Leica IIId
Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures · 1939
our own findingAlso known as: Leica IIId · Leitz Leica IIId · ライカIIId
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leica IIId | LTM | 1939–1947 | — | 427 cameras (Leica Wiki), of which 325 are an assumption rather than a record |
- The auction record confirms far more cameras inside the assumed 367001–367325 block than the Leica Wiki's seven. Summichronica's compiled table of IIId auction appearances lists 26 distinct serials between 367008 and 367319, and Bonhams sold a further one — 367163, a 1943 camera — as lot 1 of Important Instruments of Science & Technology on 31 October 2017 for £5,250 including premium. Two rows of that table were checked against the auction houses directly and both hold: 367132 was lot 33 of Leitz Photographica Auction 39, delivered to Sofia on 20 March 1944 and sold for €15,600 including premium, and 367093 made €9,600 at the 17th WestLicht auction on 29 May 2010. None of this changes the published total, but the inference behind the 325-camera block rests on a good deal more than seven cameras.
- Prices realised in the compiled record run from €1,440 for 367062 at the 23rd WestLicht auction on 25 May 2013 to €40,000 for 360001 — the first camera of the documented 360001 block — at the 2nd Wetzlar auction on 10 October 2020. 360002 made €31,200 at the 33rd WestLicht auction on 24 November 2018. Most other examples in the table fall between roughly €2,500 and €10,000.
- Bonhams's catalogue note on 367163 records that the red shutter blinds were a wartime substitute adopted when the usual black material became unavailable, and that most have since been replaced with black ones — so an original red curtain is an originality marker in its own right. The same note observes that the IIId's delayed-action release arm differs from later models and calls the mechanism "most unreliable".
- A third production figure is in circulation: Summichronica gives 426 cameras rather than the Leica Wiki's 427, and Bonhams's 2017 catalogue says only that approximately 400 were made.
How to tell them apart
- Self-timer on a IIIc body — nothing else distinguishes it
- 136mm die-cast IIIc body
Leica IIId:
- A self-timer lever on the front of a IIIc body — the only difference from a IIIc
- One extra circle on the arm of the self-timer button, which distinguishes it from the later IIIf's timer
- Leica IIId: The rarest regular-production screw Leica. Because the only difference from a IIIc is a self-timer, and because a self-timer can be added, provenance matters more here than on any other body in the range.
Serial-range notes
- 360001–360100
- 100 cameras, 1940–1942 — the only block the list attributes to the IIId without qualification.
- 367001–367325
- 325 cameras listed as "Leica IIIc (assumed IIId)". Three quarters of the model's stated production rests on that assumption.
- 367008, 367033, 367035, 367093, 367108, 367269, 367308
- Seven individual cameras within that block confirmed as IIIds. They are the evidence the assumption is built on.
- one in 1939, one in 1947
- Two single cameras with no serial recorded at either end of the run, credited to Pacific Rim Camera.
Specifications
- Format
- 24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures
- Finder (main)
- Optical viewfinder · no rangefinder image
- Finder (rangefinder)
- Coupled split-image rangefinder
- Shutter
- focal plane, cloth · 1s – 1/1000 and Z, split at 1/20
- Dimensions
- 136 × 39 × 65 mm
- Country
- Germany
Figures we worked out rather than found: 325 of the 427 cameras — 76% of the model — rest on an assumption the source marks as one · The Leica Wiki names seven confirmed serials inside that block, about 2% — but the auction record attests roughly 29, near 9%
Where sources disagree
- How many were built
- 427 cameras (Leica Wiki total)
- 102 cameras with a documented claim — one in 1939, 100 in the 360001 block, one in 1947
Better supported: 427 is the published figure; 102 is what the list actually documents
The difference is a single block of 325 cameras that the list itself marks as IIIc bodies assumed to be IIIds, on the evidence of seven confirmed examples within it. That is a reasonable inference and it is not a record.
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
History
The IIId is a IIIc with a self-timer, and that sentence is the entire specification. There is no other difference. Leitz built 427 of them between 1939 and 1947, which makes it the rarest screw Leica in regular production, and the reason it is rare is that most of those years were spent building cameras for a war rather than for a catalogue.
Its production record deserves reading closely, because the Leica Wiki does something unusually honest with it. The serial list has four rows. One camera in 1939, serial unknown. A hundred cameras at 360001–360100 between 1940 and 1942. Then 325 cameras at 367001–367325, entered as “Leica IIIc (assumed IIId)”. Then one camera in 1947, serial unknown again. The total printed underneath is 427.
So three quarters of this model’s stated production is an assumption, and the source says so in the table rather than burying it. The assumption is not unreasonable: seven cameras inside that block — 367008, 367033, 367035, 367093, 367108, 367269 and 367308 — are individually confirmed as IIIds, and a block of IIIc bodies containing seven confirmed self-timer cameras is likely to be a IIId batch. Seven out of 325 is about two per cent, and the figure everyone quotes for this camera rests on it. The auction record does better than the wiki: catalogued lots attest roughly twenty-nine cameras inside that block, nearer nine per cent, and the strongest single case is 367132, which carries a Leitz factory delivery record to Sofia dated 20 March 1944. The assumption is better supported than the wiki’s own table shows — but it is still an assumption, and it is still where three quarters of this model’s production comes from.
For a buyer the consequence is direct. The only thing separating a IIId from a IIIc is a self-timer, and self-timers can be fitted. On a camera this scarce, with a documentary record this thin, the serial number and its papers are the camera. The extra circle on the arm of the self-timer button — the detail that separates a IIId’s timer from the later IIIf’s — is worth knowing, and it is not proof of anything on its own.
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.
Live listings
- ERNST LEITZ LEICA IIID ROTER VORHANG 35mm FILM ENTFERNUNGSMESSER KAMERA SN367164, 1944
- Leica IIId military camera 1943. in original condition from the first seriesNo.360129
- Leica IIId military camera 1943. in original condition from the first seriesNo.
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