Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/19

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Old Leica - information sought
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 13:23:44 -0400

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!