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Hello,

 

Looking for helpful sites or books with details and serial numbers of older Leica lens and cameras please.

 

I've started collecting Leica lens but have discovered that serial numbers range are important as they are a lot of counterfeits or misinformation.

 

Thank you.

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[thomas_schertel]

Hello,

for serial numbers: http://www.summilux.net/numeros/

 

helpful literature:

Rogliatti, Gianni: Leica - The first Fifty Years (s. E.) 1977 (Hove Books)

Rogliatti, Gianni: Leica&Leicaflex Lenses (s. E.) Hove Books

Lager, James L: Leica Illustrated Guide Vol 1-3, New York, several editions

van Hasbroek, Paul-Henry: Leica. A History illustrating every Model and Acessory, London 1993 (revised edition)

van Hasbroek, Paul-Henry: Leica in Colour, London 1998

Laney, Dennis: Leica Collector's Guide, Hove Bookls, 2005 (second edition)

Laney, Dennis: Leica Acessory Guide, Hove Books 1984

Leica Camera and Lens Pocket Book, Hove 2012 (8th ed.)

 

yours sincerely

Thomas

Edited September 16, 2017 by thomas_schertel

[thomas_schertel]

The books of Erwin Puts are mostly focussed on modern cameras and lenses.

You could also join one of the Leica historical societies, in the UK, USA or Germany. They have interesting journals

[willeica]

Hello,

for serial numbers: http://www.summilux.net/numeros/

 

helpful literature:

Rogliatti, Gianni: Leica - The first Fifty Years (s. E.) 1977 (Hove Books)

Rogliatti, Gianni: Leica&Leicaflex Lenses (s. E.) Hove Books

Lager, James L: Leica Illustrated Guide Vol 1-3, New York, several editions

van Hasbroek, Paul-Henry: Leica. A History illustrating every Model and Acessory, London 1993 (revised edition)

van Hasbroek, Paul-Henry: Leica in Colour, London 1998

Laney, Dennis: Leica Collector's Guide, Hove Bookls, 2005 (second edition)

Laney, Dennis: Leica Acessory Guide, Hove Books 1984

Leica Camera and Lens Pocket Book, Hove 2012 (8th ed.)

 

yours sincerely

Thomas

 

 To start with, I would recommend the Hove pocket (blue) book at the end of Thomas's list which has a lot of detail at the end about serial numbers. As you develop your interest you can get others. Laney's Collector's Guide is the most comprehensive overall book. Lager's set is the best for photos of the collector items. Van Hasbroeck, in Leica a History, uniquely attempts to classify the different lens variations. All of the other books are good but if you have those 4 books/sets you pretty much have everything you need.

 

William

Edited September 16, 2017 by willeica

[wlaidlaw]

Many Hove Books publications are available from http://www.hovebooks.com . This is actually a successor company and I am not sure if they are printing any new copies of the Hove Books publications but they do have quite good stocks at reasonable prices. On their website they do show a US distributor. They are mail/online order only and do not welcome visitors at their premises, although I do know where they are  . Both Abebooks and Alibris sometimes have copies of out of print books. I bought a couple of uncirculated versions of James Lager's books through Abebooks. 

 

Mike Butkus has downloadable versions of various Leica books and is a contribution type of site i.e. you are only asked to contribute (modestly), if after having downloaded the document, you find it is what you want. The older versions of some of Erwin Puts' books were downloadable FOC from his website but I have not looked recently to see if that is still the case. 

 

I am working to put together for forum members, a library structure which will cover the less available documents as PDF docs. Building a searchable library on Wordpress is not easy! 

 

Wilson

[LorenzoLandini]

The above is a pretty comprehensive list of the best Leica books on how to identify collectible Leica cameras and gear. In addition, I'd recommend the following two books by Gesther Sartorius:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Identifying-Leica-Lenses-Complete-Selling/dp/0817440275/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506090239&sr=8-1&keywords=sartorius+leica 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Identifying-Leica-Cameras-Buying-Selling/dp/0817440267/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NZ2P2Q34P6WHANNNZTTQ 

 

The books are comprehensive, yet compact and they can be had in a pocket while browsing a camera flea market or a store, and list all the lenses and cameras with serial number range, rarity, background information, etc. It's not a technical analysis of MTF charts like Erwin Puts books, it's more similar to James Lager's books. 

 

Sartorius passed away a few years ago and since then an updated and revised version was published, albeit only in Italian I Believe. 

 

cheers,

lorenzo