Fat Elmar made 1931-2. Photo courtesy of Ritzcam.com
Toronto. In 1930, Leitz began marketing the tiny Leica with an interchangeable lens mount. According to Dennis Laney in his “Leica Collectors Guide” of September 1992, The medium telephoto 9 cm Elmar was one of the first three lenses added to the fold. The version in 1931-2 used the same lens head as future ‘thin’ versions but with a fatter lens mount similar to that on a 73mm Hektor lens.
Less than about 3,000 of these truly odd lens were ever made (the earliest were not rangefinder coupled apparently). I never picked up one although I did see a few offered at PHSC events in the early years of the society. Mine were all the ‘thin’ version – aesthetically more pleasing to me. The image at left is courtesy of Ritz Cam and appears on this website.
The post title is a riff on the now vilified, but great comedian, Bill Cosby’s childhood character Fat Albert and the signature saying, “Hey, Hey, Hey.It’s Fat Albert“.
