Re: [Leica] Re: Another Leica story (LONG)

["James R. Nelon" <jnelon@netvigator.com>]

Welcome back! Wondered where you had disappeared to. Let's have another
LUG dinner in Hong Kong. Eh?

Jim Nelon

Cummer Family wrote:
> 
> Dear Luggers,
> I have been off the LUG for seven weeks travelling in England and Scotland
> and then North America with my newish M6HM TTL along with 35 summicron
> Asph, 24mm ASPH, 90 Elmarit and the Voigtlander 15mm Heliar plus a Metz
> 32ZM2 all tucked away in a Domke bag. I used mostly the 35, followed by the
> Heliar, with only a few times when the 24 seemed just right. The 90mm saw
> very little use except when I was stalking deer along a roadside on
> Vancouver Island. After seven weeks with the M6HM TTL I must confess I
> really like the TTL flash, although 1/50 as sync speed is limiting in
> certain sunny conditions, especially if you are used to 1/250. Still, by
> balancing LEDs with the flash, very effective fill flash can be obtained.
> The other thing that did not bother me about the M6TTL was the direction of
> the shutter speed dial - I just got used to it and now like that the LED
> points in the direction you should turn the dial. I think I will have
> trouble going back to my M6 classic.
> On to my Leica story: while in Western Canada I had dinner with old German
> friends and talk turned to Leicas. It turns out that on the birth date of
> the wife of my host - October 3, 1933 - her father, a Doctor in Hanover -
> went out and bought a Leica, together with a collapsible 5cm Elmar F3.5.
> (#674XXX) My host went down into his basement and brought up a box of Leica
> equipment, including the above camera (black paint - unscratched - serial
> number 116XXX - a model III F according to Dennis Laney's book - but by the
> serial number it should be chrome and it isn't?? another one of those
> interesting Leica mysteries) with an as-new case and two other lenses - a
> 3.5cm Summaron F3.5 (#1159XXX) and a 5cm Summar F2.0, (#286XXX) along with
> a Vidom view finder and another rangefinder with prism in a separate
> leather case. Unfortunately the Summaron and the Summar, having lived in
> the damp basement for many years were cloudy with fungus but the Elmar was
> quite clear, although the front element was scratched a bit. Also in the
> box were a selection of Leica filters UV "fiola", yellow 1 "fiooc", Yellow
> "figro", Yellow "fihel" and Green "fbxoo" all with original cases and an
> Ising tripod. The camera is missing one circular front cover for the
> rangefinder window, and as might be expected the rangefinder is quite dirty
> and the slower shutter speeds are slow but the over all condition is near
> mint - as is the camera case. It seems the Doctor used the camera to take
> pictures of his daughter and her siblings and then when she grew up he gave
> the camera to her - having bought it when she was born to pass on to her
> when she could appreciate it. The camera survived the war - it was at the
> Doctor's office when their house was bombed - and then was taken to New
> York where it was used to take pictures of the daughter's young family.
> Finally it was taken to Toronto and hence to Western Canada where it wasn't
> used much any more. I think it remarkable that such a complete history of a
> camera can be traced and find it's cosmetic condition hard to believe (it
> is as good as my nearly new M6HM TTL) - even though it does need to be CLAd
> and the view finder window cover needs to be replaced (are there spare
> parts for a 66 year old camera I wonder?) Finally, I promised my friends
> that I would ask the LUG what would be a fair price for all this equipment
> and what are the possibilities that the Summaron and the Summar could be
> cleaned of their fungus? Welcome your thoughts everone,
> Cheers
> Howard Cummer.