Leica IIIb arrived today. Better than I had expected.

[wlaidlaw]

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The 1937 Leica IIIb and matching 1937 Summar I had bought on Fleabay for just £325 arrived today. It appears to be an all matching camera not a "Bitza" and apart from a base plate with a few minor dings, seems to be cosmetically and mechanically in good condition. I have not done a full test on the shutter speeds as yet, as my modern iPhone does not have a headphone socket to connect my Photoplug shutter speed tool. Apparently these will work with an Apple wired headphone adapter and I think my wife has one of those. However by sound, the shutter speeds don't seem to be far off even down to 1 second, which is unusual. The lens appears to be clean, nearly dust free and no evidence of fungus or separation on shining my UV torch through it. It just has the odd cleaning mark on the front element. This will be my 4th 50 Summar. The only thing missing is the front lens cap. It currently has what looks the plastic top off a milk bottle on it. I know I have a spare somewhere but goodness knows where it is hiding, so I have bought another one from a UK seller, which looks like a genuine old Leica one for just £18, P&P included. The lens was very squeaky unscrewing, so I have put a wipe of dry lubricant on the mounting thread which has cured that. The rangefinder patch is a tad dim and would benefit from resilvering but it may be better with an ORAKO and I know where I have a spare one of those. I don't think it is a Leica one as the orange filter is a different shade from the various other ORAKO and OKARO filters I have and also the knurling is different, maybe a Kuhn-Leitz made one but works just as well. It also came with an ERC but I never use those, if the camera has strap lugs which this one does and this is obviously not a Leica case, made from rather coarse chrome embossed leather with no logo on the lens bulge, maybe Russian but with the 3/8" screw replaced with a 1/4", which is a very loose fit in the case. 

Oddly I find like my father did, that I much prefer the separated RF and VF viewing windows(Model 2(D) through IIIa) rather than the side by side, introduced with the IIIb onwards. Maybe this is because I am a left eye shooter on M cameras but on the separated RF/VF, I prefer to use my left eye on the RF and right eye on the VF, just like my father did. He did this because his prescriptions for each eye were wildly different following serious eye damage from childhood measles. Another good reason for getting vaccinated. My brother also had his eyesight damaged during measles but not to the extent that my father did. 

This basically completes my Leica collection as for a IIIb, I had previously cheated a bit with a Reid and Sigrist IIIb copy, which can now be moved to my other makes collection. 

Wilson

[TomB_tx]

17 minutes ago, wlaidlaw said:

This basically completes my Leica collection as for a IIIb,

(Grumble...) You would have to post this - I'm also missing the IIIb

[Dr Monochrom]

congratulations. would love to see some photos! @wlaidlaw

[wlaidlaw]

9 minutes ago, Dr Monochrom said:

congratulations. would love to see some photos! @wlaidlaw

I am going to take the Summar apart first and clean the air surfaces either side of the diaphragm with Zeiss lens cleaning fluid, using a lint free lens cloth. It is always surprising just how much grime comes off when you do this. Of course I could cheat and put my 1999 LTM 50-Summicron V S-E on the IIIb and say what wonderful photos it takes for an 88 year old camera 😄. 

Wilson

Edited 10 hours ago by wlaidlaw