I love my M3

[Beta Photography]

Ad

For me the M3 is the best 50mm view finder of all Ms. Easy to see and compose inside the frame lines without the help of external view finder. With other Ms I always use the external view finder to compose my shot, but with M3 I never need it. Here's my M3 and a sample shot taken with it.

Fluidr / Beta Photography's photos and videos

[too old to care]

Originally Posted by Beta Photography

For me the M3 is the best 50mm view finder of all Ms. Easy to see and compose inside the frame lines without the help of external view finder. With other Ms I always use the external view finder to compose my shot, but with M3 I never need it. Here's my M3 and a sample shot taken with it.

Fluidr / Beta Photography's photos and videos

Great website, love your photos.

Wayne

[kshapero]

[kshapero]

BTW how long does it take to get "good" at shooting with a meterless camera?

[aesop]

Originally Posted by kshapero

BTW how long does it take to get "good" at shooting with a meterless camera?

...do you mean shooting without any light metering OR shooting with a meterless camera + handheld meter?

[tomasis7]

Originally Posted by kshapero

BTW how long does it take to get "good" at shooting with a meterless camera?

there is no definite answer.. once you forget or worry about this question, you'll enjoy of creative process

[tomasis7]

Originally Posted by Beta Photography

For me the M3 is the best 50mm view finder of all Ms. Easy to see and compose inside the frame lines without the help of external view finder. With other Ms I always use the external view finder to compose my shot, but with M3 I never need it. Here's my M3 and a sample shot taken with it.

Fluidr / Beta Photography's photos and videos

i agree... your pics look nice sharp.. what scanner?

[Beta Photography]

Originally Posted by tomasis7

i agree... your pics look nice sharp.. what scanner?

Thank you. It's done by professional lab in Tokyo. When I look at my exif info for c-41/B&W film they use fujifilm SP-2000, but when its color slide they use fujifilm SP-3000. They told me also that with kodak film, they're able to scan at high resolution up to 6-7mpx TIFF file (this one takes one week), but with fuji film they can't scan that high of resolution usually around 2mpx only JPEG file (this one takes only 3 hours).

[JBA]

Originally Posted by Beta Photography

Thank you. It's done by professional lab in Tokyo. When I look at my exif info for c-41/B&W film they use fujifilm SP-2000, but when its color slide they use fujifilm SP-3000. They told me also that with kodak film, they're able to scan at high resolution up to 6-7mpx TIFF file (this one takes one week), but with fuji film they can't scan that high of resolution usually around 2mpx only JPEG file (this one takes only 3 hours).

What lab do you use in Tokyo? I've been at loose ends for a decent lab since Lemon closed their lab last year. Some of the prices I've been quoted per roll (scanned, no prints, slides unmounted, etc.) are completely outrageous.

[Beta Photography]

Originally Posted by JBA

What lab do you use in Tokyo? I've been at loose ends for a decent lab since Lemon closed their lab last year. Some of the prices I've been quoted per roll (scanned, no prints, slides unmounted, etc.) are completely outrageous.

I always send it to Biccamera close to my home usually in the morning, and just pick up again in the evening after work (another reason also is because I collect points everytime I shop there, I use my points to develop films ). But I realize some of my films are processed by another lab like B&W and color slide film (slide film is expensive to scan and print). Normal C41 and B&W is about 900-1000 yen.

[Beta Photography]

Ad

New shot of my good old M3

Rgrds,

Beta

[BlackDE]

Originally Posted by LChanyungco

my favorite camera'

Wow, your camera is in great condition. Why are most of the M3 on ebay in such bad conditions?

Bernhard

[BlackDE]

Originally Posted by bw762

I just bought this and it is in beautiful shape - not a scratch or bright spot on it. But the slow shutter sticks a little. It still has the L seal on it so i'm trying to decide if I want to get it CLA'd or just put it on a shelf.

Don't put it on the shelf. Send it to me.
Bernhard

[Sixstring]

Originally Posted by aesop

...with respect, this is yet another glorious non-sequitur. Nothing wrong with preferring the M3, but you could easily have removed the M6's battery, thus doing away with the silly red lights, non?

Removing the batteries from an M6 leaves you with an... unpowered M6, by far not comparable to an M3. The real beauty of the M3 is its high magnification viewfinder and the total flare free rangefinder patch and its snap on focusing abilities. I have an M6 as well with a 35 cron permanently attached to it and quite frankly, even though I like the camera, I find myself swearing against it from time to time because of the fireworks going on in the RF patch. Sometimes, I find myself losing too much time moving my eye within the viewfinder in order to avoid flare to that point that I'm actually considering getting rid of it and buying an external viewfinder for the M3.
Leica made it just right, right from the beginning almost sixty years ago with its "Meisterstuck3".

[Twotone]

I recently bought an M3 and have just returned from week's holiday with four rolls of film and those photos are without doubt the best photos I've ever taken in almost 30 years of photography with about 99% of the photos absolutely pin sharp (lens is a 1966 50 mm rigid summicron) in fact the photos are almost too sharp.

I can hardly believe that a 50 year old camera and 46 year old lens could produce such perfect images and be so easy to use, they are both a total joy to use.

The photos are not prefect by any stretch of the imagination but they are certainly the best that I've ever managed in one batch, in the past I would say that about half of any roll of film were out of focus or pretty poor in general.

My previous film camera was a Nikon EM semi-automatic SLR with a (cheap) 28mm Nikon lens or 50mm Nikon lens.

[gyoung]

Originally Posted by Sixstring

......snip
Leica made it just right, right from the beginning almost sixty years ago with its "Meisterstuck3".

Indeed they did, nothing but compromise since

Gerry, whose M3 is still in regular use after 43 years.

[innerimager]

Been meaning to share mine. It's Shintaro black painted but I'm wearing the paint off as fast as I can, I shoot it a lot. I was doing comparison between the 50 lux pre-asph (46) that lives on it with a 50 lux asph, seen here, that I got with my M9. I was shooting only at f1.4, not intending to capture the M3 for show, but here tis. BTW, I think I prefer the pre-asph 50 lux. best....Peter
http://www.pbase.com/image/133653721/original.jpg

[tgon]

New here..... Just got my M3 about a month ago. Got addicted instantly. Love it!!!

[kshapero]

Shooting with the M3 is becoming like a direct extension of my eye. Also shooting with a 35mm lens lately w/o an external VF. Anyone else doing this?

[vickersdc]

Originally Posted by Sixstring

I hope we'll be able to keep on buying film in the future, that is my only worry. But I have good hope, one can still buy 8mm film (super 8) today, that says a lot... Cheers!

I don't have an M3 (Leica II instead), but this quote caught my eye... that's me! Film in the Leica and Super-8 instead of digital video