Perhaps the most distinctive and defining feature of the M3 is its magnificent multi-frame range/viewfinder that provides a bright, crisply defined rangefinder patch that is so precisely aligned it can be used as a split-image rangefinder, thus enhancing focusing accuracy. The original Leica M3 sported a conventional right-handed film wind lever that advanced the film in 2 short strokes, but bowing to popular demand, they switched to a single stroke film advance in 1957 starting with serial number 915251. The Vest Pocket Exakta B and Night Exakta, both introduced in 1934, had very long (290-degree!) stroke left-handed film wind levers as did the Kine Exakta of 1936, the world’s first widely distributed 35mm SLR.
Canon stuck with the 39mm Leica screw mount on their interchangeable lens rangefinder cameras (eventually adding a secondary outer bayonet for long lenses on 7-series Canons) but the Canon S-II of 1946 qualifies as the very first Japanese rangefinder camera with a combined range/viewfinder, a signature feature of all subsequent screw-mount Canons. The Zeiss-Ikon Contax I of 1932, the first serious competitor to the Leica, had a bayonet lens mount, and the Contax II of 1936 added a superb long-base range/viewfinder, Nikon used a Contax-style bayonet mount in the seminal Nikon M of 1948 and all subsequent S-series rangefinder Nikons, all of which also featured excellent combined range/viewfinders.
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