Restoring the more rare M3

[willeica]

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Very nice little summary of the M3. There are even more variations than are mentioned here eg dots on rewind knob. You would have quite a few M3s if you tried to get every 'variant' and it would be quite an expensive collection, particularly for the 700xxx and black paint items. I stopped after I got two M3s, a double stroke and a single stroke. I concentrate my collecting efforts on earlier LTM cameras, particularly the I Model A, the II Model D and the 'c' range and Summar lenses.

William 

[wlaidlaw]

That exposé on the M3 from Setadel in Canada (where I bought my 85 Summarex from) was very interesting. My M3, which is from the last 1966 batch, still has the surround to the lens release button. I am guess this only disappeared after they started to make M4's. My M4, the 47th production camera (#1175047) from 1967, has like all M4's, no surround. 

Wilson

[dkCambridgeshire]

My former c.1969 'no guard' military M3 

dunk 

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[wlaidlaw]

My original intention with an M3 was to buy a rough one with a rigid Summicron and send them to Alan Starkie to get them painted military/Bundeseigentum green. Then my current M3 in near mint with a pretty good 50/2.8 Elmar-M (ELMOM version) came up, which was far too nice to that to it, so I still don't have my green M3 😪

Wilson

[gyoung]

7 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

That exposé on the M3 from Setadel in Canada (where I bought my 85 Summarex from) was very interesting. My M3, which is from the last 1966 batch, still has the surround to the lens release button. I am guess this only disappeared after they started to make M4's. My M4, the 47th production camera (#1175047) from 1967, has like all M4's, no surround. 

Wilson

My M3, 1158677, bought new in '68, doesn't have the surround, neither did its twin 1158466 which I bought at the same time, but sold about 25 yrs ago.

Gerry 

[Panhdlce]

Collectors collect, photographs take photos

[sandro]

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Collectors and photographers are quite often also united in the same person.

Lex

[wlaidlaw]

I used to be a keen photographer for 70 years. I started aged 5 with a Brownie 127 Flash, which was a present from my father's New York agent, when toys in the UK were difficult to find just post war, especially in the north of Scotland. My grandfather, great uncle and my father were all Leica users and I have one Leica from each of them (Model II(D), Model III(F) and a IIf). However as I went past the age of 75, 30 years of psoriatic arthritis and the after effects of a ski jumping accident while at college in Switzerland and motor racing accident in a Le Mans car, where I was pretty seriously injured in both, caught up with me and my mobility is now very limited. I also have very considerable arthritic tremor, which took a dramatic turn for the worse over a two week stay in hospital with Covid. That has caused me to nearly give up using my M10-R and I now stick to the Q3 with OIS and a Hasselblad X2D-100C, with its brilliant IBIS. I started to collect Leicas as well as use them some 50 years ago but became more serious after I retired in 2003 and I now have some 37 Leica bodies and over 50 lenses plus about 15 other cameras (Rollei, Graflex, Contax, Minox and a Mamiya Super 23 Press plus a few other odds and ends). I would love to take more photos but it is just physically not really possible. I am still collecting. I added a IIIb to my collection just last week, to match my IIIb copy by Reid and Sigrist. 

Wilson

Edited 13 hours ago by wlaidlaw

[pippy]

2 hours ago, Panhdlce said:

Collectors collect, photographs take photos

Far too simplistic by half.

I second Sandro's comment; some Collectors use their cameras to take fantastic photographs and some Photographers acquire countless (almost) cameras. Numerous members here whom I've met in person have a foot set firmly in both camps.

Philip.

Edited 12 hours ago by pippy