[Leica] Re: Early 2.8/35 Elmarit-R

["Doug Richardson" <doug@meditor.demon.co.uk>]

I recently bought a two-cam f2.8 35mm Elmarit for my Leicaflex. The
serial number is from a block allocated in 1963, so presumably this is
a very early example, later converted to two-cam. I assume this
conversion was done by Leitz, though the heads of the screws on the
rear of the lens show significant slot scarring, which suggests some
degree of carelessness. (I've been told that Leitz-era engineering
documents specified the exact size of screwdriver to be used for every
screw, so that screw slots remained undamaged.)

What did surprise me was that the lens mount does not rotate as the
lens is focussed. According to most reference books, early lenses of
this type had rotating mounts. Did Leitz offer a conversion to the
non-rotating version? Replacing a single helix mechanism with a
twin-helix version sounds like a pretty drastic "upgrade".

Regards,

Doug Richardson