Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/11/11

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Subject: M5 planned in 1963 ? was:Leica Urban Myth #44
From: Lucien_vD <Lucien_vD@compuserve.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 17:43:01 -0500

Marc

>Er, the Viso III was introduced in '63, the M5 in '71.  There was no way=

>that Leitz was thinking of the M5 when they designed the Viso III:  they=

>don't think ten minutes into the future, much less eight years.

Marc,

I will not be so sure of that.

The M5 seem to have been planned as a M4 before 1967
(see prototype in Leica-A History illustrating every Model an Accessory-
P-H van Hasbroeck-Sotheby page 178/179 Photography XXXIV etc..).
But because the moving cell had to be perfected (until 1971),
Leitz come out with an evolution of the M2/M3 instead of a
look like M5 .(Fortunately !!)
When you look at some of those prototypes, you can see that
they are more 1963's than 1971's.

There is some prototype of the 1965 Leicaflex made in 1958.

Lucien
BELGIUM