A pristine-looking Leica M3 and 5cm Rigid Summicron features heavily in the fourth episode of the the current second series of The Crown. This Netflix series has been widely acclaimed but I had read nothing, perhaps understandably, about cameras in connection with the production.
The M3 in question was in the hands of the actor playing society photography Anthony Armstrong-Jones who later went on to marry Princess Margaret and become the 1st Earl of Snowden.
Chosen with care
In the production, Armstrong-Jones turned up at a wedding attended by the Queen’s sister and started snapping away with his M3. Leica aficionados will enjoy the shots from many angles and, unless I am much mistaken, this is one of the biggest film exposures for an M3 that I can remember. The camera also features in a studio setting later in the episode.
The year was 1957 so, if the camera was chosen with care, it will be a double-stroke model and the Summicron lens, which was introduced in 1956, is true to type. Most people won’t know and certainly won’t care. It’s just we anoraks who get het up over these things. I shall be interested to know who supplied this camera and lens — almost certainly it will be someone we know, perhaps even a Leica dealer. If anyone does know please drop me a line.
The M3 itself has very strong royal credentials. HM The Queen is known to be a fan and has been seen out and about on many occasions with her M3 and Leica-Meter, as evidenced in the accompanying photography. I think I read somewhere that the camera had been presented to her by Leica on at the instigation of Lord Snowden. In most of the extant pictures, The Queen is using the camera at sporting events, something to which the M3 and a 50mm lens is not best suited. It has to be said. But it’s horses for courses, I expect. Can you imagine the monarch brandishing a hefty DSLR and a 400mm professional optic? I thought not….
Wallace and Gromit
Anyway, having got my heart beat back to normal after watching episode four, I was again excited to find another Leica featuring in episode six — and in a completely different context. As you will see from the second screenshot, this is a Leica III, probably a IIIf but it’s difficult to tell, and probably with a 5cm Elmar attached. Did I mention I was wearing my anorak?
This time the exposure wasn’t in England but at Villa Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, where the former King Edward VIII and the former Mrs. Simpson — aka David and Wallace — were celebrating their dog’s birthday party. Sitting on the royal sofa in front of the pampered dog, the couple looked more like Wallace and Gromit it has to be said. But at least they had a Leica, so all is forgiven.
How many more Leicas, I wonder, are we going to find as this series progresses?
Postscript: I have at last found something to complain about and shows a certain lack of research on the part of the producers. In episode seven of the drama Anthony Armstrong-Jones is again parading his Leica M3 and 50mm Summicron around the studio, taking impromptu natural light shots. The only snag is that he holds the camera about six inches from the subject when we all know that the minimum focal distance of that lens is one meter. He also fails to focus the lens, treating the camera like a modern autofocus device. Suppose we can’t have everything right…..
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The advert I saw had a flash coming from the Fresnel screen which would be totally incorrect.
Sorry, I didn’t see the advertisement but it’s unfortunate if some designer spoiled the whole thing by adding that.
Mike, you ask who presented the Leica M3 to Queen Elizabeth. I am fairly certain that it was given by Leica UK during a royal visit. If it was not in the UK, then in Germany. I might have a contemporary issue of LFI and will check my claim.