Reid & Sigrist screw mount camera

[richard_brown1]

<p>Hi there,<br>

I know you guys are experts - you have always been my first port of call for any Leica questions. Recently by good fortune I was given a gift (family heirloom) of three vintage cameras, one of which, a Reid III needs the most work. The shutter is in desperate need of servicing. I know the camera is kind of a collectable piece. I would like to use it but if the cost is going to be too much and I am going to have problems with service techs and parts, I am not sure I want to go there. So, I am fishing around here to see if you knowledgable lot can help me out with some ideas, specifically how much this is going to cost me. Also, who is the best service tech - my front runner is Kindermann in Canada but, haven't contacted them yet. </p><div></div>

[SCL]

<p>Try Youxin Ye at YYE Camera in Mass....he'll get back to you quickly and does a fine job with one-off Leica cameras.</p>

[John Seaman]

<p>It would surely be worth fixing, they are quite rare and collectable, and potentially valuable. Made by Reid & Sigrist in Leicester, England. A lot about them here:</p>

<p>http://www.l39sm.co.uk/about_reid.php</p>

[wendell_kelly]

<p>Unless you are in Canada, I'd avoid Kindermann.<br>

They return cameras by UPS and UPS charges a US$30 customs brokerage fee to bring a package into the US.<br>

My experience with Kindermann wasn't a happy one due to sloppy work on their part.</p>

[richard_brown1]

<p>Thanks John, I am familiar with the website 139sm.co.uk. I would have tried to contact them about repairs but that service is not working at the moment. <br>

Wendell, very interesting about Kinderman... sloppy work huh? Not good I won't use them.<br>

Stephen, It seems that YYE Camera has a lot of good reviews, but all Leicas and since my camera is a Reid...<br>

What I'm trying to say is, I am not a collector of fine cameras. I like to use them. But since there are very few of these cameras I have to put my mind in a collector's mindset, meaning I want this machine to hold its value. Letting a good tech/great technician open it up, would it be losing value? Should I just leave it as it is as just a beautiful piece?<br>

I don't know if you guys are familiar with the story of the man who owned an antique clock which built up a beautiful patina over the years. The man thought it was so beautiful and decided to polish it and he destroyed the clocks value. I don't want to be that guy.<br>

Thanks for your input.</p>

[dhbebb]

<p>This camera comes from the curious period after World War II when the British public had to be prevented from acts of depravity such as giving money to foreign companies. Board of Trade import licences were required for camera imports and not given for sales to the public. In this atmosphere companies such as Reid and MPP were able to produce knockoffs of German cameras. Rumour had it that Reid caused themselves a lot of problems by insisting on converting everything from metric to imperial, as indicated on the page linked by John, it took them 4 years to get an initial working example together (on a project which really required no development work at all). The real interest of the Reid camera was the f2 TTH lens, derived from a cine lens and exceeding sharp even a full aperture over a frame area of about 24 x 26 or so mm (the extreme corners took a lot of stopping down to get sharp).<br>

Essentially the Reid is in no way better than a Leica IIIb (interestingly, Reid apparently had access to the drawings of both the Leica IIIb and IIIc but chose the former) and is likely to be more costly to get serviced. What is wrong with your shutter? Slow/sticky speeds are not so much of a problem, crinkly/perished/holed shutter curtains, broken shutter tapes and grinding noises from the winding mechanism will take big bucks to fix (with Reid parts almost certainly not available).</p>

[SCL]

<p>Richard - Youxis advertises his Leica work on his site, but does work on Leica (type) screwmount bodies of all sorts. I've had him CLA a Canon P for me as well as several Japanese LTM lenses, including a Tanaka Kogaku. You need to either call him or send him an Email about your camera. Good luck.</p>

[richard_brown1]

<p>David, the problem with my shutter is slow/sticky speeds. It seems like the shutter has come undone. Also, the shutter speed dial seem disengaged. The only speed that seems to work is <strong>B</strong>. I don't think I need parts. The range finder is <strong><em>spot on</em></strong>. The camer has been sitting since the lat 70's in its Leica ever-ready case in a closet. It's in really nice condition. Not mint, but very very nice.<br>

Thanks for your response. </p>

 

[John Seaman]

<p>Richard if you are prepared to consider sending it to the UK, you could have a word with Ed Trzoska who trades as Euro Photographic Services. Hes done quite a few repairs for me and being local to where the cameras were made he may well have experience of working on them, or give helpful advice. He's generally amenable to a chat or email:</p>

