Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]hello leica friends, after some time of active absence from the LUG - first caused by the examination for the master of photography, which i did with success; then caused by lots of journalistic work arround the deadly avalanche-desaster in the tyrolean paznaun-valley (austria) close to me - i like to report a little bit about personal leica-pleasures. the pleasures came with an old leica II of my brother in law, who brought the camera to the light again after years of a "cinderella-being" down in a humid cellar. his father once used this camera for journalistic work. the camera - in leather case - was heavy spotted with verdigris. my brother in law - he's is not a camera-enthusiast - asked me, if i could look a little bit after the camera an clean it. it is a black leica II, serial number 786xx, with a collapsible elmar 50 mm 1:3,5; in a small leather case, there is also a yellow filter with it. after carefull cleaning off the dust and oxidations, i was wondering how the camera will work. the shutter sounds like having a cough, and the long exposure-times up from 1/60 seems to run badly. it did take some time and worries, until i had success to load the camera with a reel of black&white-film - stephen gandys homesite helped. then i've made some test-shoots. as expected, the long times don't work: the curtain remains open, as long as i press the button at 1/40, 1/30 and 1/20. there is also malfunction at 1/500 - only partly exposured frames. the uncoated lens is very sensitive for halation, for strong light sources. there are some very fine scratches on the front lens. but regardless of this, a fascinating surprise for me was the sharpenes of this lens - very fine details and brillance. also with full opened apperture. the rangefinder still works absolutely perfect and is bright. i wonder, how much effort it will take and how much it would cost to bring this leica back to full working function - the shutter seems to be the only big problem, and maybe a bit of new lubrication for the lens-mechanics would'nt be bad. it must be great fun to use this ancient jewelry of the 30s for some "lyric" photo-work today. comments are welcome, regards thomas böhm, imst, austria _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com