New 75 year old camera

[Gary R. Smith]

At some point there will be an article posted that discusses my ordeal with a "bargain" eBay purchase. Today I made another purchase of the an m645 1000s Mamiya body (since I ended up with a lens left over from my December spree). However, that's not why I'm here. Today I added a Leica IIIc with a Leitz 50/2 collapsible Summicron. I'll put a roll of Ilford HP5+ in it and see what develops.

 

[Len Philpot]

I'm not knowledgeable on vintage cameras -- I know a few names, etc., but nothing significant. However that one is a looker (and has the right name). Nice!

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I'm hoping that it turns out to fulfill my expectations. These have their quirks but one thing I'm already impressed with is the ability to magnify the rangefinder window via a lever on the camera top. It makes focusing so much easier.

 

[Tom Aspin]

I have a few of these, and there are some things to note:

* The lever around the rewind crank is dioptre adjustment for the viewfinder
* In common with all screw leicas and copies, only change shutter speed after winding on
* In unserviced cameras, speeds below 1/30 can be a bit lazy
*You'll need to cut a longer leader on the film (about 50% longer than standard) to get it to load properly - I have swiss army penknife with scissors for this purpose.
*I always find film loading a fiddle, and find it easier to do sat at a table



Here's a proper oldie : a Leica 2 from 1933

This has separate viewfinder and rangefinder windows, no dioptre adjustment. No slow speeds, and the highest speed tops out at 1/500

 

[Gary R. Smith]

The lever around the rewind crank is dioptre adjustment for the viewfinder

I'm pretty sure that lever throws a magnification into the rangefinder (at least it does on the IIIc). I absolutely love that. It makes focusing so much easier for me.

My 1st roll of 36 is ready to send off for processing. Hopefully I'll get some keepers.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Beautiful piece of machinery. My wife inherited her father's IIIc, which family lore claims it was the first into the UK, bought in France on holiday. I don't know if that is true, but it's a fun tale. I just couldn't see through the viewfinder, which is tiny on the back of the camera, so I'm interested in what you have to say, Gary, about that. And, of course, I look forward to seeing what your first roll contains...

 

[Gary R. Smith]

My Voigtländer combines the viewfinder/rangefinder in one window. The Leica IIIc has both side-by-side with minimal distance (2 or 3mm) between them (one of the Barnack's has them separated quite a lot). The diameter for each is relatively small - that's for sure. After I was done with the 36 exposures, I had it down so that I'd go for the rangefinder first, focus and then slide over to the viewfinder to do my final compose. I really like the magnification provided by the lever near the take-up know. I'm not sure how much of an issue the parallax is going to be. One way or the other, my film will be enroute by tomorrow. I'll be using a new lab, so we'll see how long things take.