I know the M2's (and M3's?) came with Auf/Zu inscription on the baseplates, but with the M4's they got rid of it. Does anyone know if Some early M4's were sold with the inscription.

I just got me a user M4 that came with an Auf/Zu baseplate, so does it matter that its not an M4 baseplate in terms of functionality?

-- sparkie (sparkie@mailcity.com), February 19, 2002

Answers

If the baseplate has the plastic "tulip" it shouldn't matter.

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), February 19, 2002.

Sorry. The take-up spool is tulip shaped, I don't know how to descripe the plastic "thing", but you'll know if it is there.

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), February 19, 2002.

(Just in case you didn't know... "Auf/Zu" means "On/Off" so I guess it was simply a matter of who those things were intended for.)

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), February 19, 2002.

Actually, auf/zu means open/closed, like a whole door.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), February 19, 2002.

The very earliest M4 cameras had the engraving. I have pictures of 1 177 378 and it has the engraved baseplate.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), February 19, 2002.

Whew, thanks for the confirmation John. I just thought I might have to buy a M4 baseplate Without the inscription in case it wouldnt function properly.

And thanks also Michael/Niels.

A couple of other things:

Have any of you replaced your rewind crank for an M2/M3 type? I want to change mine over. Does it works okay still?

I also want to change the plastic tip levers on the viewfinder selector and self timer for the M2.M3 type. Is it a simple procedure?

-- sparkie (sparkie@mailcity.com), February 19, 2002.

opps, that should have read "film advance lever" rather than rewind crank.

-- sparkie (sparkie@mailcity.com), February 19, 2002.

Sparkie. John may be right, but I'm not aware of any M4's having the auf-zu engraving. All M3 and M2 cameras had this engraving with the following exceptions: 1) M2-R (which had M4 rapid loading system); and M2 for KS-15 military set (same as M2-R but without the engraving). These latter cameras had the M4 rapid loading system (but not the canted rewind crank), and had unengraved baseplates. That's why I would have thought the M4s would not have the engraving either.

I suppose it doesn't matter much if the rapid loading system is present and working properly.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), February 19, 2002.

Eliot, this M4 does have it as well:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=133331 6224

Cheers,

-- sparkie (sparkie@mailcity.com), February 19, 2002.

Sparkie. I got an "Invalid Item" message,so I couldn't see the item you were pointing out. Just because the camera has a baseplate that says auf-zu doesn't mean it left the factory that way. Someone could have damaged the original baseplate and had it replaced. I'm not aware of any evidence that M4s with such engraved baseplates left the factory that way.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), February 19, 2002.

It think its included in some of the commemorative M6s. Another sign how Leica dangles meaningless carrots in front of collectors/consumers, in this case those who thrill to the sight of a couple of little engraved words indicating its Germanic origin.

Oh well, I guess with the M7 in the wings, this is no time to be carping about Leica ;-)

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), February 19, 2002.

Hi Eliot,

The correct url to view the ebay auction mentioned above is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=133331 6224

The source for my information is Filippo Giunta's book, Leica - M mount cameras.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), February 19, 2002.

My M4 has the open-auf close-zu engraving as well. It is in a larger font (or may be just thicker bold type)compared to the engraving on the M3. The M3 also has a small arrow engraved.

-- enriqe munoz (dem331@yahoo.com), February 19, 2002.