At 08:11 PM 4/3/05 -0400, Allen Zak wrote: >I think maybe that was also true of Leica for Leitz. Allen I do have production figures for the Leica camera but not readily at hand. It is my understanding that Leitz lost money on the Leica camera body until they found a friendly home with the Post Exchange System following the end of the Second World War, at which point profits from camera sales replaced losses and when cameras replaced microscopes and binoculars as the principal products of the firm. Leitz would have produced one or the other version of the M camera in 1939 had the war not intruded: the Leica IV dates from 1936, after all. Marc msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx=20 Cha robh b=E0s fir gun ghr=E0s fir!