The double-stroke M3 that never was

[marke]

I had been thinking that my 1958 single-sroke M3 was once a double-stroke. The serial number reflected that from what I had seen. But after studying this page, I've come to the conclusion that is must be an early SS, either made in late 1957 or early 1958. If you scroll down the page, not quite halfway, you will see an "Early Leica M3 chrome Single Stroke Body S/N 8663XX, 1957". Well, the serial number on my M3 is just a bit after this, being 866 6XX.

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting bit of information. I'm sure thankful for the people who devote their time to providing information like this. Even though I am primarily a shooter and not a collector, it makes the whole experience even more fun! 😛

 

[gdi]

I think it should be pretty easy to tell the difference, even without a serial number list! 🙂

 

[marke]

Well, apparently it's not so easy for everyone, since I was recently told by at least a couple people here that my SS M3 was originally a DS.

Please excuse me if this is an obvious question, but how do you tell the difference between an M3 that came as a SS straight from the factory, and one that was converted later on, without a serial number list?

 

[payasam]

There may be a way to tell by looking inside the body, but from the outside there is none. Possibly gdi was making an obscure joke.

 

[Dfin]

Marke, my M3 is 901xxx, and is a double stroke camera. According to the First 70 years book, it was made in 1957. The book lists your number as being an M3 made by ELC, it also says that single stroke advance was introduce in 1958, starting from No. 915,251. Hope this has been of some help, Alan. PS. Just had a look @ your Pbase site and your M3 is marked as Wetzlar Germany, not ELC ! Maybe someone with more Leica knowledge can help.

 

[Mackinaw]

Please excuse me if this is an obvious question, but how do you tell the difference between an M3 that came as a SS straight from the factory, and one that was converted later on, without a serial number list?

As somebody else mentioned, there are probably internal differences that would help tell one from the other.

I can tell you that it was common, years back, to have double-stroke M3s' converted to single stroke. I had my first M3, purchased in 1977, converted from 2-stroke to 1-stroke.

Jim B.

 

[Al Kaplan]

It was a very common conversion, and a lot of prople had the flash synch contacts changed to the PC style introduced with the M4.

 

[gdi]

Marke, my M3 is 901xxx, and is a double stroke camera. According to the First 70 years book, it was made in 1957. The book lists your number as being an M3 made by ELC, it also says that single stroke advance was introduce in 1958, starting from No. 915,251. Hope this has been of some help, Alan. PS. Just had a look @ your Pbase site and your M3 is marked as Wetzlar Germany, not ELC ! Maybe someone with more Leica knowledge can help.

Yes it appears that a 866XXX would be a '57. Mine is a '57 874xxx and is marked like Mark's, EXCEPT for the large M3 of his - indicating made in Canada (mine is the small "M3"- Wetzler).

I don't know if I would draw the conclusion that it came as SS based on the MIR info and vicinity of the serial #. But if that body covering is original - call WestLicht! :angel: (I would like to find an nice Elmar like yours with a '57 serial #!!)

 

[Philippe D.]

Hi, the first M3 single stroke living the Wetzlar factory had the serial number 919251
Therefore yours was a DS and has been transformed later to SS.