Leica M3 vs M6

[derleicaman]

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For using 50mm lenses or longer and wearing glasses the main difference between a M3 and a M6 is the metal eyepiece of the M3-viewfinder. It will scratch your glasses, the eyepiece of the M 6 which is plastic will do no harm.

If one finds a way to cover the metal rims of the eyepiece (I havn‘t yet), I hold the M3 finder to be preferable. There are no frames for 75mm, the round corners of the view for 50mm are more beautiful.

I have not tried this out on a M3, but when I was shooting M2's along with M6 and M6 TTL, I used the eyepiece from the TTL which had a rubber rim. Worked great and I'm sure this can be obtained from DAG or Leica parts. It helps to have the original tool from Leitz to do this, but similar tools (flex clamp) can be picked up from many sources, including eBay. The original tool was two sided. One side was for clamping on the eyepiece to remove or install it. Flip it over and you would use it for the dished ring surrounding the shutter release which also holds the advance lever. Brilliant!

[Martin B]

Can't contribute in regard to the glasses thing since I don't wear glasses when photographing. I also have a M3 and M6 (M6 with 0.72x standard magnification). Prefer to use 50 mm and longer clearly with the M3 due to its 0.91x magnification as already pointed out. For everything below 50 mm FL, the M6 is my preferred choice. But since it is often a matter of which kind of film I have put into each of the cameras, I sometimes still use the M3 with 12, 21, 28, and 35 mm lenses and external viewfinder (I use the CV 25/28 one which I really like since it also provides to see an approx. view at 12 mm outside the wider 21 mm frame lines). Using M3 and M6 in parallel, one thing is a bit confusing - I often get a bit surprised by the slight blueish tint of the viewfinder of my M3 compared to the more natural one on the M6. Especially when using both cameras in parallel - one for B&W, the other one for color - the scene can be shown very differently depending on the light. 

 

Since the M3 is heavier, I am able to shoot handheld with 1/5 to 1/10 sec which is more a gamble with the lighter M6 to do (here I use 1/15 sec as last resort for track sharp photos). No rangefinder patch flare with the M3 either (quite an issue with my M6). 

 

No experience with the 0.85x viewfinder. 

Edited July 26, 2018 by Martin B

[Rob L]

I never cared for the yellow cast in the viewfinder with blue rangefinder patch of the M3