Leica R3

[upphotoman]

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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.

[luigi bertolotti]

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

[wagner]

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

[Pecole]

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.

[sreeves]

I own R3 number 1446085 in Chrome and it is stamped Germany. I also own R3 number 1446913 in Chrome and it is stamped Portugal. I have seen in a few databases that the first 100 was  chrome and made in Germany and the next 1000 was chrome and made in Portugal. My two cameras seem to back up what the databases are showing.