Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/10/12

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica IIIc/LTM lenses/Jupiter...
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 11:30:19 -0400
References: <B7EB55B3.6268%pkolodny@fibertel.com.ar> <00bb01c15285$66c1f600$bd3afea9@oemcomputer>

Dan

Your version is, well, not really in accord with the published sources.

There is ONE type of IIIc with very few variations within the run.  These
variations are primarily in the shutter material (you are correct in
pointing out that the original material became unavailable during the War,
though the red curtain material was the stuff from Kodak AG and had been
purchased before the War for a potential tropical model) and in the
bearings holding the shutter curtain rollers.  Leitz had used pin-bearings
through the early IIIc's;  when Germany occupied Norway, the military
discovered that these pin-bearing cameras would freeze up in cold humid
weather.  Thus, Leitz installed roller bearings on the "K" series cameras.
This proved to be over-kill, so the later IIIc's (and ALL Leica RF's
thereafter, including the M's) are "half-race" cameras, with one
ball-bearing and one pin-bearing on the shutter-curtain rollers.  (Zeiss
Ikon also preoduced Contax cameras which were intended for cold-weather
use, and these were also marked, though internally, by a "K".  The Leitz
"K", though, stood for "Kugelläger", or ball-bearing, while the Zeiss Ikon
"K" stood for "Kaltfest", or cold-proofed -- Zeiss Ikon simply stripped
their cameras of all lubricants and relubed, very lightly, with special oils.)

The peeling-chrome problem afflicts late-Wartime cameras, many of which are
finished in grey paint.  Postwar, the problem was in the Vulcanite supply,
and most of the later IIIc's are of a material with a different finish,
generally referred to as "sharkskin".

The IIIf BD shared an identical shutter with the IIIc.  The IIIf RD has a
"lightened" shutter which was reputed to be more reliable -- though HOW any
camera's shutter could be "more reliable" than the bulletproof IIIc's
escapes me -- but, in practice, the principle difference seems to be the
higher flash-synch speed of 1/50" (the IIIc and IIIf BD synched at 1/30")
and revised shutter speeds, though still not a "geometric" progression.  As
the IIIf RD has become a bit of a collector's desideratum, the IIIc and
IIIf BD are the best buys in the Leica TM world at present.

Dan, with all respect, you might spend less time speaking with these
mysterious "gurus" and more time perusing the scholars who know the facts,
such as Laney and Lager.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir!

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Replies: Reply from "Dan Post" <dpost@triad.rr.com> (Re: [Leica] Leica IIIc/LTM lenses/Jupiter...)
Reply from Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> (Re: [Leica] Leica IIIc/LTM lenses/Jupiter...)
In reply to: Message from Pablo Kolodny <pkolodny@fibertel.com.ar> (Re: [Leica] Leica IIIc/LTM lenses/Jupiter...)
Message from "Don Dory" <dorysrus@mindspring.com> (Re: [Leica] Leica IIIc/LTM lenses/Jupiter...)