Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/08/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 02:55 PM 8/5/06 +1000, G Hopkinson wrote: >Are you suggesting that the IIIc is a better choice because of >useability/availability/cost/value for money? I was actually just >considering a single body and lens, just for the pleasure of learning and >using the LTM model, as well as my M. Still shopping just for another lens >or so for that one. I know there's a 28 out there somewhere just itching to >be adopted. >I need to sell some stuff, the photo cupboard is bulging with neglected >cameras as it is. > >Aren't/weren't the Jupiter lenses Russian manufactured on post WW2 acquired >Zeiss equipment? >Do you suggest them because of their Zeiss designs but lower prices? My >initial reaction would be to be wary of quality control issues. However, I >have to say I have never even seen one. The IIIc is at the same time the last of the traditional Leica TM cameras and the first of the new ones -- it has the new one-piece chassis and is stronger than the earlier models, while it still retains the old shutter-speed sequence and the like. (It is too long to tell the tale here, but Ernst Leitz III had been advocating an upgrade to the Leica design in the mid-1930's, which led to the one-off Leica IV of 1936, but the process was put off due to the War. After the War, the process was restarted with two different design teams producing competing concepts -- one team produced what became the IIIg, the other the M3.) IIIc's are relatively easy to find, are durable, flexible, and inexpensive. The Jupiter lenses are Soviet productions from Zeiss tooling of the Prewar Contax lenses. They are inexpensive and are of the highest optical ability but quality control is an issue: it has been suggested on the LUG that you buy three lenses to ensure that one of them is of decent build quality! For your purposes, a basic IIIc with either a 3.5/5cm Elmar or a 2/5cm Summitar or Summicron would do you just fine. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!