[Leica] Re: A real Leica mystery

[LRZeitlin@aol.com]

Can anyone in the LUG help me solve a small mystery? My son is an account 
executive for NCR and was involved in setting up automatic teller machines 
for the Japanese Sumitomo bank. One of bank executives learned that my son 
was a camera collector and gave him a "mystery" camera that the bank owned. 
My son asked me to identify it and I am at a loss to give him an answer. 

The camera is an SLR with an all black polycarbonate body about the size of 
an M series Leica. A red Leitz (not Leica) medallion is fixed to the front of 
the mirror housing. There are no manufacturer's identifying marks on the 
body. The focal plane shutter is a metal blade device, probably made by 
Copal. The camera is both automatic and manual with two programs and a self 
timer. The lens mount is complex with a stainless steel adaptor plate with a 
Leica SLR flange taking what appears to be an early R series lens which in 
turn fits a K mount on the camera body. The adaptor can be removed by taking 
out a couple of screws and K mount Pentax lens fitted. Lens automation is 
complete with either lens. Externally the camera appears to be a modified 
Chinon CP-5 but there is no indication whatever identifying the maker.

Inside the camera there are the engraved words "E. Leitz - versuch 
#549.73990-3". My son told me that when he received the camera there was a 
paper sticker inside with handwritten Japanese characters which he loosely 
translated as "engineering test sample." A date 5/4/84 was also written on 
the sticker.

My first thought was that the camera was a phony destined for the Japanese 
collector's market, but my son assured me that the bank executive was sincere 
and would have lost considerable face as well as lucrative business if a 
deception was discovered. My second thought was that it indeed was an 
engineering development sample, commissioned by Leitz during the early '80s 
as a possible lower cost replacement or auxiliary to the R-3. I know that 
Leitz did enter into a number of negotiations with other manufacturers during 
that period, most notably Minolta for contract manufacturing (i.e the 
Leitz/Minolta CL) in order to offset high German production costs.

Does anyone have any information or rumors about this? Are there any other 
crypto-Leicas around, unacknowledged illegtimate children of Wetzlar?

Larry Zeitlin