There’s one born every minute.

I extolled the many virtues of the 1954 Leica M3, compared with its predecessors, here. However one failing I did not mention was the poor design of the film rewind knob on the top left, because it’s still a knob, is still small in diameter and is still sharply knurled. This means that rewinding an exposed film back into its cassette is a slow and painful procedure. In the 35 years I used an M3 I avoided this issue by fitting an aftermarket rewind crank and these remain abundantly available today, typically selling for some $55 from the Commies in China.

The aftermarket crank extended and ready for action.

But there are at least 2 alternatives. The first comes from a vendor named Popflash whose products are frequently listed on eBay. The advantage of their design is the inclusion of a small plastic nub on the tip of the retaining Allen screw which means that your precious rewind knob will not be marred by metal-to-metal contact. (Popflash also lists imitation 1960s era Leica lens clones under the ‘Light Lens Lab’ brand, if that’s your thing).

The smart design of the Popflash retaining screw.

As a precaution against marring, I also stick a small piece of Scotch tape to the top left side of the top plate of the M3 in case the base of the crank should come into contact with it when in use.

Mine ran me $79 and right after I bought it the price shot up to $138. This is verging on silly pricing for stupid people. But if you are really dumb, and I mean really, really dumb, why not go for the real thing from Leica, including free marring of your knob, if you know what I mean, something Leica warns about in its promotional materials:

A crank for cranks.

DUH!

Leitz actually added a built in crank with the M4 and most later film cameras. This was angled at 45 degrees to the top plate to clear the optional MR4 Leicameter exposure meter and some reports suggest that the device was on the fragile side. Certainly the massive center shaft of the earlier and simpler knurled knob design was not known to fail, as there was less to go wrong. My M6 had the sloped crank and I did not find it preferable to the stock knob plus aftermarket crank on the M3.

The angled crank on an M4.