Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]B.D. I believe you have a real collector's item. Oscar Barnack himself was said to be working on an important Leica attachment shortly before his death. Code named SCHNOZ, this attachment was to be placed in the accessory shoe where it could collect nose grease and then be wiped to spread the lubricant over the vulcanite on leica cameras. Several prototypes were made and a short production run was made in 1935. Oscar triumphantly announced that it would prolong the life of the camera beyond 40 years by preserving the vulcanite and keeping it from falling off. Unfortunately, the thought of more than 40 years passing before a Leica user bought a second camera was too much for the Leitz marketing folks, and the project was quietly dropped. Oscar is said to have become very bitter over this, but eventually cheered up and designed a 21mm viewfinder around the early SCHNOZ prototypes. Obviously, you have one of his early modifications and could sell your SCHNOZ on Ebay for quite a profit. But you'd probably be better off to use it as the inventor intended. Of course you might have to buy an M3 to get the full value, but you will be paid back by having, in a few years, the only M series camera with intact vulcanite in the entire world. Hope this helps, Mike Quinn B.D. Colen wrote Speaking of nose grease...I am being driven totally nuts by the fact that when I use my 21 on my M I find that I am coating my finder window with nose grease when I used the 21 finder...Does anyone have a clever solution for this other than 'don't use a finder,' which is a wise-ass, rather than clever, solution. ;-)