<dl><dt>Address:</dt><dd >150 Harrowgate Drive, Birstall, Wanlip, LE4 3GP</dd><dt>Contact Email:</dt><dd ><a href="mailto:e.trzoska@ntlworld.com">e.trzoska@ntlworld.com</a></dd><dt>Telephone:</dt><dd >0116 267 4247</dd></dl>

[richard_brown1]

<p>Actually John I'm from Nottingham, 160 furlongs from Lester where the camera was made. I do live in the US now. I frequently go back to the UK, so thank you very much for the info, I'll be sure to get in touch with him. Thank you John.<br>

Stephen I know you really like Youxis, I'll get in touch with him too. Thanks.</p>

[Richard Williams]

<p>In the UK, I would give Peter Grisaffi of CRR Luton a call (phone rather than email). He's a highly regarded Leica technician (in spite of the 90s style website!), and mentions Reid as one of the Leica copies he will work on:<br>

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/Leica/<br>

His site also has an interesting bit of history, the report of the British Intelligence team that visited the Leitz factory in 1946, presumably the source of the data that was used to build the Reid:<br>

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/Leica/page26.html<br>

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/Leica/page27.html</p>

<p> </p>

[astral]

<p>I'd certainly recommend both Ed at Euro Photo and Peter at CRR. They do all of my work, and I know that Ed fairly recently renovated a Reid II.</p>

[richard_brown1]

<p>Reid lll.</p><div></div>

[aplumpton]

<p>Richard, and Wendell,</p>

<p>I am surprised that one of Kindermann's servicies turned out to be sloppy. They may have used UPS rather than the postal services for insurance reasons. Kinderman was, before NJ took over all Leica repairs on their N.A. cameras one of Leica's authorised service centres as well as distributors of other photographic products to retailers. If Wendell's work was recent, there may be something there, as Gerry Smith, their knowledgeable technician, may have retired, but I sort of doubt that.</p>

<p>I used him about 4 or 5 years ago to repair my Leitz Focomat 1C enlarger, which he did very well (he even had an original Leitz bellows in stock for that). He won't touch anything he cannot do a good job with, as was the case with my M8 shutter under warranty, which the retailer and Leica had sent to him before sending it to NJ, and which was due to a supplier's (Seiko) defect.</p>

<p>Unused cameras often exhibit sticky slow speeds. I bought an apparently unused M4-P less than a decade ago that had sat on an Australian owner's shelf since purchase around 1980. It's slow speeds were unusable, much too slow, but before returning it I simply exercised the shutter several times and the speeds eventually came back to normal, or at least within the usual tolerances. it may not be your case, but I would try that if it appears to you to be an option.</p>

<p>Anyway, if i were you I would also phone Gerry and ask him what he thinks he could do. Another repair person in the Toronto area is David Lau, formerly trained by the former Leica Canada plant, who has done some satisfactory work for me. </p>

 

[christopher_junker1]

<p>Regarding Reid & Sigrists' choice of duplicating the IIIb rather than the IIIc, it may have been influenced by the IIIc series use of precision miniature ball bearings in the redesigned IIIc shutter assembly. The bearings may have all been metric in measurement, which would have made the conversion to Imperial Standard even tougher if they chose to accomodate metric bearings into the camera body. Does the Reid series of shutters have miniature precision ball bearings or standard plain bushings like the IIIb?</p>

[richard_brown1]

<p>Reid III with Leitz Elmar f=5cm 1:3.5</p>

[richard_brown1]

<p>.</p><div></div>

[richard_brown1]

<p>Reid & Sigrist Ltd LEICESTER. Eng.</p><div></div>

[richard_brown1]

<p>Reid & Sigrist Ltd LEICESTER. Eng</p><div></div>

[furcafe]

<p>For techs in the U.S., I had Don Goldberg of DAG overhaul my 1st Reid (a III like yours) back in 2007. IIRC, it cost about $450 at the time & took about 6 months total (had to go back to Minnesota twice because a light leak, via the flash sync openings, developed & the slow shutter speed mechanism needed to be adjusted).</p>

[richard_brown1]

<p>Hey you lot,<br>

Thanks for all the good info guys, really appreciate it. This is why I come to photonet.</p><div></div>

[richard_brown1]

<p>.</p><div></div>

[richard_brown1]

<p>..</p><div></div>