A curious Leica fake...

No, Lenny Unfortunatedly Not.
As I could see, This neuca prototype, is better careful made than Uca.
Flensburg The sucessor of Neuca.
LP

Sorry, Lenny, I cannot be precise: the two cameras are remounted now.
If you look at the photo I posted at 09:18:04, you see the housing of VF/RF (in brass). The right and (particularly?) left spaces are less important on the Neuca.

Another photo to compare the covers with their different shapes. It's all that which allows to place the button, I think.


http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/28112014_DSCF1733.JPG

Amitiйs. Jacques.

as for the screw on the top right... winder end: both my redcurtains IIIc have a screw on that end of the top, but not on the other side...
that's what you were remembering at the beginning of the discussion. But it's the only thing that this camera has with a stepped IIIc.

nice find... may be you should fit the odd 50mm F2 partially coated lens on it... ;-)

by the way is the lens flange at the (almost) standard register ?


Stephan

bonjour Jacques,
you have this Neuca gem for nearly 2 weeks now. Could you clean it and make it work again? How does it sound?
Did you change the tension setting screws? The 4-sided nut is on the closing curtain which is not necessary because it doesn't need so much tension as the opening curtain. The 4-sided nut would be much better on the opening curtain to adjust it better. I think they were changed by mistake. Too bad there is no inside photo of the Neuca from 1948 for comparisons. Interesting is that the black Neuca from 1946 has two 6-sided nuts like on Leicas and then Neuca went away from that and changed to 2-sided and 4-sided nuts.

To Lenny: I don't want to modify anything on this camera. The curtains are just partially jammed, and it would be easy to restore them. But I prefer to keep it in its actual condition.

To Stephan: good question! The lens flange is standard (28,8/28,9mm by my caliper).

Amitiйs. Jacques.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jacques M.


I don't want to modify anything on this camera. The curtains are just partially jammed, and it would be easy to restore them. But I prefer to keep it in its actual condition.

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I can understand that and of course this Neuca is very very special, but isn't it tempting to see how this gem works.

When I get an old camera, first I check if the shutter works. Sometimes the gears are dry and instead to clean and lube it the previous owner only increased the tension to keep it working. I lower the tension then first to give the camera some rest and sometimes I keep it cocked for some days to give the opening curtain some rest too. I'm sure these old cameras are in good hands when we have them.

Just a detail more about this camera.
By the position of "D.R.P." (Deutsches Reich Patent) on the cover, the Leica camera which was used as a model was made between 1932 and 1936. After, the "DRP" inscription is in second position, just under "Leica".

That does not really change what we had said. But the camera could have been made before WW2 too.

Amitiйs. Jacques.

Hi Jacques,

I think the change of the D.R.P. position was end of 1935. The real Leica #71571 must be an early Leica-II, not an upgraded one, but in black paint. I think because your Neuca looks different, especially under the base-plate, an early serial number was chosen.

By the way, the Neuca which was just sold at westlich for 6600 euro was also sold there in November 2007, lot 332, for 5520 euro, at least the lens has the same number.

The change of the "DRP" position appeared somewhere in 1935 or 1936. For the moment, I don't have a better estimation. But it is not such important: it was just to enlarge the possible date of making.

And yes, as I have already said, the number is at the beginning of the (D) Couplex series (71200 in february 1932). At that time, all the Leicas were in black, except some special orders.

Having this camera in hands, just a word more. It was strongly used: the peeling of chrome around the speed dial and the two back windows is evident... A prototype which was tested for a possible mass production, perhaps.

This is the Leica data I know about Jacques:
batch 150201-150850 Leica-3 chrome Dec1934-Jan1935
178255 Leica-3a D.R.P.down
180952 Leica-2 D.R.P.up
batch 183601-183750 Leica-1 Dec1935-Jan1936

There is this black Neuca which might be from 1946


http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/1562015_Neuca-Prototype base2.jpg

Then there is the Neuca which was just sold at westlich, could be from 1948


http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/1562015_Neuca proto westlicht 1506251.jpg

They both have six-sided nuts with an additional plate under it and the long shutter-spring. Your Neuca has 2/4-sided nuts without a plate under it and a short spring. I guess your Neuca is a younger evolution. Why start with a shorter spring when Feds had long springs. But still I like your Neuca most, very special.

Luiz,

Do you know what the shutter box of the Neucaflex is made of?
On your site, it seems aluminium or iron, not brass: http://www.novacon.com.br/influest12.htm
On my camera, it is made of iron, contrarily to the Neucas we know.
And the base plate is made of iron too. I had not tried a magnet...

So, this camera could derive from a Neucaflex rather than a Neuca?

Thanks. Jacques.

I actually own this cвmera and it is made of aluminium sheets.
I bought it around 1978 with Xenar 2.8 Isogon 40mm and telexenar 180mm and 360mm. na excelente kit!
more interesting I bought a second one identical that I sold soon after I assembled it.

This second cвmera was bought by a song in the pouce Market and its prevoius ownwe disasembled completely and put the parts on a bag. Happily there were no parts in abcence. This was twenty years ago.
Regards LP

Thanks, Luiz.

If you own this Neucaflex, could you make some photos of the shutter box to compare with mine? If possible!
I am surprised by this shutter box and the plates made of iron. A bit unusual... Do you know other examples?

Jacques.

Not neucaflex excuses.... but UCAFLEX a slight great mistake!
Regards
LP

If your Ucaflex has a shutter box made in aluminium, I suppose that the whole series of Uni/Uca/Neucaflex has the same.

I try a magnet everywhere, now!
And in my LTM "Leica like", this camera is the only one to have the shutter box, the buttons and the two plates in iron. The body is in aluminium and the cover in brass with chrome.

Why? I don't really see an explanation for that.

Jacques.

Hi Luiz,

if you have a Ucaflex it must be from 1953 or later, right. Above I posted 2 pictures of Neuca-Prototypes from 1946 and 1948. Both have 6-sided tension setting nuts. Jacques' Neuca has a 4-sided nut for the opening curtain and a 2-sided nut for the closing curtain. I wonder what kind of nuts your Ucaflex has. Maybe you have also 2/4-sided nuts, but just for the opposite curtains. I think the nuts on Jacques' Neuca were changed in postion after the shutter-box was painted some time ago.

Thanks Lenny

No idea concerning this shutter box made in iron sheet?
I don't remember having seen a Leica like mechanism made of that material. As for the plates and the buttons made in iron too... But I am far for knowing all of them.

Just a guessing. At first sight, it is probably easier to make the mechanism of a prototype in iron sheet whereas the corresponding production will be made of brass or alloy. So, yes, that would leads towards a prototype.

But does this camera, as it is, lead us towards the Neuca? Probably not: they seem too far. This camera would be rather a sort of "orphan" with, perhaps, as ancestry, the mechanism of the Neucaflex... Unless the Neucaflex is derived from this camera??

Amitiйs. Jacques.

Old thread, but Jacques's Leica copy seems like a USSR made product to me , maybe not from KMZ or FED but maybe from a shop like the one that made the TSVVS camera. It looks like a camera from a small production run that did not pan out.

Thanks, Joseph.
When I bought the camera, the seller (Leicashop)had two other Leica copies, and specially a very interesting Leica fake with the special vulcanite of the NKAP. Unfortunately, I could not get it too.

Jacques.

Years after, same spring release, same buttons...
Curious!
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/302812405005?ViewItem=&item=302812405005&fromMakeTrack=true

Jacques;