leicam3

During the century-or-so that film was the dominant medium in photography, a handful of cameras made a mark deeper than the rest and became legendary for their impact and legacy. One of these was the Leica M3.

We all love interesting and perhaps somewhat obscure facts and anyone reading this site has at least a moderate interest in cameras -- and hopefully, their history. Part of that history includes the unique, weird, one-of-a-kind, and (you guessed it) extremely expensive cameras which have, in one way or another, played a role in paving the way to where we are today.

A camera store in Germany has teamed up with a specialist to create and sell a series of limited edition, non-functional, "copper-plated" Leica rangefinders as art pieces that'll class up your mantlepiece. Though we're not sure why the camera store decided to put "copper-plated" in quotes...

Amateur photographer Guy Sie of The Netherlands needed a better way of remembering what film speed he has loaded into his camera, so he created custom 3D-printed camera hot shoe covers with ISO numbers on them.

Want a piece of Leica history and have very deep pockets? There's currently an opportunity to buy the last Leica M3 ever made. You'll just need to fork over a cool $595,000.

Inspired by a list that I saw some time ago made by “gadget experts” (whatever those are) who chose the Leica M3 as the top gadget of all time and the original Game Boy as one of the top five, I decided to compare them.

At the beginning of 2016, I decided to stop digital photography for good and therefore sold my last digital tool, the Leica M Monochrom.

Check out this tin that's designed to look like the vintage Leica M3 35mm rangefinder camera. From a distance it may be mistaken for the real thing, but the storage tin simply has the design printed flat on the surface.

It's not often that one gets to narrate the story of their birth. Fortunately (or unfortunately) in my case, the story has been told to me and to others around me time and time again. It’s imprinted in memory, much like a photograph, due to its many renditions, and it's narrated more often whenever my birthday comes around each September. Thankfully, it is not one of those tales that changes and has details added or subtracted to it with every rendition.

Ollie Baker, the 18-year-old tinkerer who made headlines when he turned an old Konica rangefinder into a digital camera using a Sony NEX-5 sensor, is back at it with a Kickstarter project that's even more exciting: he wants to turn your Leica M3 into a digital camera by packing the full-frame sensor from the Sony a7 inside!

It's not often we get to use the words stripped and porn in one of our titled, but this gorgeous stripped down Leica M3 offered up one of those rare exceptions.

In a world were the term "gear porn" is used to describe pretty much any desirable piece of equipment, this camera takes it to another level by shedding its outerwear (if you will) and giving us a peek at the something that is at once incredibly intricate and beautifully simple.

This week marks the 60th anniversary since Leica introduced the now-iconic M3, a camera many consider to be the best Leica ever produced and still the most successful M-Series camera ever made at over 220,000 units sold by the time production ended in 1966.

And so, to pay homage to this titan of photographic history, DigitalRev decided to give the M3 a proper video and take it out onto the streets of Hong Kong for a good old hands-on review.

Put together by SixOranges, this four-minute video is an interview with renowned photographer Jürgen Schadeberg. In it, he shares the story behind the collection of Leica cameras he has used throughout his career, many of which were responsible for documenting some of the most iconic photographs of former South African President and icon Nelson Mandela throughout Madiba’s life.

For his project "Ordinary Behavior," illustrator and product designer Kevin Lck wanted to explore the relationship between humans and the technology that is devouring our souls has become such a large part of our lives. To do so, he chose five household objects and set about creating special cardboard replicas.

One of those objects (although it doesn't exactly quality as a "household object") was a Leica M3, and his black and white rendition is impressive even before you turn it around.

Back in May, a 1923 Leica O-Series camera became the most expensive camera on the planet after being sold for roughly $2.79 million at a WestLicht auction. That camera was a prototype camera, and just one of 25 made (only 12 of them exist today). If you're wondering what the most expensive non-prototype camera is, look no further than the latest WestLicht auction that was held earlier today. The Leica M3D seen above fetched a staggering €1.68 million, or roughly $2.18 million, becoming "the most expensive camera from a serial production ever."

Remember that super realistic Leica M3 paper pinhole camera we featured back in June? You can now …

Photographer Matthew Nicholson created this paper Leica M3 that's a working pinhole camera. It's loaded with 35mm film, and even the strap is realistic and made with paper!

Here's a side-by-side comparison of Fujifilm's Finepix X100 and the classic Leica M3. Needless to say, the X100 is one classy looking digital camera. It just started shipping this past weekend in Japan, and should begin arriving elsewhere in the very near future. If you want a closer look at the camera's features, check out the 124 page owners manual that recently found its way online.