1933 Leica?
 

Good Day,

Could / would any members have any information on this make of camera? It belonged to my late Father who was given it as a gift, he saved a German from drowning in Australia, 1950. The story goes that the camera was used by Abhwer(sp) agents during the Nazi regime. Any info or links would be helpful. BTW, I do not want to sell.

I thank you. Pat

I do not know anything about Leica cameras but I will have a look.

Here is a starter link. Looks a bit like it is a Leica II (D) type 1
http://www.leitzmuseum.org/CameraMak...getleicas.html

Don

Thanks for that Don. It sure looks like it the one, I have something to go on now, many thanks.

Lots more info in these links.
http://www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/leica/sm/smid.htm
http://www.cameraquest.com/classics.htm

Cameraquest links has a tab with serial numbers and yours is definately a Leica II D without the slow speed dial on the front plate as in the straight II.
Back in those days it was common for slow speeds to be accomodated on a seperate dial.

Don

The Hektor F2.5 is an interesting lens instead of the more common Elmar F3.5. My 'Leica Manual' from 1947 states that '...with 100% increase in speed and a slight decrease in sharpness at full aperture, (it) was so designed that even if the iris was closed only to F4.5 or F6.3 the sharpness equalled if not surpassed that of the pictures of the Elmar 50mm.' I wouldn't expect great wonders from an uncoated lens, though. 10,600 units were made between 1930 and 1948.

As a general rule with screw-thread Leicas, 1 series have no rangefinder on the top plate, 11 series have the rangefinder and 111 series have the slow-speed dial on the front of the camera below the normal shutter-speed dial on the top plate.

Your camera is obviously a genuine Leica but for anyone looking to collect them beware that there are a number of fakes around based on the 11 series (probably the other series as well, but many 11s were churned out quite recently in Kiev and often have fake Nazi type symbols on them!). Remove the lens and the genuine Leicas have round cam-followers for the rangefinder whereas the fakes have a sort of 'rounded triangular' shape cam-follower.

I agree - 1932 Leica II (D) withe the rarer Hektor f2.5 I read the seriel as 87690 - the serial for this model started in feb 1932 and went from 71200 to 101000 with a production batch of 29,801. Leica have their own shop that sells these still LINKhttps://www.leicashop.com/vintage/le...01_100112.html

This shows value re condition.

Thanks for the very interesting links, Don, Adey & Andy, glad that I asked. Many Thanks