My M3 won't leave me alone

[Roger Hicks]

M3 - the one and only M.

Have a M6 and MP in the closet, don't remember when I used them last. The M3's are just special. Sold M2s and M4.

I think I've had three. My first Leica was an M3 and I sold it as soon as I found an M2. Then there was a black M3, bought cheap, used for a couple of years, and sold dear. For a while I ran another chrome M3 alongside other Ms, but the lack of a 35mm frame meant that I used it very little. I sold it years ago, and never regretted it for an instant. I find my MP and M2 to be vastly more usable. In fact, I even prefer my M4-P to any M3 I've ever had. Sold my spare M2, too, once I got an MP.

This doesn't mean that I'm right and M3 lovers are wrong. It's just a reasonable warning to those who haven't owned M3s that not everyone finds them irresistible. Lovely smooth cameras, but that's about all I'd say in their favour. Perhaps I should add, though, that I have a Leicavit on the MP and a Rapidwinder on the M2.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Take an M3 and a 50mm lens with you and leave anything else at home.

Leica M3, Summilux 50mm f1.4 II, HP5.

Erik.

 

[Austerby]

My M3 is old, simple and difficult. It imposes constraints and doesn't help you: it leaves the choices to you. If you want it to do something it can't you have to look elsewhere. It provides me with challenge: frustration when the results don't work, satisfaction when they do. I can take good photographs with it, but not always. Not everything turns out how I expect it to, sometimes for the better. Other cameras do different things. It beat my M2, M6, M7, MP, M8, ZI, R3a, CLE.
It won.

I hope everyone finds the right camera for themselves.

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