Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]512229 is a IIIc dating from 1950. The lens is a 2/2" Cooke Amotal (note the spelling!), a rather interesting lens: the formula had begun life as the intended normal lens for the Bell and Howell Foton. When that design failed in the marketplace, the remaining Amotal lens elements were purchased by a third-party (Peerless & Willoughby have been suggested, but B&J is another possible culprit), and sent to Italy for remounting into what is arguably the crudest coupled LTM mount ever produced. (A small run were also made in Contax RF BM, incidentally.) The "fair trade" laws of the era allowed camera manufacturers to dictate retail prices when their camera body was sold with their lens, but not if the body was sold with a third-party lens. Hence, Leitz could dictate what price a New York mass-market store could charge for a IIIc with Summitar, but not for a IIIc with Amotal or Xenon or Sonnar. I would guess around 500 Amotal lenses were made in LTM, and possibly 200 in Contax RF BM. It is a nice and quite interesting lens. And further information is available, of course, in that most interesting fount of information on third-party aftermarket LTM lenses, NON-LEITZ LEICA THREAD-MOUNT LENSES: A 39mm DIVERSITY. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!