Visoflex III. Leitz Summicron 50mm DR

I have been thinking about the Visoflex attachment for my film Leicas in the last few days, since it is rendered completely superfluous by the mirrorless Micro 4/3 system.
The Leica was conceived as a camera to be focused by means of a rangefinder - the superimposition of two split images of the subject would tell the photographer that his image was in focus.  But from the earliest days Leitz recognized the limitations of this system particularly when using very large tele lenses or when doing scientific macro work.  Both of these applications would require a means to look directly through the lens via a mirror which would flip out of the way before the camera's shutter opened to expose the film.  The company devised a very cumbersome reflex housing called by its code word PLOOT to accomplish this.  But when the Japanese camera companies started producing dedicated reflex cameras for mass consumption in the early 1960s, Leitz had to go back to the drawing board.  They introduced a reflex body (the Leicaflex) with built in light metering as their more direct response.  But for their many professional customers who used the M rangefinder cameras, their core market, they streamlined the old PLOOT and called it the Visoflex.  It attaches to the camera just like any other Leica lens, it offers a beautiful, crisp 4x magnified image in the viewfinder and even has a diopter adjuster for those with less than perfect vision.  But it is still a cumbersome beast to use, especially if hand held.  It couldn't possibly compete with the Japanese SLR.  But if one has the luxury to set the camera and Visoflex on a tripod and focus just right, it is the most wonderful creature to use.  The arm extending over the camera flips the mirror up and activates the shutter button in just the right sequence.  Here it is shown on the Leica M2 from 1960 with the shortest focal length lens that can be used to focus to infinity on the Visoflex: the Elmar-V 65mm.