Leica R3 – a camera I was never expecting to buy!

If I hadn’t looked at a certain film camera shops website after I was advised of the bulk movie b/w film they are re-spooling and selling very cheap, I wouldn’t have ended up with an R3. If I then hadn’t made an offer on a damaged lens then I wouldn’t have ended up with an R3. But I did! So now I have an R3 with a 50mm f2 Summicron and no regrets.

I have long wanted to try something from the R series and the lovely silver chrome R3 with a big red Leitz dot was too tempting. It came boxed with the original neck strap, manual, quick guide card and guarantee card. The first, maybe only, owner lived in Berkhamsted and she bought the camera from the Hove Camera Co. on the 3rd of April 1978.

I always expect a camera of 1970s vintage to require a set of new rear door light seals and of course the R3 badly needed them. It’s an easy job to replace the old disintegrated seals. The shutter button was sticking too but this was an easy fix. I’m a bit surprised that the camera shop was happy to send the camera out with these faults. However the camera is so nice that I was happy to sort out these very minor issues. I have a selection of material for camera light traps that has come in handy many times over the years.

Now to a lens, the 3 or R cam 50mm f2 Summicrons are not cheap so I took a punt on an R cam on eBay that has a nice body with excellent optics but the filter thread was a bit battered. The seller was quite honest about the fault, the price was less than half of what you can expect to pay for a good lens. I have managed to get the filter thread back into shape, although a bit scruffy I can now use filters and the supplied very nice non Leica metal lens hood, which completely covers the problem. The lens body is good and the optics excellent despite the bashing. So mindful of my need to do Leica on a budget I have paid the equivalent of the cost of an excellent 50mm Summicron, for both.

I hadn’t realised how big and heavy the R3 would be but it was no problem even after 2 hours of walking with it over my shoulder. The R3 has such a feel of real quality, plus a nice big bright viewfinder, easy to use if you wear glasses. Exposure metering is by spot or average, shutter speeds from 4s to 1/1000. The electronic shutter has a choice of either manual or automatic, if the battery dies you have the X setting of 1/90.

I rattled off a roll of XP2 Super to check out the camera and lens on a day out into Yorkshire, a lovely trip into Last of the Summer Wine Country and finished the film off at the New Islington canal marina in the Manchester northern quarter concrete jungle, conveniently near the lab I use for my processing.

The next two images where shot with wide apertures.

You can see from the photos that the lens is performing well. The camera is a delight to use and can be recommended, if you would like a camera that is lighter and smaller then the R4 and R5 are a good choice and a similar price.

Thank you for reading

Phil

Share this post: