The M3 is here!

[denishr]

Thanks to our own Brian Sweeney...
He sent it Global Express, and it got here (Croatia) in less than a week!!!
I'm too excited to write anything meaningful, except that the camera is wonderful! Bright VF/RF, and the shutter is sooooo quiet... Better than my M2.

Yes, I now have TWO Leicas... An M2 and an M3...
I don't think it gets any better than this 🙂

Unfortunately, I'm up to my ears in work, so no shots in the next 2-3 days, but I promise I'll post some ASAP...

BTW, I also got a perfect companion for my Leicas today - almost unused Durst M305 enlarger with colour head - a freebie, courtesy of a friend...

Can't wait for the weekend to test the camera and the enlarger. It's about time that I hang some of my B&W work on the walls 😀

THANKS BRIAN!!!!!! You're GREAT!

Denis

 

[bmattock]

Wow, congrats, Denis! I can feel your elation, it is a very cool thing!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[back alley]

THANKS BRIAN!!!!!! You're GREAT!


yeah, but how do you really feel?? lol

man oh man a 2 & a 3, you must feel like ya died and went to heaven.

i bet it feels almost as good as having a canon p and a canon 7 🙂😉

joe

 

[rover]

You are growing quite a collection Denis, congratulations. Do you have room for it all?

 

[FrankS]

Congrats, Denis! First an M2, now an M3, I guess an M4 is next!

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Thankyou Denis. Youxin did a great job on the shutter; it is noticeably quiter than my M3 Double Stroke. Most of the M3 pictures in my gallery are with this camera.

Now if Essex can get the parts from Leica to fix my M2 and I will be all set!

 

[peter_n]

Congratulations, Denis! 🙂

Brian is Youxin Ye still doing repair work? I thought he had stopped...

 

[rover]

I sent him an email back in the summer Peter and it bounced back to me. I also called him and left a message which was not returned.

 

[peter_n]

Thanks for the info rover. Too bad... 🙁

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I bought this camera about a year ago; but have not had any work done by him. He had just CLA'd it before putting it on EBay. I sent the M3 from JD to Essex; they turned it around in 16 days door-to-door and fixed the shutter capping problem, cleaned the finder to perfection, and repaired the Vulcanite all for $158 which included return shipping.

 

[denishr]

Cousins

Cousins

Well, just a quick dig**al shot...

Two sisters and the bigger German cousin.
I'll be looking for another Leica M grip for the M3.
I love the one I have on the M2 - makes it a lot easier to handle and hold.
I hope I'll be able to shoot some real film through the M3 this weekend, and will post the results.
M2 has Ralph's Ultron - veeery nice and smoooth lens!
The M3 has my collapsible Summicron.

Denis

 

[rover]

Nice!

Funny, the Ultron is not a very big lens, but it looks that way on the M2.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Why am I staring at this picture for so long...

It's nice to see the M3 in good company and with a Summicron on it. I used the Type I Rigid Summicron on it.

I got the first roll back from JD's ex-M3 with the later version Summicron yesterday and will be scanning. He did an amazing job in modifying the focus of the M3 to go down to 0.7m.

Summicrons set the standard for sharp.

 

[denishr]

Why am I staring at this picture for so long...

Maybe because of the red soft release on the M3...

A subtle (or maybe not so subtle) personalization on my part 🙂

Denis

 

[denishr]

Maybe because of the red soft release on the M3...

A subtle (or maybe not so subtle) personalization on my part 🙂

Actually, when I got my M2, I also purchased an M grip. Also bought two soft releases - one silver (on my M2 now), and one red soft release.

The spare red soft release is so nice that I thought it would be a shame to leave it on the shelf, just standing there and looking lonely.

So, I got another Leica to put that nice red soft release on 😀

The problem is that I now need another grip 😉

Denis

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The soft release looks good on it.

I am still being patient for my M2 to come back from Essex; needs a rewind gear on backorder from Germany. When it arrives I will have the "complementary" picture to go here.

I use soft releases on the Nikon SLR's; it helps them to get above the Photomic finders.

 

[FrankS]

Denis, could you comment on the characteristics of the Ultron and Summicron lenses and make comparisons between them?

 

[Pherdinand]

By the way - does sbody know the name of a "soft release" sometimes you see on TLR's? it's a bit less wide, it screws into the cable release thread and it's not red🙂 I'd love to have one for my rolleicord since the release lever is, so to say, less than ideal.

 

[denishr]

Denis, could you comment on the characteristics of the Ultron and Summicron lenses and make comparisons between them?

Sorry, Frank, not yet...
I have not developed anything done with Ultron yet.
Well, I did put a roll through my Zorki 4 with Ultron on, but it's not a representative sample 🙂 I think I messed up the development - lotsa grain on ISO 100 film, which is strange.
But, I CAN tell you that Ultron is waaaaay better than my LTM Jupiter 12. 😀

I've shot a short roll with Ultron on M2 today, and will hopefully develop later today, and scan in the evening or tomorrow. I'll report my first impressions...

As for a more extensive comparison of both lenses, I don't know. They're different focal lengths (Ultron is 35/1.7), and my collapsible Summicron (50/2) also has damaged coating, and flares like hell... So, it would not be a fair comparison in any case and under any circumstances.
But, I will surely let you know what I think...
Summicron is a wonderful lens. Some minor coating damage doesn't prevent it from making excellent shots (without too much backlight). The coating on mine is rather bad, but it still produced some quite amazing results.

I'll see how Ultron does on f1.7 🙂
Beats the price od a Summilux 35/1.4 Asph, that's for sure!

Denis

 

[GeneW]

Congratulations Denis!! Two Leicas and a Rollei. Now THAT'S living right!

Gene