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

Leica IIIf

Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures · 1950

Also known as: Leica IIIf · Leica IIIf red dial · Leica IIIf black dial · Leica IIIf Vorlauf · ライカIIIf

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Black dial LTM 1950–1952 — The 1950–51 block alone is 35,000 cameras at 525001–560000
Red dial LTM 1952–1957 — No separate figure published
Red dial with self-timer (Vorlauf) LTM 1954–1957 — No separate figure published
Ernst Leitz Canada (ELC) LTM 1952–1957 — No figure published
Black arctic (BA) LTM 1950–1957 — No figure published
Esercito Italiano (EI) LTM 1950–1957 — No figure published
  1. Camera-wiki gives the serial breaks the Leica Wiki's blocks do not resolve: black dial 525,001–611,000 at about 70,000 cameras, red dial from 615,001 at the end of 1952 running to 685,000 at 53,000 cameras, and red dial with self-timer 685,001–825,000 at 53,733 cameras. It also pairs the dial colours with sync speeds — 1/30 second on the black dial, 1/50 on the red — and puts German production at about 176,000 with a further 5,367 cameras assembled at Midland, Ontario between 1952 and 1956, the only figure found for the Canadian bodies the Leica Wiki lists without a quantity. Its German total is some 8,000 short of the 184,100 this entry carries.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A flash synchronisation ring beneath the shutter-speed knob, numbered for the flash in use
  • Otherwise the IIIc's 136mm die-cast body

Black dial:

  • Sync numbers engraved in black on the ring
  • Speed series including 1/60, 1/40, 1/30 and 1/4

Red dial:

  • Sync numbers engraved in red
  • Speed series of 1/75, 1/50, 1/25 and 1/5 — the geometric series still in use today

Red dial with self-timer (Vorlauf):

  • A self-timer lever on the front, absent from earlier IIIf bodies

Ernst Leitz Canada (ELC):

  • Ernst Leitz Canada markings in place of Wetzlar

Black arctic (BA):

  • Black finish, prepared for cold-weather use

Esercito Italiano (EI):

  • Esercito Italiano engraving — Italian army issue

Serial-range notes

525001–560000
35,000 black-dial cameras across 1950 and 1951, the model's opening block.
495001–520000
A 25,000-number block printed in the IIIf's table but marked Leica IIIc, with its batch figure in brackets. Two cameras inside it, 519518 and 683446, are confirmed IIIfs.
594780
Flagged by the Leica Wiki as a Leica Ic sitting within IIIf numbering.

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; the intermediate speeds differ between black-dial and red-dial cameras
Dimensions
136 × 39 × 65 mm
Country
Germany

Figures we worked out rather than found: 184,100 cameras makes the IIIf the most-produced Leica of any mount before the M3 · The opening black-dial block of 35,000 is about one fifth of the model in its first two years

Where sources disagree

What the dial colour means
  • A flash-synchronisation change, the numbers engraved in black or red
  • A shutter-speed change: black-dial cameras use 1/60, 1/40, 1/30, 1/4 and red-dial cameras 1/75, 1/50, 1/25, 1/5

Better supported: Both, and the speeds matter more

Dealer copy usually describes the red dial as a cosmetic or sync distinction. The Leica Wiki gives the two speed series explicitly, and they are different cameras to use: a red-dial IIIf runs the geometric series photographers still work in.

What reviewers say

History

The IIIf is the screw Leica at its commercial peak: 184,100 cameras between 1950 and 1957, more than any other Leica of any mount before the M3, and still in production for two years after the M3 arrived to make it obsolete. What it adds to the IIIc is flash. A ring under the shutter-speed knob is set to a number matching the bulb or electronic unit in use, which delays the contact to suit how long that flash takes to reach full output.

The black-dial and red-dial distinction is the thing everyone asks about, and it is usually explained badly. The colour refers to the engraving on that sync ring, and dealer copy tends to leave it there, as though the difference were cosmetic. It is not. The Leica Wiki gives the two speed series in full: a black-dial camera has 1/4, 1/30, 1/40 and 1/60, and a red-dial camera has 1/5, 1/25, 1/50 and 1/75 — the geometric series that photographers still work in today. Buying a red dial gets you a different shutter, not a different colour of paint, and the flash timing is calibrated to match.

The last specification adds a self-timer on the front, the Vorlauf, which arrived in 1954 and is the version collectors chase. Around the edges of the ordinary production sit the cameras that were made for somebody in particular: bodies assembled by Ernst Leitz Canada at Midland, black “arctic” cameras prepared for the cold, and bodies engraved Esercito Italiano for the Italian army. The Leica Wiki lists all of them and gives a quantity for none.

Its serial table repeats the family’s habit of mixing models together. A 25,000-number block from 495001 is printed inside the IIIf’s list marked Leica IIIc, with its batch figure in brackets, and two cameras inside that range are separately confirmed as IIIfs; a Ic turns up at 594780 in the middle of IIIf numbering. Leitz assigned numbers to the line, not to the model, and every attempt to read production off these tables runs into that fact.

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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 IIIf
Leica IIIf chrome, serial 692358, 1954, with its factory tag — Kameraprojekt Graz 2015, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $480 across 83 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $400–$620). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $480.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$480$400–$62083
2026-09-06$480$400–$63084

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

Show 130 more listings

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

Related: Leica If · Leica IIf · Leica IIIc · Leica IIIg

Lenses for this body: Elmar 3.5cm f/3.5 · Elmar 9cm f/4 · Hektor 13.5cm f/4.5 · Hektor 2.8cm f/6.3 · Summarex 8.5cm f/1.5 · Summarit 5cm f/1.5 · Summaron 3.5cm f/3.5 · Summicron 50mm f/2 (v1 collapsible · v2 rigid and Dual Range) · Summitar 5cm f/2 · Orion-15 28mm f/6

Sources (4)

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.