Leica IIIf Black Paint exclusively built for the Swedish Army
The Leica IIIf launched in 1950 by Leica was long considered the most established screw mount rangefinder in the series. Built in flash synchronization was available at long last. It was such an adorable camera with optimal performance in her age. The figure of around 180,000 pieces ever produced said it all.
Robustly built and elegantly made, the Leica IIIf in the 1950’s caught the eye of Swedish Army, one of the oldest standing armies in the world, who requested Leica to build a IIIf that can operate in extremely cold weather. The result was a nicely finished Leica IIIf Black Paint (BP) made in small batch of 100. It is now estimated not more than 60 pieces, though kept in good condition, still existed today.
Leica IIIf reintroduced the self-timer that last appeared in IIId. Document shows that civilian Leica IIIf after serial number 685,000 adopted a self-timer, but not for a military camera like the Swedish Army edition. This option was deleted as you can see from this Leica IIIf BP’s right hand grip.
Contrary to claims that Leica IIIf BP bore marks of Swedish Army on the body and lens barrel, in fact it had no special logo or engraving. There was no “Three Crowns” engraving that symbolized the Royal Swedish Emblem, it was the IIIg that the Swedish Army ordered that bore such characteristics.
Out of the 180,000 Leica IIIf ever produced, only the Swedish Army edition was in black paint. The rest had chrome finish. This military edition is, without a doubt, a very unique rangefinder.
This Leica IIIf BP made of die-cast essentially has essentially every metal part in black paint including the housing, dials, buttons and base plate.
It was believed that the Leica IIIf BP had serial number ranged from 822,901 – 823,000. It belonged to the later batch of Leica IIIf commonly known as “Red Dial”, a reference to the red number shown as flash guide number.
Like every Leica IIIf, the magnified rangefinder and the viewfinder are two separate windows. Users look through right one to focus, and move eye to the other to compose and shoot. The magnification of 1.5x suggests a longer effective base length, which gives IIIf even higher rangefinder and focus capability than modern day digital M cameras.
A flash synchronization socket is right next to the viewfinder.
A matching, collapsible Elmar 5cm f/3.5 in black paint served as standard lens for the Leica IIIf BP.
Military camera that endures extreme cold
It was understandable for the Swedish Army to order a special camera that was “cold-proof” (“Kaltefest”) – the Scandinavian country has 15% of her land lies north of the Arctic Circle, where more than half of the year record sub zero Celsius degree of averaged temperature. The order was placed in 1956.
The production records indicated the cameras had been “cold-proof”. Many believe the most critical improvement of the camera was the use of “kugellager”, the “ball bearing shutter” which slick structure made it less dependable on lubricants that might dry up in low temperature.
In addition, it is believed that the static discharge caused by coldness could lead to damage of film or camera. Some experts of Leica suspect that the internal structure of Leica IIIf BP maybe optimized to avoid such failures, or cold resistant parts or lubricants were employed.
Other than IIIf, the Swedish Army also acquired 125 pieces of Leica IIIg, the last Leica III of the series with larger and brighter viewfinder, as well as framelines in 50mm and 90mm. This edition at the back has the “Three crowns” engraving. The camera body was in black paint but not the matching Elmar collapsible lens which was made in chrome.