Samoca LE-II

[rahul_deshpande1]

My Dad just mailed me my grandfather's Samoca LE-II from

India...probably picked it up on his travels to England in the 50's.

It is in a not-so-great cosmetic condition, the shutter sticks at

speeds below 1/25, the RF mechanism probably doesn't work and I have

no idea how to read the uncoupled meter.

Anyone have any experience with one of these?

 

Thanks,

 

Rahul

[peter_naylor1]

Hi, Rahul Your Samoca LE-11 was made by Sanei Sangyo in Japan during the late 50s or very early 60s. I can't be more specific, because my 2001 McK's only lists the LE, dating it to 1957, but it looks very similar. The only changes I can detect are that the selenium meter on the earlier LE has a Hi/Lo reading hinged flap, whereas the LE-11 doesn't, and the LE has an f2.8 "Ezumar" lens, whereas the LE-11 has an f2.8 "Samocar"

 

The uncoupled meter took me a bit of time to work out, too, but I think I've sorted it out now. There are two separate needles in the transparent oval window, next to the accessory shoe. The thick upper (orange) needle moves along with the large outer metal dial under the rewind crank. You'll see that it has shutter speed markings on this outer dial, with apertures on the smaller dial above it which also has cutaways for film speed. The thinner lower (red) needle moves according to the light reading, and the idea is that you align the orange one by moving the dial until it sits over the red one. With me so far? Then, you just read off which combination of shutter speed and aperture you want. It's sort of like the EV or LV system, but without the numbers! Surprisingly, the selenium meter on mine - and everything else, including the shutter slow speeds and CRF - is still working fine. Uusually they're as dead as a dodo after 40-odd years. However, I wouldn't put much trust in the readings - selenium meters were notorious for poor readings, especially in low light. LOL - PN

[scott_cogburn]

Hi,

I bought, restored, and then later sold one of these a year or so ago. I was impressed. Although they look like a lot of the other cheap Japanese cameras which were being made in the late 50s and early 60s, they seem to be of better design and quality than most. The Samoca LE that I had, had a 4-element, unit-focused lens, and I got some very sharp images in my test photos.<div></div>