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Okay so, a month ago, when I had my M3 serviced (again), I wrote the following post: So the 2nd and 3rd issues (since they are owing to the same reason) I mentioned in the previous post still remains even after the service this time round. The photo I uploaded here is one of the 76 frames that I only took a bright sunny blue sky to test the performance of the shutter. (I’ve used two rolls only for this, they look practically almost the same so I only present one here). The settings were f/8 and 1/1000s (ISO 400 film), and the lens was Summicron 50 mm. We can assume that vignetting can be ruled out. You can see the left upper side of the frame is much darker than the other part of the frame. The right side of the frame is also slighted darker probably because of the same shutter issue, but it is not as severe, so let’s ignore that for now. What I wanna ask you is, if you were me, would you just ignore this shading issue and just use the camera or try your absolute best to fix this? Somewhere in RangefinderForum, I read someone saying “even at Leica, the tolerance limit for the 1/1000 shutter speed is 20% as it is prone to be out of calibration”. (Link: https://rangefinderforum.com/threads/leica-m-1-1000-uneven-shutter-issues.79230/) Also, the experiment was conducted under a very extreme conditions, so I presume in practice it won’t be as noticeable. Additionally, I’ve seen many people saying that even for newer Leica M film bodies, the 1/1000 speed tends to be an issue quite frequently. Considering all this, does this seem to be an acceptable condition that you’d use this camera after biting the bullet, or would you try your absolute best to fix this issue by trying other servicemen as many of you suggested? I’d like to see what you guys think. Thank you.

I'll try to make it short so that people actually care to read. I wonder how many people, M3 users in this forum, have experienced shutter-related issues with their M3. In my case, I've had: a problem that the images have some faint horizontal lines across the frame uneven exposure across the frame (i.e. broad vertical lines/shades) Shutter capping (i.e. complete darkness on either the left or the right side of the frame) Important point I want to emphasise here is that I've always had a Leica-certified serviceman fix my camera (Camera Doctor, Mr Kim; I live in Seoul, Korea, if you know you know). happens owing to the dust particles stuck between the shutter curtains, according to the serviceman; a simple cleaning job will fix this issue, he said, but even after doing so, it happens quite often. (Refer to the first pic, in the foreground, you can see it more clearly) happens a lot, especially at the higher shutter speeds (i.e. 1/500 and 1/1000 s). This happens in various styles, but the most common one for me is that the left side of the frame appears a bit darker than the rest of the frame. I know this happens because the shutter slit distance is not consistent during the movement. (Refer to the second pic, you can also see a faint horizontal line as well, probably owing to the first issue) happened only once, and the weather was very cold, almost close to 0°C. The camera was serviced, and it has never shown the same issue (just yet), although I have yet to test at such a low temperature. "2" happens the most and irritates me the most, but my serviceman said it is inevitable since the camera is very old, so the inside mechanism has been worn out, which causes the inconsistent functioning. I then asked him would I be better off buying another M3 body, but he said my camera is actually in good condition considering the age. What I want to know from the M3 users is how many of you have experienced this problem with the shutter mechanism, and how did you deal with it? Would be nice to know if this is a common problem that I just need to concede and carry on, or if I've got the shit one and been unlucky. This is not a scanning issue as this same problem appears on different pics as well. This has been a problem for me, I’ve posted a similar issue about a year ago: here (Reddit post) And then as you can find in the comments of the post, someone else reported a similar problem. It happened with an M6. M6 with the same problem (Reddit post) I honestly just wanna use the camera and enjoy the photography itself without worrying about how the image will turn out every time I send the films to the lab, because each time I found some faulty photos, it just takes me back and makes me not want to do this hobby anymore (let alone the increasing price of the films). Since I love 50 mm so much, getting other M-bodies is also not really a solution for me (again, that will cost me a fortune as well). Thanks for reading this long complaint. I hope I can find some answers and peace.

I just got this very clean M3 and I’m experiencing these unusual light leaks. I have shinned a light inside and tried to find the source, but I can’t figure it out. I thought it could be the curtains, but they look brand new. Any ideas?

I'm planning on purchasing a polarizer from URTH (https://urth.co/products/cpl-polarizing-filter-plus) but I am unsure of whether or not I will be able to set the filter rotation correctly on my M3. I had contacted URTH themselves and they said to set the orientation correctly by looking through the filter before attaching to the lens, I though this sounded impractical. As the M3 does not have any way of seeing through the taking lens, how should I use a polarizer and/or other filters that rely on achieving the correct orientation to produce the desired affect.

