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Leica built 1,320 black paint M3 bodies against 233,209 M3 serial numbers in all, released in nine small factory orders between 1959 and 1967; the order entered in November 1965 ran to just 150 cameras. The paint sits over brass, so wear brings up yellow metal rather than bright alloy. Everything behind it is a standard M3: the 0.91x finder with 50, 90 and 135mm framelines, single stroke advance and a cloth shutter from 1 second to 1/1000. Factory black bodies are the most closely studied Leicas of all.