Monday I posted about my grandfather's Leica IIIc. In addition to getting an ecouranging comment from Andy Fraser, in London, my friend Blaine England dropped by to show my his Leica copies.

My Leica...

Blaine's fakes...

The one on the left is a Japanese copy of the Leica IIIf and the one on the right is a Russian copy of a Leica II. The Russian copy was probably made in 1934 by the Korkov Commune.

Blaine also sent a couple links. One of them is on how to cut the 35mm film leader so that little pieces don't break off and jam the shutter. It's applicable to all Leica screw thread mounts and their copies. But Blaine's link to a new Leica is the most exciting...

The New Leica-H

Leica has finally come out with a low-cost consumer model, the Leica-H. For those of us who have been wanting to own one of the legendary Leica cameras but unable to afford the $1,000 + price tag ,the H model is a godsend. Although it is a rangefinder, the H resembles the R models more than the M models at first glance. This is because of the high profile necessary to accomodate the medium format film size. Yes, mediium format. The new Leica model takes 120 sized film and comes with a host of new "features".

This prototype model was smuggled from a top secret German lab by a technician and these photos and specs are being made available by me as a service to collectors and enthusiasts.

Leica has made a few departures from their old ways and kept a few things the same for this model. One innovation is the use of sticky tape to hold the back plate in place. Previously, Leica has used a removeable base plate to assure absolute negative flatness. I'm told by technicans working on the H model that "this just wasn't an issue anymore". When I attempted to follow this up, asking if this was a result of the larger negative or simply a laxation of tolerences?" I was chased from the premisis. Another innovation is the ingenius reduction in movable (and therefore breakable) parts, the "rangefinder" optic is now more of a peep sight. All actual range finding is done by asking the subject "Bob, how far away would you say you are?" and then turning the focusing dial appropriately. Confusing distances have thoughtfully been kept off of the lens, focusing is now done by selecting one of four icons, "one person", "two people", "some people" and "mountian", "mountain" being the furthest away.
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