About a year ago, I had my M3 CLA'd after sporadic shutter problems caused results like the overexposed bar in the first example. After about 10 rolls of film, the "bars" are back, (happening once per roll in the last couple of rolls) along with the over exposed "bar" at the far right of the frame shown in the 2nd example which I believe are limited to exposures made with 1/500th or 1/1000th of a second. The latter problem can actually be seen by dry firing the camera as a bright "slit" on the right edge as the shutter is closing is observed through the open back. My question is should this be happening so soon after an CLA? Is there something inherently irreparable in the shutter mechanism?

I have recently bought a Leica M3 and have run a couple of films through it and have thoroughly enjoyed using it. I have owned an M6ttl for a number of years. As far as I can tell it all works great but I am not sure the film advance is as smooth as I have read about (but this could be a myth). Also there is a bit of dust or something in the viewfinder which is not really a problem in use. I would quite like to get it CLA'd just to know it is working as well as it can. I was just wondering what the general opinion of getting a cla on a camera that is working ok, is it completely unnecessary? I was thinking of using Aperture in London as I can get to them easily have used them in the past for Hasselblad repairs.

Hello All, About 4 years ago, I came into the possession of a Leica M3 (Double Stroke, 735 xxx) after my friend found it in his grandfather's basement. Anyways, I immediately noticed that the vulcanite had already started chipping off the body due to the conditions which it experienced while not being used for nearly 15 years and I (of course) I wondered if there was any way to remedy the detection of the vulcanite. Now (four years later) I'm wondering if I should re-vulcanize the body or if I should leave it alone. My main issue is not the fact of shipping it overseas to be restored, but rather the value lost. Will it lose much value if I were to carry out re-vulcanizing the body? Or Should I not even consider this and just leave it alone? - Kevin

I can’t find this information confirmed one way or another anywhere. Hopefully someone knows for sure and can set the record straight! I have a late model M3 with a serial over 1 million. But I would be interested in if this is the case for all M3’s. Thanks!

Newbie here, so still figuring out both my new-to-me M3 and this forum -- and enjoying the ride! I've been into 35mm film photography since the early 1970's (a long-gone Minolta SRT 101, a Rollei B35 I still have, and several Olympus OM's including the nicely kitted OM-1 I still use). But I've been looking at the Leica world for a while and a friend who just got an M6 planted and watered the seeds that became the M3 I got a week ago from a retail shop. The SS body (1047xxx) is in great shape and it came with a Summarit 50mm 1.5 and a 35mm Summaron 3.5, both of which appear clean and working well. I'm only on my second roll of HP5 and haven't processed anything yet, so can't say yet if (i) I know what I'm doing, or (ii) if everything works ok. The shutter is a marvel after the mirror'd SLR flop, and the rangefinder isn't hard to get used too (I hope)... The aperture ring turning in the 'wrong' direction is 'interesting'... A bit of the vulcanite chipped off because the camera bag I'm using was too tight, so I've taken the advice found on this forum and ordered some Milliput epoxy for a fix. I've also found two original leather cases on eBay, one of which I've modded to use only the part that protects the body. I've ordered a body cap and a spare lens cap on eBay and will try getting some UV filters at the local shop. And so it goes.

love their videos, they release the videos a week or so before the actual sale, which in this case in in the 1st week of January 24 https://www.kitamuracamera.jp/ja/event/onlinesale_2023_1226

After learning here about Milliput epoxy to repair missing vulcanite, I did a first repair yesterday on my M3. I'd put a kind of superglue along the broken edge while waiting for the epoxy to be delivered from the UK. For the repair, I cleaned exposed metal with goobegone and scrapped lightly with a small flat blade jewelers screwdriver. The Milliput mixes and goes on fairly easily wearing rubber gloves. I used a flat end of a chopstick that was moistened with water first for the coarse application and then used a wet cotton tipped ear swab to smooth it out. The attempt at making the textured surface was with metal dentist teeth cleaning tools -- which only sort of worked... Photos are attached. To try and avoid future vulcanite damage, I picked up two OEM leather cases on eBay and modded one so that only the body part is left on the camera. One side benefit, one that may not be the reason for a leather strap sewn into the inside of the case, is that I'm using it to hold the film box end. Rod

A double whammy festive year of two major M landmarks, the M3 (1954) and M6 (1984). What in your opinion is Leica cooking up for these jubilee anniversaries? I feel a special edition or two coming up…

