Leitz Moment Camera
The Moment Camera is any of a few folding-bed plate cameras sold by Leitz of Wetzlar for a few years in the first years of the 20th century. Leitz bought the cameras from makers including Krügener, Ernemann, Hüttig and ICA, fitted them with a Leitz lens and sold them with a Leitz badge on. The camera exists in 9x12cm and 13x18cm sizes. Collectiblend lists the 9x12cm camera as the Leitz Hand Camera and shows an advertisement for the camera under this name.[1] That advertisement offers the camera fitted with an f/4.5, f/5 or f/6 Summar, or f/7.7 Periplan lens.
A 13x18cm camera was sold at the Leitz auction '100 Years of Leica' in May 2014.[2] It is dated by the auctioneer to about 1907, and attributed to Krügener. It is wooden-bodied, with black leather covering, dark-red leather bellows and nickel-plated fittings. It is horizontally-oriented. It has a 180mm Summar and Bausch & Lomb 'Challenge' shutter, with speeds 1 to 1/100 second, plus 'B' and 'T'. It has geared front rise (by adjusters mounted on standard uprights with coarse screw threads) and cross movements. It has rack-and-pinion focus. There is a brilliant finder on the bed. It has a dealer's badge from a dealer in Moscow.
A 9x12cm camera was sold at the 38th Leitz Photographica Auction, in June 2021.[3] It is dated by the auctioneer to about 1905. It is wooden-bodied, with black leather covering, red leather bellows and nickel-plated metal fittings. It is horizontally-oriented. It has a 120mm f/4.5 Summar and Koilos shutter with speeds 1 to 1/300 second, plus 'B' and 'T'. It also has a focal-plane shutter. It has rack-and-pinion focusing. The front standard is of the type with the lens-board mounted on two vertical metal pins: it has front rise and cross movements. There is a folding Newton-type viewfinder on top of the body, and a brilliant finder on the bed. This camera is plainly an Ernemann Heag VI Zwei-Verschluss-Kamera.[4] Another example of this model was sold by Wetzlar Camera Auctions, who also dated it to 1904/5.[5] This example also has a 120mm f/4.5 Summar, but no lens shutter. It is otherwise very similar to the first example. The auctioneer notes that the original purchaser was in Wetzlar.
Notes
- ↑ Leitz Hand Camera at Collectiblend, including an advertisement page from Photographische Rundschau, 1907 for the Leitz Hand Kamera.
- ↑ 13x18cm Moment Camera sold at the Leitz auction '100 Years of Leica, in May 2014.
- ↑ 9x12cm Leitz Moment Camera sold at the 38th Leitz Photographica Auction, in June 2021.
- ↑ Compare to the 10x15cm Ernemann Heag VI Zwei-Verschluss-Kamera sold at the 32nd Leitz Auction, in March 2018.
- ↑ 9x12cm Moment Camera among selected lots at Wetzlar Camera Auctions.
