Luftwaffen - Eigentum IIIc ?
By: Steven Pavlovich
I am hoping that my LHSA colleagues may be able to assist me. I have a IIIc camera (serial number 367605) and 50 mm Elmar lens (serial number 477984) which have both been crudely defaced by grinding in a manner that is reminicient of the fate of many such cameras after the war. Unfortunately the defacement was very thorough and only one of the original engravings on the top plate FL No 38079 has survived in a legible form.
Since the leather case also seems to have had some sort of marking scratched out on the top cover it leads me to believe that perhaps the entire camera and lens outfit may be able to be traced to a single shipment date. I am not sure what date camera and lens outfits began to be issued together but perhaps this outfit is such an example.
I hope that a fellow member may be able to supply me with some information that might enable this to be verified.
best regards to all
Steve Pavlovich
Perth, Western Australia
UV/IR filters
By: brent perkins
i have two leica UV/IR filters, size 43mm and 46mm. i'm looking to traded them for two 39m UV/IR filters. send me an email if you have what i'm looking for, thank you
A Short Riff on IXMOO Cassettes
By: S. Willis Wright
With some pride and excitement, I recently returned to loading and processing my own black and white film in IXMOO cassettes. It worked, its easy, and is well worth trying. Central to this effort was relearning the idiosyncrasies of the IXMOO cassettes. For the curious, they were listed as “IXMOO-DRXOO” (Leica #14001, page C19) for the cassette and its plastic can, and “IXMOO-SINE” (Leica #14006, page C19) for the cassette alone without the can back in the 1961 Leica Catalog #36.
I have several and the first efforts went well. To my surprise when I used what I’d call a “new” or relatively unused cassette (finish intact and unbrassed with a gray spool), it jammed and would not open in the camera. This was puzzling, as I’d tried it carefully by hand before loading. I still can’t figure out the reason for its not opening with the baseplate latch. The cassette fits freely in the cameras (several M’s and a IIIf), but the latch simply won’t open it. So, the point of all this is to try your IXMOO in the camera before loading it with film. That will forestall a difficult effort to change the loaded spool to another cassette in a changing bag or darkroom.
In hindsight, a well brassed cassette seems to telegraph smooth operation in the cameras. For those M6 or later owners that would like to taste the wine, M2, M3, M4, M4-2, and M4-P baseplates (the bottom base plate in Photo #2) will fit your camera and allow you to use the IXMOO. However, I’d counsel to “try before you buy”. Perhaps a simpler solution would be to acquire a “user” M4-2 or M4-P for black and white work and IXMOO use.
" THE LEICA PURSUIT," a Book
By: IRVING FREED
“The Leica Pursuit,” a book by Irving Freed, LHSA member. As shown on LULU.com, this paperback book cost $14.05,and ships in 3–5 business days. A must read for Leica enthusiasts; you will love this thriller, which is a good yarn with a photographic interest.
Review synopsis: In the book, “The Leica Pursuit,” the main character, Daniel Spanier, is a dealer in old and rare cameras, and photographica. Since his school days, Daniel has been known to his friends and acquaintances as ‘Spaniel.’
While attending a Government surplus auction, Daniel accidentally comes into possession of an old, pre-war Leica. This camera contains a deadly secret which leads to a pursuit across 3 English counties by ex-Nazis, who are intent on regaining the Leica.
Daniel discovers the secret of the Leica camera by enlisting an old friend in Cambridge, who has a darkroom in his house. Meanwhile, the pursuers, intent on regaining the Leica, are hot on his trail. They kidnap Daniel’s lady friend and hold her as a bargaining chip. Daniel leads them to Stansted Airport, where he and friends set up an exchange of the Leica for his lady friend.
With the help of a local rugby team, who create a diversion, he rescues her. Together, with the assistance of an old pilot friend, Daniel and his lady fly to Amsterdam in a small plane. But even in Amsterdam, they are found by the ex-Nazis, and they have to continue to elude their pursuers.
In a series of events, they eventually reach Jerusalem, where the contents of the Leica camera, and all the damning evidence associated with them, are handed over to the Nazi hunters at Yad Vashem.
In the finale of the book, Daniel, and his lady, return home to find that the government minister whose deadly secret was contained within the Leica, has been exposed in the world’s media.
M4 Modified for Rapidwinder, Leicavit and Motor Winder
By: Alex Shishin
Don Goldberg (DAG) modified the M4 I've owned since 1987 to take the Abrahamsson Rapidwinder and the current Leicavit and Leica motor winder. (See the first photograph in the above series.) Don also cleaned and adjusted the camera. The Rapidwinder I had originally planned to use on the M4 didn't take. (The locking mechanism was too tight I think, though perfect on my M6s.) The second Rapidwinder, which had been fine-tuned for me by Tom Abrahamsson did take. It is working quite smoothly now in its post-breaking in period. The grip is a first generation Rapidgrip that Tom modified for me.