Leica M3 Dunkelgelb Filter
The Leitz Summicron 1:2 f=5cm lens for the Leica's M can receive normally both 39mm thread filters or push-on 42mm filters like my series of FOCA filters. The push-on filters are however a bit less secure since they can be displaced accidentally during a photo session. I had then the idea to find a 39mm thread yellow filter that is a subtle contrast filter for black-and-white film photography. However this size is not so common and mostly the signature of Leica M series lenses.
In the Leica world, it means very expensive... The today list price of a yellow Leica E39 filter is 160 € in a plastic box not very attractive I should say ! In a local Leica shop, Lyon, France, they started to tell me 135€ and (fortunately for my credit card) they had it not in stock. I did not find out too most reasonable brand-new Heliopan filters that seems not to exist in this size.
On eBay, I sourced from a seller in Belgium an original vintage Leitz Leica E39 "dunkelgelb" (dark yellow type 1) filter in its original boxes (Ref. Leitz HOOBE or 13086 H) in very good condition (not to say pristine) for 40€ (still expensive but it's a Leica!!). The list price of this filter in 1961 was in France 37.5 NF ("New Francs"). Taking into account the inflation, it would give today something as 72€. Clearly the difference is the price of luxury in which Leica was transformed over the years...
The Leica literature indicates that the Yellow 1 filter Leitz has about 1 stop compensation for the daylight and 0.5 for artificial tungsten-type light containing more yellow radiations. On January 8, 2025, I decided to test the filter despite a weather rather cloudy. I loaded a 36-exposure Rollei film RPX400 in my beloved Leica M3 year 1956 (see below for details) and went for a long photo tour across the city.
To compensate the filter absorption, expositions were determined outdoor for 200 ISO using my Autometer III Minolta light meter fitted with a 10° finder for selective measurements privileging the shadow areas, or, for some instances, using the integrating dome for incident- light metering. Indoor with artificial tungsten-like I used 320 ISO.
Preparing the camera, January 8, 2025
69004 Lyon
France
After exposure, the film was processed in Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developper at dilution 1+25 and 20°C for 12min30. The film was then digitized using a Sony A7 body fitted to a Minolta Slide Duplicator installed on a Minolta Auto Bellows III with a lens Minolta Bellow Macro Rokkor 50mm f/3.5. The RAW files obtained were processed without intermediate files in latest version (14.1.1) of Adobe LightRoom Classic and edited to the final jpeg pictures. All views of the film are presented in the dedicated album either in the printed framed versions and unframed full-size jpeg accompanied by some documentary smartphone Vivio Y76 color pictures.
About the camera and the lens :
This Leica M3 circa 1956 (Ref. Leitz ISUMO), double stroke, was sold to me with a Leitz Wetzlar Summicron collapsible normal lens 1:2 f=5cm of the same period equipped with a 39mm screw-on protective filter, a 42mm push-on Leica lens cap and an original Leitz shade hood (Ref. Leitz IROOA).
The camera was serviced in Paris, France, in 2018 by Gérard Métrot at Photo-Suffren, (a Leica boutique) who worked on the maintenance of camera's of famous French photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau. The camera was inspected by Odéon-Photo, Paris, another historic Leica place in Paris, in April 2024.
I sourced at the same time in Germany a stunning Leitz Leica leather bag (Ref; Leitz IDCOO) of the same model that appeared on the back cover page go the Leica brochure year 1954. This bag can accommodate the camera and a mounted Leica-Meter type M. The interior in covered with a carmin velvet in perfect condition.
The Leica M3 is one of the most iconic range-finder 35mm camera of the 50's and the 60's. It was produced in Wetzlar, Germany, in different versions at 226178 exemplars, between 1954 (n° 700000) and 1966 (n° 1164865, www.summilux.net/materiel/Leica-M3) . The Leica M3 was the result of the study of a "super-Leica" that was started before WWII and only achieved in the 50'S.
The greater improvement of the M3 compared the classical Leica's was in a magnificent and very complex range-finder combined to the view finder permitting the framing with the two eyes open, integrating the frame in the real and normal vision. The shutter integrates too the normal and the slow speeds in the same barillet. The film advance of this version of Leica M3 is also the typical "double-stroke" advance that was exclusive to the Leica M3 first versions.
The camera was transported to me from Paris to Lyon, France on April 26, 2024 and the bag arrived the day after.
