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It has been a few years since I bought my first Barnack, a IIIF and it now has a few brothers in my collection. The latest one is more like the father since it is a 1930 Leica I upgraded to Leica II in the late 30's I presume. It has seen a lot of use, but I do not mind a bit of history. As far as I can tell it is fully functioning, and it should be because I saw an invoice from Will van Manen from 2020 for a full CLA, lens and body. No special remarks so at least to him it appeared genuine. Please have a look and tell me more about it, because I still feel more at home in the M era than in the Barnack domain. 

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Edited by dpitt
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Nice, with character.  looks to have acquired a chrome A-R lever knob, chrome shutter button thread barrel. No strap lugs, so conversion may have been before the III, or they just didn't want them later on. My guess, an early conversion.

Edited by alan mcfall
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The Summar that is on it now has snr 404xxx so it is from 1937, maybe it is contemporary to the conversion. I thought they used the original lens without serial most of the time when converting. In this case its seems not. Tomorrow I will post some extra pictures from the lens. Also, this one was almost lost for ever. It was found filthy and neglected in its original leather case in...a thrift shop in Amsterdam in 2020. The previous owner told me he bought it together with some bags for his bike. He payed for 25 Euro for all ! And best of all he got a 1 month warranty for this 90 year old camera 😀

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Edited by dpitt
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11 hours ago, earleygallery said:

The condition of the Summar is important. If not covered in 'cleaning marks' and not hazy, it's a really fine lens with a unique character of its own.

Kind of a poor mans Noctilux!

I had already one like that, even stuck so that I could not extract it. The one that came with this camera has had a CLA in 2020, hardly any cleaning marks and no haze. It has some grey-black inclusions, but according to Will van Manen that is normal for  a pre-war lens (or did he mean for the Elmar?)

I will post some pictures of the lens later.

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camera was originally IA from 1930 and had fix mounted Elmar. Top cover is version from after April 1937, this would be thus the earlieast conversion date. Body cover with vulcanite has been renewed as well, is without lugs because model II does not have it as well. Chromed pin on A/R level could be because during conversion one modification has been added (when shutter es spanned and you move lever to R position the shutter runs without opening, before this modification it run with tze speed set on the dial). This modification trequired new A7R lever and I assume that at the time of coversion Letz did not have anymore lever with nickeled knob. Detail supporting this assumption is not visible on any photos, but visible as well when the top cover is on - A/R lever has a sort of camb

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5 hours ago, jerzy said:

camera was originally IA from 1930 and had fix mounted Elmar. Top cover is version from after April 1937, this would be thus the earlieast conversion date. Body cover with vulcanite has been renewed as well, is without lugs because model II does not have it as well. Chromed pin on A/R level could be because during conversion one modification has been added (when shutter es spanned and you move lever to R position the shutter runs without opening, before this modification it run with tze speed set on the dial). This modification trequired new A7R lever and I assume that at the time of coversion Letz did not have anymore lever with nickeled knob. Detail supporting this assumption is not visible on any photos, but visible as well when the top cover is on - A/R lever has a sort of camb

Thanks Jerzy.

Maybe it will be more clear on these photo's.

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20 hours ago, earleygallery said:

The condition of the Summar is important. If not covered in 'cleaning marks' and not hazy, it's a really fine lens with a unique character of its own.

Kind of a poor mans Noctilux!

Here are some pictures from the Summar. The inclusions are visible as dark spots inside the lens. (not so dark in normal light)

 

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I wonder a bit about the black paint. I already noticed that the top plate was so shiny. But the camera was found in its protective ever ready case, so it did not suffer after the upgrade.

Also the bottom plate has received a new closing knob at some point I suppose. And there is something strange with the paint. It looks a bit as if it has been repainted or something.

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Just now I tried to wipe the bottom with a bit of water and soap. Their seems to be a waxy substance on the bottom. It shows brownish on the cloth but is not easy to remove.  It may be the doing of the previous owner. He was a bit generous with his leather wax for the case. He even managed to get the bottom screw stuck with wax. I sort of had to cut it loose with a thin wire to be able to secure it to the bottom. The inside of the case is a bit dirty too.

Edited by dpitt
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