I’ve always wanted an M3. My teenage photographic icon was Alfred Eisenstaedt (a family acquaintance), and he famously shot the M3 extensively, along with his Nikon F. Metered bodies? Forget about it.

Of course, Leicas are prohibitively expensive, and hard to rationally justify. A Canonet QL17 does basically the same trick, and it’s faster than a Summicron! I’ve shot lots of 35mm cameras, including the Canonet, and while they’re lovely and small, they’re nothing compared to the experience of shooting the Leica M3.

I finally succumbed to the Leica temptation when I found this M3 on Facebook Marketplace (where I do all my shopping, for better or worse) with a collapsible 50mm Summicron and 135mm Hektor, being sold by the nephew of the original owner for an exceptional price. A trip to the spa (YYE in Massachusetts, USA) and the whole kit was ready to shoot.

It wasn’t just the Leica price that turned me off initially, it was the additional cost of getting anything with a meter. I’ve always been an aperture-priority kind of guy. I didn’t even try to meter on my own. But when my M3 came back from its CLA, I didn’t want to wait to get a meter before shooting—I wanted to shoot right away.

It’s old news to anyone who’s figured it out, but for color negative film you really don’t need a meter. Sunny 16 works great outdoors. Indoors, err on the side of wider apertures, and choose your shutter speed to match the action and light. Movement in the frame? 1/60 and f/2 or f/1.4 if you have it. Dim lighting? Wide open and 1/15th, or as slow as your hands will allow.

You’ll surprise yourself with how easy it is to shoot negative film without a meter. I know I did. I never ended up getting an external meter, the negatives just come out.

My M3 is an early 1955 model, double-stroke with no frameline preview lever and a glass pressure plate. The double-stroke action is something I thought I’d hate too, but quite the contrary, it’s extraordinarily smooth and quick; there’s no stretching your thumb around the side of the camera, the action is just right there.

The whole M3 is a paragon of mechanical niceness. There’s a distinct German-ness to it. I’m a professional watchmaker, so I appreciate the smooth tactility of well-made German and Swiss machines and use them daily in my work. The M3 fits right in.

So why say goodbye? It all comes down to framelines and turns of fate. I almost never shot the Summicron, I’m just not much of a 50mm shooter. Instead, I found a good deal on a Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.4 MC and just used the whole finder (outside the framelines) for framing. It is actually remarkably accurate, at least compared to a little Rollei accessory viewfinder that came with the lens.

The killing blow came during a “garage sale” at Tamarkin Camera, where a worn but working (and allegedly ex-US Navy) M4-P was on sale for a bargain price. The M4-P suits me better, with the right 35mm framelines (my preferred FOV), improved coatings in the finder, and, well, I like the black chrome finish. No, it’s nothing near as nice as my M3. Yes, I wish I could keep the M3 forever. But Leicas aren’t cheap, and there’s no sense in letting a camera sit unused on the shelf when it could be out there making pictures.

So the M3 is moving on. But it fundamentally changed who I am as a photographer, and it completely revitalized my interest in photography. Shooting without a meter has opened my eyes to the extreme satisfaction of knowing the light, not just capturing it. The small, jewel-like M cameras are so easy to carry that I have them on me all the time. I’m shooting again, almost more than I ever have.

The joy is back, and that’s all thanks to the lessons that the M3 taught me. I hope it brings the same joy to the next owner.