Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Jan 27, 2016 15:59:03 GMT -5
An oddity from Ebay tonight, a shutter lees and viewfinderless Leica, presumably a lab camera for oscilloscopes or microscopes, or telescopes, it has a basic capping shutter only, and takes the screw on lenses. It has a slide capping plate on the front to remove from the lens or equipment. Not an MD meter camera, maybe a camera to take a film for a duplicator, but then these types take bulk film, this one is 35 cassette. At least made by Leitz, and under the price of a film at £6.40...... Can't find them on the net, text or images, any ideas of an official name or Leitz reference? Stephen.
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Post by yashica1943 on Jan 28, 2016 3:41:16 GMT -5
I couldn't find it on ebay, probably been sold. The wind-on lever looks like a Voigtlander or Agfa detail!
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Jan 28, 2016 9:05:45 GMT -5
I had already bought it yesterday, the design is odd, it is clearly marked Leitz Wetzlar on the collar around the lens screw mount, but the rest of the body is not Leica in style, more like Voigtlander or Adox etc.
The mount is not quite the same as an MD meter body. The slide acts like a light trap on a plate holder, indicating that the full camera can be interchanged from whatever equipment it fitted with a half used film etc.
I do not think Leitz were responsible for the camera as such, maybe only the lens mount is Leitz. If they made the body able to take different mounts, why not just engrave the mount make Leica, rather than the Wetzlar as well.
It's obviously an obscure model, lots of net searches show nothing matching the camera
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SidW
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Post by SidW on Jan 28, 2016 18:38:35 GMT -5
Maybe it's homemade, combining a body and a Leitz mount. As you suggested for lab use. Hardly a deception at that price.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Jan 28, 2016 20:01:55 GMT -5
It's a very strange for a homemade, as the top is formed and plated, and entirely without a speed dial or viewfinder. Might have been made from existing camera parts in the factory, before they were finished. The parts style do look like Voigtlander Bessamatic period. I was not suggesting any deception, just curiosity as to who made it. The Leitz name is engraved in the casting of the mount. The bottom plate is a corrugated pressing, very unlike Leica. It could be East German, but they used Exacta or Altissa bodies for lens less specialist cameras.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Jan 28, 2016 20:24:23 GMT -5
Pictures from the listing of the body on Ebay, with the bottom corrugated finish it does look rather East German, perhaps Beira, and there look to be plastic parts in the interior, something Leitz would not do.....If West German, then Agfa matches the style, but did they make specialist Laboratory cameras?. Obviously the main feature is the front mounted dark slide indicating it was vital to be able to change the whole body mid film. Stephen.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Jan 28, 2016 20:39:56 GMT -5
It is unlikely to be a Telephone Meter camera, there are no flash PC contacts on the camera body for a start, the MD Leica one has a full shutter and flash sync, so does the Alpa meter camera.
The cameras, both Alpa and Leica, I saw in use with Post Office Telephones in the 1960's, used a flash fitted to a diffuser box that clipped on to the meter rack. The camera came in a locked case for security, the box containing all the equipment needed to take the negs for conversion to micro fiches from which phone bills were generated.I think Kodak Recordak film was used.
The negs were sealed in the box for transport. It as important to show that were not tampered with in any way, as large bills for companies were prepared from them, and they always queried the meters! If the bills were queried, then specialist meters that recorded the call parameters,(not content), could be added by jumpers to the lines in question, to give more evidence to back up the photographs. The meters were rarely wrong!! If they failed it was to the customers advantage!! Stephen.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Jan 31, 2016 8:49:21 GMT -5
Arrived yesterday, and exact maker is still a mystery, it has got Made in Germany engraved on the back, the only mention of Leica is the engraved mount. There is, as expected no shutter, just a release for the film transport. The back and interior are moulded plastic, and from the style of the parts, I would say it dates from the 1960's. The mount and the slide are metal parts, as are the top and bottom.
The pressure plate has three rails across the flat plate, done by several makers to reduce drag.
My best guess is a microscope camera, using the optics of the microscope plus time exposures. It is however a strange mount to use. The mount flange front to film distance is the usual Leica figure, 28.8mm.
Anyway it cost only £6 .......
Stephen.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Feb 4, 2016 12:05:31 GMT -5
Took the "thing" apart completely, and no markers name, but the whole interior looks East German to me, or a cheap West German maker. Anyway not in a thousand years a "Leica"........ I think I'll find an old 35mm folder that is caput in body and remove the Compur/Prontor shutter and lens and fit it to the front, an old East German folder would do, or a body expired Retina. The film transport works fine, as does the counter.
Stephen.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Feb 4, 2016 12:13:29 GMT -5
Just realised that it would fit the Sperling Bellows, that have a built in mirror box for viewing, and they have a rear Leica thread. Sperling made the bellows in the 1960's in Berlin. I seem to remember that a advert mentioned a suitable 35mm camera body to fit on to the bellows, supplied by Sperling themselves.......this is worth investigating. I already have the Sperling Bellows unit.
Stephen.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Feb 4, 2016 12:26:27 GMT -5
That's the Sperling Bellows, and the "thing" fits, and resembles the styling, so on display with the bellows in future.........
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Feb 4, 2016 12:38:28 GMT -5
Got it, Hans Sperling, Berlin, had a plain 35mm body with film dark slide made for them in the mid 1960's to fit the Bellows unit. It was intended for time exposures or for ring flash, with filters to control exposure. So no maker, but Sperling supplied it........
Stephen.
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SidW
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Post by SidW on Feb 4, 2016 19:34:49 GMT -5
Well done. Made in Germany usually meant DDR.
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