At reenactments taking photos is problematic… if you are in-role then a 1943 Jager with a digital camera is a little jarring… and if you use a period camera then you are limited in the media you can use. I usually used Pan-X but it’s getting hard to find and a pain to process; of course digital post editing is impossible on film.
So I started thinking about how I could camouflage a modern camera. I had a Russian copy of the famous German Leica IIIc camera. Even better it was not functional so using the case wouldn’t be too much of a sacrifice. A bit of machine work and some fitting and I have a really cool vintage-digital!
Finished the project and it turned out well…
09 Sep 09 Addendum
I noticed that YoSpiff’s, Nina Hey Nu’s, and the DPReview posts on the camera are generating some questions so I thought I’d add some detail for the folks that want to try their hand at making one. I’ve added detail in the narrative below. First off… no Leicas were harmed in the making of this so Leica fans relax! It was a broken Russian Fed.
A word of warning though I am planning to make another digi-retro using a Retina and I’m currently working on putting a video camera inside a working 16mm Filmo movie camera…
The donor camera; a Russian copy of a Leica IIIc…
Initial dissassembly of the old Leica, removing the innards. To fit the Olympus inside the old shell everything had to be removed; film winder, pressure plates, film tracks and shutter mechanism. Save all of the hardware that is used to fasten the external parts, but everything else is sacraficed. At least I don’t have to put it all back together so the original camera works!
The lens of the inner camera will poke out were the original Leica lens was. The lens ring of the Leica is smaller than the Olympus and it is also threaded. I removed the lens ring and put it on the lathe and used a boring tool to enlarge it to fit the Olympus lens. Vitals tools for this conversion are a lathe and a mill. I used a Sherline, which is a handy little tool! Otherwise you will have to do a lot of filing by hand.
Here’s the newly bored lens ring after the lathe work.
The inner Olympus was a little taller than the Leica so the top plate had to be cut to fit. That also allows the controls for picture taking to be exposed for ready use and also helped locate the Olympus correctly within the Leica body. Here’s the top on the mill with the cutout being milled.
Here is the finished ’shell’ camera and the inner Olympus digital camera… The original Fed Leica was covered with a veneer of lacquered wood. I removed that ad used some adhesive aircraft wingwalk material I had on hand. It’s just grip tape.
Very cool retro camera… looks like a 1938 Leica IIIc and works like a digital!
The only real clue that this is a digital is the LCD screen visible on the back panel.
Snapped into its leather case with the embossed Leica emblem it looks right at home on the neck of a jager in the field.
14 Nov 08 - Late addition
If you have questions or want to try your hand at making one, you can send me an email, feldwebel at fallschirmjager dot net. I don’t have detailed plans, but I can tell you a little about the problems to overcome. The original donor camera was a Russian copy of a Leica III, a little doggy and non functional. It was also ‘faked’ up by the original seller by adding the engraving of the tank and the word ‘Panzerkampf’ to make it seem like a war collectible. You will find these on eBay with ‘Olympiad 1936′ as well. Nobody engraved real Leica III’s like this during the war.
Ciao!
