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Wonderful pictures and story Phil! Thank you and I recommend others download and read and enjoy Phil’s work. Bravo!

Appears to be at the bottom of the film gate? You could buy a kit of new seals and do it yourself, but it is likely that your M3 could do with a service given the presence of the light leak. These cameras are beautiful tools to use over the long haul, so I think well worth the time and cost to get it done by a professional.

Hi Big Jim, 950,350 is the serial in which that changed. I have examples of the M3 both before and after, I did notice at first, but no longer notice the difference when swapping between before and after M3’s. I don’t need glasses when using M’s, possibly that is why it seems a non-issue to me?

Hello, if any Leica users travelling to Tasmania would like to meet up with a fellow enthusiast you are welcome to send me a message. It's a wonderful spot to visit (and place to live). Leica M3, Summicron Rigid.

Just a quick report on Coolangatta airport (Gold Coast, Australia). They have the CT scanners, I asked for a hand check of some film and received an immediate yes, no questions or hesitations. By the time I got through the process it was all waiting for me in its plastic bag, so no delay either. Top job COO!

Mine are stored in a secret hidden compartment. There is a temperature and relative humidity sensor in there and I get an alert on my iPhone if it ever strays from acceptable bounds on either parameter (has never happened, but the system worked when I simulated exceeding parameters on setup). Every now and then I give those lenses that I rarely use a bath in UV light (I have a small UV steriliser for that purpose). Am I paranoid? 😀 Anyway, no fungus issues have appeared yet.

Well spotted @VanDooglz. The chrome plating process has evolved over the years, in the early times I believe there where as many as 21 steps, involving layering, dipping and polishing, to produce the wonderful lustre that you have noticed on earlier models. In fact, there is a quite noticeable difference between early and late M3's, even though both are very attractive to the eye and do not look "silver-painted plastic", as you said. You can see this in a Christmas picture I shared earlier on the forum:

This could also be a Summarit 5cm f1.5. I think I see a focus knob... HCB did use the Summarit on that trip.

On my last trip I pre-ordered all the film for my trip at my first destination (London). We travelled by train for the rest of the trip. Just before the end of the trip I dropped off all the rolls used for processing and retrieved them just before the flight. A couple of rolls used right at the end, plus unused rolls, went with me in a Domke for the trip home, no issues anyway. Pretty straightforward.

Bruxelles, September 2023. Leica M3, Summicron 5cm (Type 2a), Portra 400.

London, September 2023. Leica M3, Summicron 5cm (Type 2a), FP4+.

There is a small lever in the bayonet mount which engages one of the mount tabs on the lens and this then selects the appropriate frameline. If these are out of tolerance slightly with respect to each other, then you can see this kind of behaviour. A service technician can adjust the lever, if it is the issue. If it is the lens tab mount that is the issue, it may be fixable, or it may require replacement.

Thanks for all the information everyone, very interesting and helpful. So in summary: my lens is from a 1959 batch with matching serial numbers on lens head and mount; 51,9N is referring to the 51.9mm middle tolerance of focal lengths (with matching "8" marking on mount), the N likely refers to Naheinstellung-Summicron, meaning close focus, however the "zum Teil" indicates that whilst appropriate, not all lens heads where fitted into a DR mount (mine was not); the "S" may stand for "Silber" (silver)... although there is reference to some lens heads having AA on them instead, so this is still open...? I speculate that the 59 was a short way to write 51.9mm... ? the 812376 remains a mystery. Here are some pictures, as requested by @UliWer:

Bit late to the party... but yes, the Summicron rigid is my main lens. I have a dozen 50's, so the choice is quite deliberate: the longer focus throw allows for faster and more reliable focus by feel, later lenses have shorter focus throw which makes it more difficult to quickly and reliably hit focus distance without using the rangefinder (I see people going back and forth trying to hit focus with the rangefinder, meanwhile, picture has gone...); focus button supports rapid focussing (interesting that HCB had a focus button fitted to a later Summicron already with focus tab, he knew a thing or two about getting the picture); the single scale is simpler to read and has very handy focus index marks, missing on the dual scale and newer lenses; the build quality and haptics flowing from that are significantly ahead of any other 50, old or new; f2.0 fast enough for film and the lens compact enough; image quality? Yes, beautiful in both B&W and colour, but really that's not very important, it's the content that matters.

Thanks to you and the moderators for keeping LUF ticking over, may you have a very happy holiday season!