Re: [Leica] Brassed M4

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

 The M4 could be converted to the Leicavit MP with the addition of the M4-M 
or M4-Mot drive. This has the longer shaft of the M2 as well as the "tulip" 
of the M4 incorporated in it. It works with the Leicavit MP but the problem 
is that the clutch in the L-vit MP has only one point of engagement and if 
your camera is slightly out of synch, you have to pull the advance lever 
twice. Both the cameras advance and the L-vit MP has to be fully "cocked" to 
engage properly. I used to have an old M4-M (I seem to remember the # was 
1185050) with the Leicavit MP on it. I always got the sequence wrong and 
spent many a frames swearing at the system. When I designed the Rapidwinder 
M2 I incorporated a multi-pin clutch that allows you to "set" the clutch in 
the first advance and it doesn't go out of whack after that. The M4-M/M4-Mot 
drive gear was hardened steel and was a bit rougher in the advance than the 
usual brass gears (just like the Leica MP and the small series of double 
stroke M3's in black that Leica made for the Swedish press in 1957). Also 
remember that until late 60's Leica would modify cameras according to owners 
wishes, turn chrome cameras into black paint, drop M4 finders into M2's, 
convert M3's into accepting the Leicavit MP, install selftimers if you wanted 
one. They would even do strange things like supply black painted film-counter 
dials if you so wished and black painted locks on the baseplate. They had a 
very efficient service for this, only took about 1-2 weeks to have your M3 
converted to black paint and the finder conversions could be done almost 
overnight by the authorised service centres. In Sweden, Brandt Optik 
performed these services (they even had their own engraving machine for 
re-engraving # numbers on new tops).
Tom A