upphotoman Posted December 10, 2014 Share #1 Posted December 10, 2014 Advertisement (gone after registration) I have a Leica R3 made in Germany. Someone told me there were only 50 made there before production was moved to Portugal. Is this true and is there any value to this body? Thanks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted December 10, 2014 Posted December 10, 2014 Hi upphotoman, Take a look here Leica R3. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
luigi bertolotti Posted December 10, 2014 Share #2 Posted December 10, 2014 (edited) Welcome to the forum ! The number of R3 made in Germany is surely a small part of the total, but I cannot find a source which reports the number 50 : there is a certain consensus (Laney, Puts, Sartorius, Van Hasbroek) on 2000, and maybe even some more : you can look at our Wiki section for details, or also here : https://www.cameraquest.com/rtype.htm ; Van Hasbroek says that the first 100 items, all chrome and made in Wetzlar, have indeed some constructive differences... they ought to have serial numbers 1.446.001 to 1.446.100, and these could be the only R3 made in Germany, the others being R3 MOT (but seems to me that this is not 100% sure); so, the rarity of your camera depends on which serial number it has... if it is from the first batch of 100 it is indeed rare, and can be valued some more than ordinary items. McKeown, a keen tracker of the used market values, says that, in general, Germany R3 are valued not significantly more than the Portoguese . R3 , being based on a Minolta design (XD, if I remember correctly) is not much sought after as a collector's item, while many Leica passionates regularly use and appreciate it as a camera Edited December 10, 2014 by luigi bertolotti 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagner Posted December 11, 2014 Share #3 Posted December 11, 2014 Just a little correction: the R3 is based on the Minolta XE, not on the XD. The XD was the base for the following models. Torsten 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pecole Posted April 13, 2016 Share #4 Posted April 13, 2016 Welcome to the forum ! The number of R3 made in Germany is surely a small part of the total, but I cannot find a source which reports the number 50 : there is a certain consensus (Laney, Puts, Sartorius, Van Hasbroek) on 2000, and maybe even some more : you can look at our Wiki section for details, or also here : https://www.cameraquest.com/rtype.htm ; Van Hasbroek says that the first 100 items, all chrome and made in Wetzlar, have indeed some constructive differences... they ought to have serial numbers 1.446.001 to 1.446.100, and these could be the only R3 made in Germany, the others being R3 MOT (but seems to me that this is not 100% sure); so, the rarity of your camera depends on which serial number it has... if it is from the first batch of 100 it is indeed rare, and can be valued some more than ordinary items. McKeown, a keen tracker of the used market values, says that, in general, Germany R3 are valued not significantly more than the Portoguese . R3 , being based on a Minolta design (XD, if I remember correctly) is not much sought after as a collector's item, while many Leica passionates regularly use and appreciate it as a camera Better late than never, as one says. I just re-discovered today by chance this thread dating December, 2014 and your well documented (as usual) comment. Let me add the serials of the "Germany" R3's I had in my Fontenelle collection. The earliest was serialled 1449250 and was black. Then, I had four more, all in the 1450xxx bracket : two in chrome (1450456 and 521) and two black (1450358 and 479). My conclusions : there were definitely more than 50 or 100 made in Germany, and there is no "serial consistency" between chrome and black. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.