I picked up this Leotax Elite recently at a good price from a seller on Rangefinderforum. It is a Japanese Leica clone from about 1959.
The camera looked good with only few signs of use and it seemed to be working. However, there was no take-up spool and the ones I use in my Leica and Soviet copies did not fit in the Leotax. Some research indicated the Canon spools with a pop-up handle were what I needed. I found a pair on ebay.
I shot a roll of HP5+ and processed that in Legacypro L110b. I wasn't too happy with that combination, but at least I got to see that the camera could make some pictures.
I tried out three of my Soviet lenses with mixed results. The Jupiter 8 and the FED 50 seemed ok, but I'm not sure about the Jupiter 12. The camera itself has a few issues that will need attention. The viewfinder is a little cloudy, the rewind switch is a bit hinky, and the shutter curtains need to be properly tensioned because of some uneven exposure across the image. I'll try adjusting the shutter tension, but I'm not sure I'll trust myself with the rest.
I found a couple good repair information resources on the web for the Leotax:
On Flickr there is a good tutorial about viewfinder cleaning for the similar Leotax K.
A Youtube video shows how to take the Elite apart and get it back together, though the presenter gets a bit confused at the end about reassembling the rewind handle and leaves that incomplete.
There is a good review of the whole Leotax line at the yashicatlr site.
7 comments:
These Leotax cameras were well-made and offered some serious improvements compared to the Leica IIIC and IIIF. But Leica introduced their brilliant M3 in 1957, which was the most advanced rangefinder then (and many people say it still). I am intrigued by the many 5cm/50mm LTM lenses that the Japanese companies made in the 1950s. Some were more advanced than the 3.5 Elmar that Leitz still sold. I may experiment with some of them.
Oops, I forgot. Fur machine is an awfully patient model for your film experiments.
The action of the Leotax is very smooth -- pretty much the same as the Leica Barnack cameras. I'm sure that it could benefit from a cleaning at this point as the "improvements" such as the lever wind and the crank rewind do introduce some complications which require some attention over time.
I'm not sure how much the company was involved in lens design and production. There were some Topcon lenses and several others which look very interesting. I haven't had a chance to use the camera yet with my one Leica lens which is currently getting some expert attention.
My cat is a little skeptical about the whole project.
Hi, could you tell me the weight of this Leotax body? I can't find it anywhere on the internet.
I don't have a scale to weigh mine. It is slightly larger than my Leica IIIa, so I imagine it weighs a little more as well.
No kitchen scales? Oh well. Can you tell me does it have any way of switching between different focal lengths in the viewfinder? Or maybe different lines marked for them? I can't find that info online either. I have 50mm and 100mm lenses, will I be able to compose with both of them?
The Leotax Elite has a bright frameline in the viewfinder for the normal lens, but no way to automatically accommodate different focal lengths. To use the camera with other than the normal focal length, you need to add an accessory viewfinder. I have found that works fine for 35mm lenses on my Barnack-style cameras, but shooting longer lenses seems pretty impractical.
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