This is my first forum post. Apologies if this is the wrong forum for my question--please tell me if I should post in another forum for this. I inherited my grandfather's doublestroke m3 and started to return to film photography with it. After reading lots of reviews, I bought a new Zeiss 50mm Planar f/2--it is generally reviewed as exceptionally sharp. I just got back my first few rolls of film think that the images all suffer from a softness. I know there are several variables at play here, but I wanted other opinions on how to trouble shoot this. The images were shot on Kodak Portra 160 and professionally developed. I scanned using my Epson v600 with silverfast 8, 3200 ppi. I also have a medium format camera and have gotten extremely crisp images using the same setup. The leica/zeiss images all seem soft to me. I'm wondering if this is 1) a focus issue, 2) some defect with the lens (purchased new over ebay from Japan), 3) a scanning issue, 4) this is normal for 35mm film scans and my expectations are biased by coming from medium format. I do no think the softness is due to camera shake because I'm seeing it in all images and they were mostly taken at a shutter speed faster than 1/125. thanks for any advice. Here is a sample image: and here is a 100% enlargment.

I'm not sure whether I've had bad luck with getting lenses to fit on cameras, or if this is a common problem with the M system. My first Leica combo was an M3 SS with Summicron 50 V2. Since the body and lens shipped together, there was no problem getting them to mount. Next, I purchased an Ultron 28 f2. The lens fit into the mount, but I couldn't get it to click into place. Took it to a repair shop, and the owner basically got the lens to fit through brute force - said Voigtlander QC wasn't great and that this was basically to be expected. I used the lens like this for a couple of months, but it would often "unclick" itself somehow, so I eventually traded it for a LTM Skopar 28mm. Same thing happened with the first adapter - couldn't get it it to click in place. Went back to the shop, and was given a replacement that 'magically' worked without problems. Recently, I traded the M3 for an M4-P and, lo and behold, neither the adapted Voigtlander nor Summicron will even fit into the mount, let alone click. Thus out of 6 total Lens/body combos (2 bodies and 4 lenses/adapters), 4 have been faulty. I'd simply put it down to a service error or wear and tear, but the fact that this has occurred between unrelated lenses and bodies makes me skeptical. Has anyone had a similar experience? Am I doing something wrong?!

IXMOO Adventures Ive recently discovered a couple of IXMOO cartridges in one of my fathers old camera bags. Ive managed to successfully load same (using an aged "Computrol" bulk film loader) and managed to get both the loader and my M3 to close the lightproof cyclinder successfully. Sadly when I developed the film from my first outing there are very fine scratches on the non-emulsion side of the film. Reloading with conventional horrible plastic casettes eliminates the problem so I'm concluding that the scratching has something to do with the poor IXMOO (rather than the film back or any other part of my developing process). Problem could happen either in the loader or camera but im guessing its the loader as the bottom plate on the M3 locks the IXMOO open and the lower edges of the slot "feel" smooth (albeit the scratches are very fine). Any ideas or suggestions would be hugely appreciated. I love the way the IXMOOs are constructed and it would be wonderful to be able to use them. Film is HP5+ pushed to 1600 using ID-11 and hypam). Many thanks........... T

I have a 28mm Elmarit ASPH and was wondering which analog film bodies it is incompatible with? I believe the red dot fouls the lens release on the M3 is that right?

I am a long-term M3 and Rolleiflex shooter, and for black and white am more than happy making prints in the darkroom. Shooting color on film is also fun, but developing and scanning, for me at least, isn’t. And I’ve been wanting to have the experience of shooting digitally with my M lenses for a long time. So last week I took the plunge and bought a used M10R. I got the silver version and am struck by how much it looks and feels like my 1960 M3. The simplicity of the camera makes me happy — I was concerned about being overwhelmed with menus — but I’m sure I have much to learn about getting the most out of the camera, about post-processing, etc. (It renders black and white beautifully too, but I won’t put aside my film cameras). Do any other film shooters have advice or experience to share about their transition? Any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks for the help…two questions. What can of black paint to use and recommendations for smoothing out a bit of grit on the bottom plate. Blessings and thanks James

I recently bought a one-owner M3 DS with a DR Summicron from an estate in Chicago. The camera and kit are absolutely lovely. The only issue is that the vulcanite was flaking off with every time it was handled. I finished peeling it all off, mostly with my fingernail, and cleaned the remaining adhesive off the body with acetone. I ordered a dark blue leather replacement cover from Morgan at cameraleather.com. He was responsive and helpful and I had the new leather in my hands in about five days from the date of order. Exceptional service! And the leather... oh my... it's gorgeous. Total install time was about ten minutes, and that with me trial-fitting it and figuring out how I was going to do the install. It went perfectly. it was simple and easy. And I think it looks amazing! My first M body was an M3 in 1974 that I promptly traded back in for an M2 that developed a severe case of fungus when I lived on Guam. Since then I've had an M4-2, M4-P a couple of M4s and another M3 or two (and an M8 and M9P.) My vision got so I couldn't focus the M4-P/M8/M9P well any more so I sold them in 2016. A conversation with a friend recently about the 1:1 finder in the M3 and the differences from the later finders got me to wondering if it was different enough that I could still use one, and much to my surprise, I can see the focusing patch quite well in the M3. It pleases me to have an M again.

