My latest Barnack

[mikemgb]

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It’s been some time since I posted here, life recently involved buying a new house , selling the old and moving to a different city. This took up all available time for a while. Now it is done I can relax and enjoy my free time. This is helped by the fact I have built a traditional darkroom and am building  a digital scanning studio in the new house. I also finally have enough display cabinets for all my cameras. Since I now have somewhere to display them I decided I need to start collecting some of the cameras I am missing. Here’s the first, Leica 1 Model A from 1930, recently serviced and with a six month warranty. I’ll go for a walk with a roll of FP4 later to test it. This particular camera has had strap lugs added, which I consider a bonus as I will use the camera. The baseplate has also been upgraded to allow FILCA cartridges to be used. 

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[wizard]

The lens looks like it is in pretty good shape, too. Should be fun to test it with your roll of FP4.

Cheers,

Andy

Edited February 23, 2021 by wizard

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[GregNski]

That's a nice little 1A! Just enough brassing to make it look old without it looking like it just got dug up out of the ground.

[Ambro51]

Very Nice Example, the strap lugs, though added, are nice for a user.  If you’ve never used an A, you’ll be surprised at how “natural” it feels.  The images will surprise you too, because they in no way suggest a 91 year old made them.  That to me was a bit of a disappointment.  ....too perfect 😀

[willeica]

18 minutes ago, Ambro51 said:

Very Nice Example, the strap lugs, though added, are nice for a user.  😀

Some I Model As left the factory with strap lugs which are lower down the sides of the camera than became normal later. It seems to have been an option with cameras which came in sets with an ETRIN case, a tube of FILCAs and a rangefinder. I have posted a picture of my one on the Forum before. It is hard to see from the photo above how low down the strap lugs are. The camera shown above should give many years of great photography taking if it is well maintained. It will probably outlive most of today's current digital models.

 

William

[mikemgb]

1 hour ago, Ambro51 said:

Very Nice Example, the strap lugs, though added, are nice for a user.  If you’ve never used an A, you’ll be surprised at how “natural” it feels.  The images will surprise you too, because they in no way suggest a 91 year old made them.  That to me was a bit of a disappointment.  ....too perfect 😀

I have never used an A, my collection before today consisted of a III and a IIIa, both of which I enjoy using. The lens won’t disappoint me, when I sharp image I will use a Leica, no matter what vintage, when I want something more “arty” I’ll pick a Brownie or similar. 😁

[mikemgb]

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1 hour ago, willeica said:

Some I Model As left the factory with strap lugs which are lower down the sides of the camera than became normal later. It seems to have been an option with cameras which came in sets with an ETRIN case, a tube of FILCAs and a rangefinder. I have posted a picture of my one on the Forum before. It is hard to see from the photo above how low down the strap lugs are. The camera shown above should give many years of great photography taking if it is well maintained. It will probably outlive most of today's current digital models.

 

William

Thank you for this information, I’m trying to dig into the history of these cameras a little more now I have a (very) small collection of them. The question I’m trying to answer for myself is what type of film cartridges came with them? I’ve read the FILCA was introduced in 1932 and won’t work in earlier cameras unless they have modified baseplates. However an image I just found of a ETRIN and tube of FILCAs seems to show the standard early FILCA. 

[willeica]

1 hour ago, mikemgb said:

Thank you for this information, I’m trying to dig into the history of these cameras a little more now I have a (very) small collection of them. The question I’m trying to answer for myself is what type of film cartridges came with them? I’ve read the FILCA was introduced in 1932 and won’t work in earlier cameras unless they have modified baseplates. However an image I just found of a ETRIN and tube of FILCAs seems to show the standard early FILCA. 

The FILCA was around from the beginning, going through Type A, Type B and the Type C which came in 1932, but Leica reverted to the Type B which is by far the most common version. Cs are rare and we have had a lot discussion here about the Type D which became the Agfa-Leitz  cassette. The Kodak type daylight loading cassette, which we are all familiar with today, came in with the Kodak Retina in 1934. Both the Retina and the common cassette were designed with input from Dr August Nagel who had been bought out by Kodak. At around the time of the takeover Nagel was producing some cameras such as the Vollenda and the the Pupille which occasionally featured the Leitz Elmar 5cm lens. There is a lot more to this as there was a lot of flux in both Leica and the German photographic industry at that time. Kodak, an American company, joined the German industry at that time and it was the giant in film making. 

The set on the right below is the type of one which featured strap lugs.

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These photos show the low position of strap lugs.

William

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by willeica

[mikemgb]

1 hour ago, willeica said:

The FILCA was around from the beginning, going through Type A, Type B and the Type C which came in 1932, but Leica reverted to the Type B which is by far the most common version. Cs are rare and we have had a lot discussion here about the Type D which became the Agfa-Leitz  cassette. The Kodak type daylight loading cassette, which we are all familiar with today, came in with the Kodak Retina in 1934. Both the Retina and the common cassette were designed with input from Dr August Nagel who had been bought out by Kodak. At around the time of the takeover Nagel was producing some cameras such as the Vollenda and the the Pupille which occasionally featured the Leitz Elmar 5cm lens. There is a lot more to this as there was a lot of flux in both Leica and the German photographic industry at that time. Kodak, an American company, joined the German industry at that time and it was the giant in film making. 

The set on the right below is the type of one which featured strap lugs.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

These photos show the low position of strap lugs.

William

 

 

 

Thank you William, there is a lot of incorrect information out there! The lugs on my 1A look the same as yours, they are lower than on my III and IIIa.

[Ambro51]

.....redesigned to reposition the “workings” of the metal strap end fixtures so as to not mar the finish of the camera?    ....were Lugs driven public desire Not to carry the camera in a coat or trouser pocket?     The UR has lugs, midpoint on the camera body, of the “binocular” style.  This results in the camera hanging lens downward.  Pondering this.....was this Barnacks way of lessening the possibilities of minute light leaks around the telescoping barrel lens mount?   (not wanting to go OT on the OPs thread, just thinking of lugs in general)

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Edited February 25, 2021 by Ambro51

[Pyrogallol]

I’ve thought before,

if lugs had been designed and offered for the Leica 1 why were they not fitted as standard on the Standard and Leica 11  and only introduced with the Leica 111 ?

[willeica]

14 minutes ago, Pyrogallol said:

I’ve thought before,

if lugs had been designed and offered for the Leica 1 why were they not fitted as standard on the Standard and Leica 11  and only introduced with the Leica 111 ?

The lugs for the IA were a special order, I believe, and only appeared on very few examples. The UR Leica type lugs appeared on an another prototype, but the Null Series did not have lugs.  The lugs on the III seem to have been factored into the body design. By the time of the III people had probably started to have kits with larger lenses whereas with earlier cameras most were just used with a pocketable Elmar. I suspect that the absence of lugs on the Standard was just a cost saving measure, but Leica would also sell you a nice ERC with a strap, of course.

William

[mikemgb]

3 hours ago, Ambro51 said:

.....redesigned to reposition the “workings” of the metal strap end fixtures so as to not mar the finish of the camera?    ....were Lugs driven public desire Not to carry the camera in a coat or trouser pocket?     The UR has lugs, midpoint on the camera body, of the “binocular” style.  This results in the camera hanging lens downward.  Pondering this.....was this Barnacks way of lessening the possibilities of minute light leaks around the telescoping barrel lens mount?   (not wanting to go OT on the OPs thread, just thinking of lugs in general)

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Don’t worry about the possibility of going OT, I don’t believe this is and I’m happy to learn of the history of Leica products. 

Edited February 25, 2021 by mikemgb