[Leica] Difference between the Focomat IIA and IIC

["Anderson, Ferrel E" <AndersonF@ria.army.mil>]

Vick,  I expected that some old timer would respond, but he hasn't, so I will
attempt to answer your question.  

The IIC will enlarge all formats up to 6X9 cm, and is fitted with two lenses.
The 60mm f4.5 Focotar is for formats up to 4X4 cms, and the 100 f4.5 V-Elmar is
for formats up to 6X9 cms.  The autofocus ranges for these lenses are about 3X
to 11X for the 60, and 2X to 8X for the 100.

The IIA was fitted with a 50mm Focotar and, I believe, a 90 mm Focotar.  Only
one lens could be used on the enlarger at a time.  I have no idea how the cams
were engaged.  One advantage of the IIA is a very large autofocusing range for
the 50mm Focotar.  I don't know what the range is, but it is greater than that
for the IIC and the 60 mm Focotar.   The enlarger was designed for formats up to
6X9 cm, but I doubt if the 90 mm lens could cover this format acceptably.

Both enlargers feature a double condenser head, and look very much alike.   I
believe they both used double glass sandwich negative carriers.  This is
definitely true for the IIC with the larger format carrier, but the 35mm carrier
features a single glass pressure plate. 

The advantage of the IIA is the large autofocusing range for 35mm negatives.
The advantage of the IIC is the much better performance with larger formats in
terms of coverage, resolution and contrast.  The IIC was fitted with four
different lenses.  The earliest models were fitted with a 95mm Focotar.  This
lens was superseded by the 100mm F4.5 V-Elmar, which in turn was superseded by
the 100mm f5.6 Focotar-2.  The 60mm f4.5 Focotar was not recomputed over the
life of the enlarger.

Ferrel Anderson