Leica camera question

cliveh · Feb 23, 2013

Can any of you Leica experts on APUG help me out here, as I wanted to learn more about the provenance (such as date of manufacture and batch quantity) of my black Leica II. The serial number is 147932 on the body, with no serial number on the Elmar 3.5 lens. When I Google and look up this number, I can only find chrome versions within this number range. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Pioneer · Feb 23, 2013

Based on Erwin Puts Leica Chronicle, you are right. Send it back immediately. It should be chrome.

Kidding, someone may have painted it at some point, maybe Leica themselves.

JLP · Feb 23, 2013

According to the book Leica the first 50 years by G. Rogliatti it is also listed as a II Chrome.
Most likely painted at some point as Pioneer is saying.

cliveh · Feb 23, 2013

Strange, as on some parts of the top plate the paint is slightly worn revealing a brassy type metal beneath, not chrome.

fstop · Feb 23, 2013

Could have been swapped at some point to replace a damaged top plate.

removed account4 · Feb 23, 2013

it's probably a fake or clone made in an east block country.
i'll b happy 2 take it oof your hands ... make shure you
inklude any + all accessories when you postal it to me

summicron1 · Feb 23, 2013

drop a line to leica in solms and ask nicely -- they have all manufacturing records and used to be pretty good about telling people when their camera was made and so on -- my I (C) was first shipped to a camera store in Berlin in 1931, as I recall. They sent me a photostat of the log entry.

Gerald C Koch · Feb 23, 2013

Before a chrome finished camera can be painted black it has to be de-chromed in an acid bath. Unless this is done the paint will not adhere properly. That your camera shows a bit of brassing indicates a professional paint job.

250swb · Feb 24, 2013

Leica serial numbers are only strictly sequental on rare occasions, so the batch numbers referred to in lists have a lot of leeway at each end. And it was still possible for a customer to order a black camera and this would have taken the next available serial number from whatever batch was in main production at the time. That your camera is brass underneath the paint also suggests that there is nothing wrong with it. As for the lens, some 50mm 3.5 Elmars didn't have serial numbers, but when they did it could be a faint number stamped on the inner lens ring.

Steve

cliveh · Feb 24, 2013

Thanks for all the suggestions and perhaps I will drop leica a line as Summicron suggested. I'm certain it's no fake, as I have seen some of the eastern block copies. Do any of you have the full address and department at leica I should write to?

Leica camera question

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