lot 201 in the Nov 9, 2025 PHSC Museum Auction – a black dial 1951/2 Leica IIf
Toronto. … Besides, the IIf Leica was less expensive to buy than a IIIf. This cosmetically clean c1951 black dial IIf Leica with the correct 5cm f/2 collapsible Summitar lens is lot 201 at next Sunday’s PHSC Museum Auction.
The camera’s fast speed dial uses the old increments (starts at 1/30th and proceeds to 1/500th). The camera and lens are satin chrome with the odd (and ever so faint) bright area and scratch.
Take a closer look Sunday before it is auctioned. The camera and lens look almost like new. A lubrication may be all it needs to be a usable camera – as well as a collectible. Only 4,000 black dial IIf cameras were made in 1951 and another 4,400 the following year. The red dial version began in the same year – 1952 – when the company switched to the international speed increments. Over the six year manufacturing span, some 10,300 or so IIfs were made.
As the cameras could be factory modified to add a slow speed dial (1/30th or 1/25th to 1 second like a IIIf), it is uncertain how many of the original IIf cameras exist unmodified and of those, how many are clean enough to be considered collectible by a fussy collector.
