Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/10/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html