Fontenelle archives 38 : Leica R3 Electronic "Germany"

[Pecole]

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Following all authors, two thousand of the very first R3 Electronic (originally developed with Minolta from their XE-7 camera) were manufactured at Wetzlar in 1976-77 and accordingly engraved "Germany", before the production line was moved to Vila Nova de Famalicao, em Portugal, where all further production was made. The serial numbers of these "pre-production" cameras are generally detailed as follows : 1446001 to 1446100 in chrome finish, 1449001 to 145500 in black and 1450501 to 1450900 again in chrome. Thus a total of 500 chrome and 1,500 black cameras.

But...We had a total six Germany engraved R3 in our Fontenelle Collection, with serials 1449250 (black, with nº 274 engraved inside the base and an acompanying technical report from Wetzlar refering to a "test camera"), 1450358 (black), 1450456 (chrome), 1450479 (black), 1450521 (chrome) and 1450655 (chrome). At least one of these, the nº 1450456, should have been black following the "official" lists and is in fact chrome.