I stumbled across this lens mid 2025, I'd never seen such a wide early Tessar before and a quick inspection revealed a short flange distance, instant internal thought 'Leica M conversion potential, buy it!'. With the lens acquired it went straight off for conversion and what a great job the Master did. Fitted to an Industar helicoid that has been dechromed and blued, it looks like an original LTM lens. Whilst the lens was away I started my research. Google offered nothing, always interesting,...

I found this lens in Vienna on an Aires 35-V camera, their flagship camera released in 1958 to compete in the interchangeable lens rangefinder market, it's a hefty well built camera. I bought the Aires & 45mm f1.5 along with the 35mm f3.2 and 100mm f3.5 lenses, this set was sold as the 'Correspondent kit' (see ad below) for $376.25USD in 1959, equivalent to $4,190.75 today. There isn't much information on the Aires 35-V available to research, here are a few few points that I gathered:...

We found this superb example of the coveted 47mm Ektar on our recent trip to Hong Kong. We had it converted to Leica M mount with rangefinder coupling by the Master who used a quality all brass Yifeng helicoid and made a custom aperture house, blades and control ring, also all brass. This makes aperture changing very easy. You can view this conversion for sale here . Originally offered on the Kodak Kardon rangefinder in LTM mount from 1945 and then Retina II from 1946-49. Many converted 47mm...