Leica M3 Dunkelgelb Filter
The Leitz Summicron 1:2 f=5cm lens for the Leica's M can receive normally both 39mm thread filters or push-on 42mm filters like my series of FOCA filters. The push-on filters are however a bit less secure since they can be displaced accidentally during a photo session. I had then the idea to find a 39mm thread yellow filter that is a subtle contrast filter for black-and-white film photography. However this size is not so common and mostly the signature of Leica M series lenses.
In the Leica world, it means very expensive... The today list price of a yellow Leica E39 filter is 160 € in a plastic box not very attractive I should say ! In a local Leica shop, Lyon, France, they started to tell me 135€ and (fortunately for my credit card) they had it not in stock. I did not find out too most reasonable brand-new Heliopan filters that seems not to exist in this size.
On eBay, I sourced from a seller in Belgium an original vintage Leitz Leica E39 "dunkelgelb" (dark yellow type 1) filter in its original boxes (Ref. Leitz HOOBE or 13086 H) in very good condition (not to say pristine) for 40€ (still expensive but it's a Leica!!). The list price of this filter in 1961 was in France 37.5 NF ("New Francs"). Taking into account the inflation, it would give today something as 72€. Clearly the difference is the price of luxury in which Leica was transformed over the years...
The Leica literature indicates that the Yellow 1 filter Leitz has about 1 stop compensation for the daylight and 0.5 for artificial tungsten-type light containing more yellow radiations. On January 8, 2025, I decided to test the filter despite a weather rather cloudy. I loaded a 36-exposure Rollei film RPX400 in my beloved Leica M3 year 1956 (see below for details) and went for a long photo tour across the city.
To compensate the filter absorption, expositions were determined outdoor for 200 ISO using my Autometer III Minolta light meter fitted with a 10° finder for selective measurements privileging the shadow areas, or, for some instances, using the integrating dome for incident- light metering. Indoor with artificial tungsten-like I used 320 ISO.
Preparing the camera, January 8, 2025
69004 Lyon
France
After exposure, the film was processed in Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developper at dilution 1+25 and 20°C for 12min30. The film was then digitized using a Sony A7 body fitted to a Minolta Slide Duplicator installed on a Minolta Auto Bellows III with a lens Minolta Bellow Macro Rokkor 50mm f/3.5. The RAW files obtained were processed without intermediate files in latest version (14.1.1) of Adobe LightRoom Classic and edited to the final jpeg pictures. All views of the film are presented in the dedicated album either in the printed framed versions and unframed full-size jpeg accompanied by some documentary smartphone Vivio Y76 color pictures.
About the camera and the lens :
This Leica M3 circa 1956 (Ref. Leitz ISUMO), double stroke, was sold to me with a Leitz Wetzlar Summicron collapsible normal lens 1:2 f=5cm of the same period equipped with a 39mm screw-on protective filter, a 42mm push-on Leica lens cap and an original Leitz shade hood (Ref. Leitz IROOA).
The camera was serviced in Paris, France, in 2018 by Gérard Métrot at Photo-Suffren, (a Leica boutique) who worked on the maintenance of camera's of famous French photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau. The camera was inspected by Odéon-Photo, Paris, another historic Leica place in Paris, in April 2024.
I sourced at the same time in Germany a stunning Leitz Leica leather bag (Ref; Leitz IDCOO) of the same model that appeared on the back cover page go the Leica brochure year 1954. This bag can accommodate the camera and a mounted Leica-Meter type M. The interior in covered with a carmin velvet in perfect condition.
The Leica M3 is one of the most iconic range-finder 35mm camera of the 50's and the 60's. It was produced in Wetzlar, Germany, in different versions at 226178 exemplars, between 1954 (n° 700000) and 1966 (n° 1164865, www.summilux.net/materiel/Leica-M3) . The Leica M3 was the result of the study of a "super-Leica" that was started before WWII and only achieved in the 50'S.
The greater improvement of the M3 compared the classical Leica's was in a magnificent and very complex range-finder combined to the view finder permitting the framing with the two eyes open, integrating the frame in the real and normal vision. The shutter integrates too the normal and the slow speeds in the same barillet. The film advance of this version of Leica M3 is also the typical "double-stroke" advance that was exclusive to the Leica M3 first versions.
The camera was transported to me from Paris to Lyon, France on April 26, 2024 and the bag arrived the day after.