The appearance of this camera is almost indistinguishable from the Soviet FED that was copied from the previous Leica II. However, until the end of World War II, the Model IIIa was considered one of the world’s most advanced film cameras. Those years that was a common name for 35-mm equipment for perforated film, the role of which was often performed by the same film, cut from a large roll and placed into a small cassette for 36 frames. The Leica III was different from the younger model not only by the additional long exposure dial on the front wall. Experts say the main upgrade was the increased eyepiece magnification of the built-in rangefinder. As a result, its accuracy was almost doubled, which affected the sharpness of the negatives.

The IIIa was the first of the Leeks to have a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second, almost a record in the mid-thirties. Before the war, the Leica IIIa was freely sold in Soviet stores. True, it was way more expensive than “FEDs” lying on the next shelf. However, this did not prevent honourable photojournalists from purchasing this miracle of technology, which in terms of the quality of performance could not be compared to its analogue from Kharkov. This is how the Leica IIIa got to the Soviet-German front from our side, where military photographers affectionately called her “Annushka”.