Tuesday 21 February 2017

Back to the future-LPP photo walk

Truly in the spirit of the founding fathers of LPP the following notice is worthy of the widest distribution  among Leica enthusiasts in striking distance! 

                                                    Monthly Leica meets in Bristol.
London Camera Exchange Bristol (Baldwin Street) will be hosting a monthly social meet and photo walk, named Bristol Leica Social. The first meeting will be on April 1st, 2017, and on the first Saturday of every month thereafter. 
Each meet will start at the store, at 9am, (3 Alliance House, Baldwin Street, BS1 1SA) then divide into smaller groups for a photo walk around the centre, meeting at a café at 12 noon to compare images and, of course, discuss all things Leica.
For more information please contact LCE on 0117 929 1935. Please note that there are two branches of London Camera Exchange in Bristol. The Leica specialist Baldwin Street branch is near the Waterfront area of the city.

Saturday 18 February 2017

Six foot Leica for sale-$250 million (O.N.O.?)

No picture with this one as it's illustrated across two pages of  The Times (London) supplement today, 18.2.17.  Go out and buy a copy this morning.  At 924 Bel Air Road, Hollywood is a house with an enormous 'Leica' reproduction which could appear to be a bar or a piece of furniture,  However what is most interesting is the model used by the maker.  The body obviously has a battery cover from the M6/M7 but also a front slow speed dial. There is an angled rewind as in later M cameras but above all... the lens,  clearly marked f2.0 5cm Summar but the serial number is unclear (last made 1940) Very strange.  A rather nice house is included in the asking price.

Monday 13 February 2017

Mystery Solved !

In my Blog dated 8th February I made reference to the unusual viewfinder used by Mr Herbert in the small photograph which I added.  I am pleased to say that I have traced what I think is the finder in a copy of Leica Illustrated Guide 11 by the famous James L. Lager published by Morgan and Morgan in 1978.( Page 125-first printing)

The finder is lacking in any number or Code Word but resembles a squashed plastic cup formed into a rectangular shape at the front.  The model illustrated has a cross wire and bead, possibly for aerial photography, but no reference is made to this part in a railway context and,  quite frankly, the addition of the wire looks rather a home made adaptation unworthy of Leitz.  It bears the usual Leitz trade mark and is engraved '5cm'. There are no optical parts.  It is shoe mounted and no doubt could be replicated in plastic card if one really thought it a good idea.

Given the rarity and the fact it was never marketed no doubt this finder came over from Germany after the War, I have never seen one in the U.K., beyond this photograph.