Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 04:15 PM 11/28/1999 +0000, Mike Johnston wrote: >could you (or someone else) please educate me >about Visoflexes? Variants, best and/or worst versions, uses, usable >lenses, screwmount or M mount or both? Costs? availability? From memory, so some of the dates may be off a bit: THE COLLECTIBLES: Prewar PLOOT '36 - '39 fixed viewfinder, LTM only $150 to $300 <<pre-production "Visoreflexgehause", 1940>> Postwar PLOOT '45 - '51 changeable VF, LTM only $125 to $250 <<several types of VF's available, including the PAMOO 90-degree but there are also some others adapted from other Leitz camera rigs>> THE BARELY USEABLES: Visoflex I '51 - '59 LTM and M $100 to $200 <<all Viso's to this point use a double cable; the PLOOT just two regular cables connected by an exceedingly crude holder machined with little attention to detail from a single piece of aluminium, while the Viso had a dedicated double release and the LTM model even had a spiffy single-cable "sports release" -- the M version was announced but never released, and none has ever been found.>> Visoflex II '58 - '62 LTM and M. Totally new. $100 to $200 <<no cables: uses a lever instead. All sorts of the Viso I doodads could be fitted to the Viso II, though there was a new Bellows II rig.>> Visoflex IIa '62 LTM and M. $200 to $300 <<rare. Has MLU. Most seem to have been in M mount. There seems to have been a pre-production run with the colour dots on the MLU reversed from those on the production model: see my article in VIEWFINDER five or six years back for details.>> THE USEABLE Visoflex III '64 - '84 M $75 to $200 <<The most common Visoflex. The US military used these in some quantity, and those are now available through the surplus market.>> The most useable? Probably a Viso II M mount with a Bellows II rig: I have seen these pass hands at a camera show for under $150 in the recent past. (The Viso II LTM and M housings have different arms to match the differing locations of the shutter releases on the LTM and M bodies. If someone has an M Viso and wants to convert it, I might have a spare M arm.) Yes, I have used my Prewar PLOOT on an M6 and used TTL metering (put the mirror up first, a feature available on all Viso units, though not as nifty as with the later MLU system on the IIa and III.) Kind of neat to have the finest telephoto gear of 1939 matched to a svelte and modern camera. Shades of Dyrenfurth in the Himalayas! Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!