The hidden meaning behind the '3' in the legendary Leica M3 revealed

In 1925 the E. Leitz company, of Wetzlar, Germany, stood the camera industry on its head, with the introduction of their “Kleine Filmkamera”, or simply, the Leica.

Except, it was almost not called the Leica. Originally, it was to be the Leca, (the first two letters of Leitz and camera) until, just before the camera was to be introduced, someone realized that the name of the French Eka camera would commonly be pronounced “L’Eka”, uncomfortably close to Leca. So, they included the “i” from Leitz, to create the now-famous Leica brand.

It was by no means the first 35mm camera, but the Leica was the first successful 35mm camera. And, in 1954, the Ernst Leitz company (now known as Leica Camera AG) would stand the camera world on its head again.

The first Leica had a simple viewfinder and a shoe for an accessory rangefinder. Later models incorporated the rangefinder into the body and although conveniently next to the viewfinder, it was separate. But, the M3 was radically different. Like the later Nikon F and Pentax Spotmatic models, it was not the first with anything. But, it combined every new feature in a way no other camera had done before. And it was perfect!

The M3 featured a combined viewfinder and rangefinder in one bright window, with a 0.91x magnification, making the view almost identical to what the eye saw. It featured bright, easy-to-see framelines for 50mm. 90mm and 135mm lenses that changed automatically when a lens was mounted via a new, fast, bayonet lens mount rather than the screw or thread mount of earlier Leica cameras. And the frame lines were fully parallax corrected. The base of the rangefinder base was extended to 68.5mm, which made focusing more accurate – especially with the longer 135mm lenses.

The shutter speeds were selected with a single dial that no longer rotated, and it shutter speed dial could be coupled to an accessory light meter. The film was wound with a rapid film advance lever – at first a double stroke advance, later it took only a single stroke. It even had a flap in the back for more convenient film loading, as the early Leicas were notoriously awkward in that regard. And the frame counter reset automatically!

The ‘M’ in the model name stood for Messsucher, the German word for rangefinder, while the 3 referred to the three automatic frame-lines. The number in later models simply indicated where they stood in the lineup. The M3’s design set the standard for 35mm rangefinder cameras, both film and digital, for decades to come. It was the first of the Leica M series and sold over 220,000 units until production ended in 1967.

In 1957, the M3 was followed by a simpler, less expensive M2 with a viewfinder magnification of 0.72x (vs. 0.91x on M3), which allowed the M2 to display frame-lines for 35mm, 50mm, and 90mm lenses. This made it well-suited to photographers using wide-angle 35mm lenses and is considered better for spectacle wearers using 50mm lenses. However, the 135mm frame-lines found on the M3 the automatically resetting frame counter and (on some versions) the self-timer were gone. At was a successful model, with around 83,500 cameras made, including 1,500 that were made at Leica’s Canadian branch, in Midland, Ontario.

There was even an M1, with no viewfinder at all, made for use with microscopes or the Visoflex mirror housings that turned the rangefinder Leica’s into somewhat cumbersome SLRs.

Subsequent models (numbered roughly in order of release) added more features, such as canted rapid rewind knobs and TTL Metering. The M8 (2006) became the first digital M series camera, for which your scribe had the privilege of being a pre-release tester and reviewer. From the back, it was clearly digital, with a screen and buttons. But, from the front, it still looked very much like an M3 from 1954!

By 2025. Leica had reached the M11, though a newer M EV1, without a rangefinder but with an Electronic Viewfinder has just been announced. Will Leica fans accept such a “rangefinder-less” camera? The jury is still out.

Find out more about photography's past in David Young's book, A Brief History of Photography.

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Take a look at the best film cameras you can buy today, and the best Leica cameras on sale now. You can also read other articles in David Young's Classic Cameras series.