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

Leica M3

Ernst Leitz · Leica M mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film, loaded through the base with a removable take-up spool · 1954

Also known as: Leica M3 · Leica M3 DS · Leica M3 double stroke · Leitz M3 · ライカM3

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Double stroke Leica M 1954–1958 — No separate figure published
Single stroke Leica M 1958–1966 — No separate figure published
Black paint Leica M 1954–1966 — 1,320 cameras (Leica Wiki)
Olive green Leica M 1954–1966 — 214 cameras (Leica Wiki)
Ernst Leitz Canada Leica M 1955–1966 — Small blocks throughout the serial list — 50, 100, 150, 300 at a time
  1. Leitz Auction 48, lot 86: a black paint M3, serial 959483 of 1959, from what the catalogue calls the very first batch of only 100 black paint cameras, marking the start of regular black paint M3 production. Long strap lugs and a fully black-painted base plate are given as first-run details altered in later series. It sold for €144,000 including buyer's premium against a €120,000–140,000 estimate — a hundred-camera subdivision inside the 1,320 black paint cameras counted here.
  2. Mike Eckman gives total production as over 220,000 cameras across the twelve-year run, against the 233,209 numbers the serial list assigns.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • One window for focusing and framing: the rangefinder patch sits inside the viewfinder, which no earlier Leica does
  • Parallax-corrected bright frames for 50mm, 90mm and 135mm, switching with the lens
  • 0.91× viewfinder magnification — the largest ever fitted to an M
  • Bayonet mount in place of the 39mm thread

Double stroke:

  • Two short pulls of the advance lever to wind one frame

Single stroke:

  • One pull of the advance lever per frame

Black paint:

  • Black lacquer over brass, which wears to the metal rather than flaking

Olive green:

  • Olive green finish

Ernst Leitz Canada:

  • Canadian markings; assembled at Midland, Ontario

Serial-range notes

700000–1206999, then 3087301–3087700
The whole run, on the Leica Wiki's 134-row table: 233,209 numbers assigned between 1954 and 1966, plus a block of 400 in 2006 for the M3 J. Camera 700000 is listed on its own, dated 1955, while the block starting at 700001 is dated 1954 — the first camera is a year younger than the ones after it.
the black-paint blocks
Ten blocks are marked Schwz Lackiert: 959401–959500, 993501–993750, 1038801–1039000, 1059850–1059999, 1078501–1078800, 1097701–1097850, 1134001–1134150, 1157591–1157600 and 1158501–1158510, with 1044001–1046000 mixed black and chrome. The nine unmixed blocks total exactly 1,320 — the figure the model page prints for black paint without showing its working.
919251
The table places a text row here reading that cameras below are single-stroke and cameras above are double-stroke unless modified — a THIRD changeover number, against 915521 and 914251 elsewhere on the same page.
928923–929000, 987536–987600, 1067871–1068000, 1114976–1115000, 1141897–1142000
Postkamera blocks inside M3 numbering, in 24×27 and 24×36 — the cameras Pierre Jeandrain's research moved from the MD to the M3, and the reason older MD production figures are too high.
1164846–1164865 and 1206962–1206999
Twenty cameras dated 1967 and thirty-eight olive ones dated 1969, after the model's stated 1966 end. Both rows are marked provisional in the table.
1100401–1134150
Fifty olive cameras against a range spanning 33,749 numbers, and 1158996–1158900 has its end below its start. The olive rows do not behave: they also total far more than the 214 olive cameras the model page claims.
785891
Below this number there is no frameline selector lever on the front of the camera (1955).
844001
Metal pressure plate from this number in 1957, replacing the earlier glass one.
854001
The modern geometric shutter-speed series begins here, in 1957.
914251 or 915521
The changeover from double-stroke to single-stroke winding. The Leica Wiki gives both numbers on the same page.
around 1960
The strap lugs change from the riveted \"dog-ear\" pattern to the rivetless modern one. No serial is published for the change.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film, loaded through the base with a removable take-up spool
Finder
Combined viewfinder and coupled rangefinder in one window, parallax corrected · 0.91× magnification · 50mm, 90mm, 135mm framelines · automatic, selected by the lens · automatic parallax correction
Base length
68.5 mm
Effective baselength
62.33 mm
Shutter
focal plane, rubberised cloth · 1s – 1/1000 and B; the speed series changes at serial 854001
Designed by
Heinrich Janke — camera
Country
Germany
Original price
$297 body only (1960); $447 with the 50mm Summicron

Figures we worked out rather than found: 1,320 black + 214 olive = 1,534 non-chrome cameras, 0.66% of the 233,209 assigned numbers · The gap between the two published single-stroke changeover serials is 1,270 cameras

Where sources disagree

Serial at which single-stroke winding begins
  • 915521 (Leica Wiki, variants line)
  • 914251 (Leica Wiki, the same page's list of changes)

Better supported: Unresolved

1,270 cameras separate the two figures, and both are printed on the same page a few lines apart. A camera in that range cannot be dated by either number.

What reviewers say

History

The M3 is the camera the rest of the industry spent a decade answering. Everything before it, Leitz included, made you focus in one window and frame in another; the M3 puts the rangefinder patch inside the viewfinder, so the two happen in one motion and one eye. The frames for 50mm, 90mm and 135mm are projected into the finder and swap themselves when the lens is changed, and they move as you focus to correct parallax. The lens mounts on a bayonet and locks in a sixth of a turn instead of a dozen threads. The back of the camera comes off with the base plate for loading. At 0.91× the finder is the largest magnification Leitz ever fitted to an M, which is why an M3 focuses a 90mm or a fast 50 more precisely than anything that came after it — and why it will not show a 35mm frame at all without goggles on the lens.

Nikon’s answer was the SP two years later, with six frames in a life-size finder and a wider baselength; Canon’s was a series of cameras that were cheaper and never quite the equal of it. What actually replaced the M3 was Leitz’s own M2, which gave up magnification to fit a 35mm frame.

Production ran to 1966 and the assigned numbers come to 233,209, of which 1,320 are black paint and 214 olive green — together two-thirds of one per cent. That ratio is worth holding onto when a black M3 appears at auction. Ernst Leitz Canada assembled a steady share at Midland from 1955 onward, in blocks of fifty to three hundred slotted between the Wetzlar runs.

The M3 changed continuously through those twelve years, which is why serial numbers matter more here than on most cameras. There is no frameline selector lever below 785891. The pressure plate goes from glass to metal at 844001 in 1957. The modern shutter-speed series starts at 854001. The strap lugs lose their rivets somewhere around 1960, and nobody publishes a number for it. And the best-known change of all — double-stroke winding to single-stroke — is given twice on the same source page, once as 915521 and once as 914251. Twelve hundred and seventy cameras sit between those two claims, and no camera inside that range can be dated by either.

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 M3
Leica M3 — Hannes Grobe (talk), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Leica M3
Leica M3 with the 35mm Summaron and its goggles — Sebastian Stabinger, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Leica M3
M3: the film-reminder dial in DIN and ASA — Rama, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0 fr)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,800 across 184 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $1,500–$2,300). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 4 days: down 3% from $1,900.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$1,800$1,500–$2,300184
2026-09-10$1,900$1,500–$2,400188
2026-09-08$1,900$1,500–$2,400189
2026-09-06$1,900$1,400–$2,400190

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

Show 458 more listings

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

Related: Leica IIIg · Leica M1 · Leica M2 · Leica M4

Lenses for this body: Elmar 5cm f/2.8 · Elmar 9cm f/4 · Elmarit 9cm f/2.8 · Hektor 13.5cm f/4.5 · Summarit 5cm f/1.5 · Summaron 2.8cm f/5.6 · Summaron 3.5cm f/2.8 · Summaron 3.5cm f/3.5 · Summicron 35mm f/2 (v1, eight elements) · Summicron 50mm f/2 (v1 collapsible · v2 rigid and Dual Range) · Summicron 90mm f/2 (v1, 1957) · Summilux 35mm f/1.4 (v1, steel rim) · Summilux 50mm f/1.4 (v1, 1959) · Super-Angulon 21mm f/4

Sources (5)

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.