Vintage Leica Black Paint, Olive Bundeseigentum and rare lens Photographic experience 古董徠卡相機

Monday, 2 April 2018

The Leica M4 was made from 1967 to 1975 and was a very successful camera. It has major improvement and It was a true photo-journalists camera with the 35mm framelines from the Leica M2 were carried over to this model and it also had the 135mm framelines that the M3 had but the M2 lacked! Lenses to go onto the M4 without issues thus were 35mm, 50mm, 90mm and 135mm, making it the most versatile Leica M until then.

In addition, it also received a quick-rewind crank which was fitted on the body with a clever, tilted design. And, the quick-load kit that was available for the M2 became standard on the M4.

All in all the production numbers are:

1. silver chrome cameras 47,191,

2. black cameras 8,990,

3. Motor-capable cameras 905,

4. Ernst Leitz Canada built another 2,355.

The black cameras were black lacquer until 1972, and later cameras were built in black chrome. My Leica M4 black paint has finally arrived from Germany. The overall condition is very good with the showing of some nice brass underneath after usage. The vintage Leica Black paint series originates from the Leica M3, M2 and Mp and the last was the M4 until Leica revive the black paint series with the Black Paint M6 2000 series and dragon series for Asia and the Leica MP.

Sunday, 1 April 2018

Leica collection

These are my small collections of vintage Leica M3 Olive, M4 Black paint, M3 Black paint and the antique Leica III Black paint. I have deliberately decided to keep the number down by trading away the Leica I, Leica II and the Rolleiflex. It wiil be ideal if I can trade away the Leica III for a black paint Leica M2 so that M2, M3, M4 family could be united..

My Leica journey with M3 Olive Bundeseigentum M3橄欖色

Following my transition from using Rolleiflex to Leica M3 chrome to now the Leica M3 Olive Bundeseigentum M3橄欖色, the Leica journey has been an interesting one.

Even though I love the Rolleiflex, with only 12 shots per roll of film plus the higher costs for developing the film and the higher costs of film has made me reflect on what I want. Furthermore, the bigger size of the Rolleiflex camera has been "attention gathering" and the cameras have made it harder for me to bring the camera around, especially overseas. All these reasons have pushed me towards using Leica plus the fact that Leica company is still around and servicing it will be relatively easier as well as the great number of collectors using Leica. Most important of all is that it will give me a common topic with Keith.