Leica III series and Nicca copy

[lindsay]

In addition to the Leica IIIa and IIIc that my late dad collected and passed on to me when he shuffled off his mortal coil, he also had this interesting item: a Nicca Type 3 from 1948, an exact copy of a later iIII series Leica, with the unusual Chiyoko Super-Rokkor 45mm f2.8 lens. This lens company later went on to become Minolta (hence the Rokkor model name), whilst Nicca went on to be acquired by Yashica, but there is a very interesting history if you google both brands. My summer project in film is going to focus (pun intended) on exercising the Leicas and Nicca, as all seem to be in good working condition.





The yellow filter on the lens seems to have done a good job of protecting the front element.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

I turned down the opportunity to buy a Yashica YF (the last of the Nicca series) for £60 in the 1990s. These are the memories that try photographers' souls... :banghead:

 

[Deleted member 89409]

Thanks for the pic and story:

Fascinating - hadn’t heard of these ( not being a collector ) so as usual I googled it. I used to have a deep yearning for a Leica iiig when I was young - sadly not even the russian clones of Fed Zorki and so on were anyway near what could be afforded. My parents bought me a Halina 35x which I was thrilled by - at least it looked a bit like a leica.

These japanese RF’s are really attractive. In RF terms, much later I went down the Contax route with iia and iiia and kiev4 but I wouldn’t mind a nikon s sometime.

 

[lindsay]

Just spotted this interesting stamping on the bottom of the Nicca:

 

[Retune]

Nice! It's much closer to a Leica than the Soviet copies, almost a replica of the III. Interesting lens, too - I haven't seen one of those before. I like the aperture window at the front (I wonder why they took the trouble?). I guess the viewfinder is for a 50mm, as with the Leica, but 45mm is so close to that it makes no odds.