I recently was given a Leica M3 and in my first role, the photos appear to have double and triple exposed by accident. Most negatives have no space in-between them and the edges have overlapped. The photos don't overlap the sprocket holes. Has anyone else experienced this or have any suggestions on how to fix it? Or do I just have to get it serviced? Whilst shooting there was no odd feeling whilst winding the film on, it was all very smooth. I did a test with a dud roll of film by setting the camera on Bulb mode, While the shutter was open I drew out the frame onto the negative with a pen, wound the film on, and repeated this until the role was done. In this test, all the photo frame lines came out perfectly and none of them overlapped. I'm baffled as to what occurred in my initial role. Photos are of Glasgow, Scotland

Came to this promenade park last Sunday. Leica M3, Voigtlander 21/4, Kodak Vision3 5219

Hi all, Just had my M6 CLA’d due to a light leak around the shutter curtains. They are demonstrating some curling and leave a light leak when a frame is left in the gate for too long. The tech replaces the baffles among other things but I can still see a bit of light at the edges when shining a bright light. He claims that is normal and his other Leicas also have this. Can anyone attest if that is true by checking your shutter curtain edges when shining a bright light inside? much obliged Boe

Hi all, Just had my M6 CLA’d due to a light leak around the shutter curtains. They are demonstrating some curling and leave a light leak when a frame is left in the gate for too long. The tech replaces the baffles among other things but I can still see a bit of light at the edges when shining a bright light. He claims that is normal and his other Leicas also have this. Can anyone attest if that is true by checking your shutter curtain edges when shining a bright light inside? much obliged! Boe

Hello friends, I seem to have an issue that is not entirely rare. The cloth focal plane shutter curtain seems to stutter, or even bounce. I have searched this issue prior, and I guess "bounce" does seem to be the syntax for this certain phenomenon. I have included a clip of the shutter at 1/500 from a slow-mo video I attempted to take on my phone. I also scrubbed the video and took a screenshot of every frame that contained the movement of the shutter in the video. And to my surprise, by looking at the past two frames, the shutter does indeed appear to "bounce". The shutter seems to travel the full distance, with the second to last frame capturing the almost fully relaxed shutter. But then the last frame shows a larger gap of light appearing again. Not ideal. I noticed on a couple photos I took, a bar of overexposure on the right side of the frame. Since this issue is well documented and the solution known (CLA baby) my purpose for cluttering this forum with a much too common ailment was to possibly learn what could cause this? To make this already long winded post windier; I purchased the camera from Shueido Camera back in March 2022. It was supposedly CLA'd before sending out. The camera did come in, visually, absolute pristine condition. The first test roll I shot didn't seem to have any issues. But then I went on a 10 day trip to Iceland. Almost none of the photos I took in Iceland had the bar, but with overcast, cloudy days, I was most likely shooting at 1/250 and lower. (From what I understand this issue comes alight mostly at 1/500 & 1/1000 (increased tension for high speeds?)) Upon returning to the land of America, I shot some random pictures around me to finish off my last roll from Iceland. Almost all the photos exhibit the nefarious white bar of sadness on the right edge of the photo. Now, this is Florida, during midday, in summer, so one could assume almost every photo I took was at 1/500 and 1/1000. Could the Leica's foray into the land of Fire and Ice been too much for it's old bones? Could the 10 days of constant cold (I camped for the duration of my stay, so my new buddy did not spend much time in a comfy, first class, heated environment) affected this old tools mechanism, summoning the frosty ghost of over exposure? Thanks for even reading this phone typed, mental diarrhea. I know I have to get it CLA'd, but it is just simply a bummer that a camera would need a second CLA in one year. I'm hoping to figure out how this may have been caused so I may avoid bringing this problem back in the future. MOV_HFR_120F_20220723012348~3.mp4

I've had several problems with my M3 including shutter bounce which have been mitigated but not eliminated by a CLA. All of them were manifested in VERTICAL defects visible on the negatives and so were consistent with an abnormality with the shutter opening as the vertical opening is moving across the frame. This recent defect is HORIZONTAL and appears as an overexposed band on the top of the image (bottom of the negative) and the the bottom of the image, although only the defect at the top of the image is clearly visible here. It occurred about three times on a 36 exposure roll and neighboring frames shot at the same speed did not have this defect. It does not appear to be a light leak because the overexposure does not extend past the frame. Any ideas??