Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Leica III (Model F)

Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures · 1933

Also known as: Leica III · Leica Model F · Leica F · Leitz Leica III · ライカIII型

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Black lacquer LTM 1933–1936 — 27,366 cameras (Leica Wiki)
Chrome LTM 1933–1939 — 49,091 cameras (Leica Wiki) — the majority of the model
  1. The Leica Wiki gives the III as 133 × 39 × 65 mm and the II as 133 × 67 × 33 mm, in different axis orders, though the two bodies are the same size to the eye. The figures are reproduced here as printed rather than reconciled.
  2. Leica Historica gives the model's span as serial 107601 in 1933 to serial 343100 in 1939, and records three details the production tables do not: the rangefinder magnification was raised to 1.5×, black bodies carry nickel-plated controls where chrome bodies carry chrome ones, and the catalogue code word was AFOOV.
  3. Leitz Photographica Auction 29, lot 29: a black-and-nickel Leica III of 1933, serial 110269, condition B/A, with a matching nickel Elmar 3.5/50mm no. 158062, realised €1,020 including buyer's premium against a €1,200–1,400 estimate and a €700 starting price.
  4. Leica's own archive dated serial 120608 to a camera that left Wetzlar on 14 November 1933 for London. The number sits inside a block the tables list as chrome, but stripping the body showed original black paint with no chrome beneath it; the factory's explanation was that in these years a camera was sometimes finished to a particular customer's order (35mmc).
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A second, smaller dial on the front of the body carrying the slow speeds — the tell that separates a III from a II at a glance
  • Strap lugs, which no earlier Leica has
  • A dioptre lever beside the rangefinder eyepiece

Black lacquer:

  • Black lacquer over brass with nickel-plated knobs

Chrome:

  • Chrome-plated brass; listed in the tables as Leica III Chrom

Serial-range notes

126201–137400
An 11,200-camera block spanning 1933 and 1934, the largest single run in the model, listed as chrome and black together.
137041
Called out by the Leica Wiki as a Leica Reporter — a 250-exposure camera sitting inside a block otherwise assigned to the III, which is what the Reporter was built from.
112501–114000
Listed with a batch of 75 against a range of 1,500 numbers, the figure printed in brackets. The table is recording an assignment larger than the production it accounts for.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures
Finder (main)
Optical viewfinder · no rangefinder image
Finder (rangefinder)
Coupled split-image rangefinder with a separate eyepiece and a dioptre adjustment
Shutter
focal plane, cloth · 1s – 1/500 and Z, split at 1/20 between the top dial and a slow-speed dial on the front
Designed by
Oskar Barnack — camera
Dimensions
133 × 39 × 65 mm
Country
Germany

Figures we worked out rather than found: 27,366 + 49,091 = 76,457 — the finishes sum to a total the page does not print · Chrome outnumbers black by nearly two to one, reversing the balance of the Leica II

Where sources disagree

Total production
  • 76,457 cameras — 27,366 black plus 49,091 chrome (Leica Wiki, summed)
  • Approximately 76,800 (camera-wiki)

Better supported: 76,457

343 apart. camera-wiki's figure is rounded and the Leica Wiki's is the sum of two finish counts, so the difference may be nothing more than rounding — but neither source states a total outright, so both are being read off other numbers.

What reviewers say

History

The III finishes the design. It takes the Leica II, adds a second dial on the front of the body carrying speeds from 1/20 down to a full second, puts a dioptre lever beside the rangefinder eyepiece so people who wear spectacles can focus without them, and screws strap lugs into the ends — the first Leica you could hang round your neck as the maker intended rather than as the case allowed. Nothing after it changes the concept. The IIIa adds a faster top speed, the IIIc recasts the body, the IIIf adds flash, the IIIg enlarges the finder, but the camera a photographer picks up in 1933 and the camera they pick up in 1960 work the same way.

That front dial is also the quickest way to identify one. A II has a bare front; a III has the small slow-speed dial beside the lens mount. Late Standards muddy this slightly, since Leitz began finishing III castings as Standards and blanked the hole where the dial would sit — so a body with a plug there is a Standard wearing a III’s clothes.

Chrome took over during this model. The II was mostly black; the III is 49,091 chrome against 27,366 black, and the switch shows in the 1933 blocks, one of which runs 7,000 chrome cameras in a single stretch. Neither the Leica Wiki nor camera-wiki prints a total: the first gives the two finish counts, which sum to 76,457, and the second says “approximately 76,800”. The 343 between them is probably rounding, but it is worth noticing that both figures are being read off something rather than quoted from a ledger.

The serial list holds two curiosities. Serial 137041 is marked as a Leica Reporter — the 250-exposure camera, which was built on this body and numbered in among the ordinary ones. And the block from 112501 to 114000 is credited with a batch of 75 against 1,500 assigned numbers, the larger figure printed in brackets, as though the table knows the numbers were set aside and doubts they were all used. That is the honest state of Leitz’s production records for these years, and no amount of adding up will improve it.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Leica III (Model F)
Leica III in black — a factory conversion from a Leica I — Kameraprojekt Graz 2015, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Leica III (Model F)
Leica III — Rama, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0 fr)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $770 across 35 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $420–$1,200). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 4 days: unchanged from $760.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$770$420–$1,20035
2026-09-10$770$420–$1,20035
2026-09-09$770$420–$1,20035
2026-09-06$760$400–$1,20036

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 175 more listings

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Leica 250 Reporter · Leica II (Model D) · Leica IIIa (Model G)

Lenses for this body: Elmar 10.5cm f/6.3 (Mountain Elmar) · Elmar 13.5cm f/4.5 · Elmar 3.5cm f/3.5 · Elmar 3.5cm f/4.5 · Elmar 5cm f/3.5 · Elmar 9cm f/4 · Hektor 2.8cm f/6.3 · Hektor 7.3cm f/1.9 · Summar 5cm f/2 · Thambar 9cm f/2.2

Sources (6)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.