The Leica IIIf was Leitz's first 35mm camera body for screw mount lenses with built-in flash synchronization. It succeeded the Leica IIId, which was a rare variant of the Leica IIIc. Built-in synch means that, unlike its predecessors, the IIIf didn't need an optional rework for flash photography. But flash sychronization still needed an extra adjustment, a contact number between 0 and 20 , which was depending on the type of flash bulbs. That was necessary since different types of bulbs needed different flash firing delay times for exact synchronization. The color of the contact number scale was changed from black to red in 1952 to make a distinction between the IIIf with older and the one with newer shutter types. The red dial model has a 1/50 flash sync speed compared with only 1/30 for the black dial model. When the camera body appeared on the market in 1950 it was already prepared for an upgrade adding a self-timer - that was available from 1954.
Leitz also made the IIf, without slow speeds; this also only had a 1/500 top speed on black dial models and early red dial models. The IIf has a round piece of vulcanite in the normal location of the slow speed dial. The even rarer If has no slow speeds, viewfinder or rangefinder. Unlike the IIIf and IIf, the If has the flash sync socket on the front of the body in place of the slow speed dial.
Links[]
In English:
- Leica III f Ken Lyndrups Collection of photo-corius [1]]
- Leica IIIf Owners Manual
- Manual available on the Favorite Classics section of .kyphoto.com
- Opening a Screwmount Leica (IIIc or IIIf)
- Leica IIIf Repair Manual (PDF), at Pentax Manuals
- Servicing Screw Mount Leicas (PDF), at Pentax Manuals
In French:
- Leica IIIf at [http://www.summilux.net summilux.net
]
- On www.collection-appareils.fr by Sylvain Halgand :
In German:
- Leica IIIf story at Peter Lausch's [2]
In Danish:
- Leica III f Ken Lyndrups foto-raritetsskab [3]]