Leica IIIa

March 23, 2014

A small step...
The only difference in the Leica IIIa compared to the Leica III that had come on the market two years earlier, was that the Leitz builders had introduced a new, fastest shutter speed of 1/1000s.

Even so, the step from 1/500s to 1/1000s was no trivial matter: in 1935 it represented a serious challenge for the mechanics of the camera shutter.

Up until the 1960s it was common practice for Leitz to update older camera models after a certain time to benefit from the latest developments – for the Leica I A from 1925 this was in fact possible up until the IIIa.
 

Leica IIIa