Even though I've been designing a completely new type of camera system that will be years ahead of anything that currently exists, my favourite camera will probably always be my Leica M3, a custom version with a genuine Italian rosewood body. Whenever I take it to camera shops for servicing it always receives the same compliment 'It's a unique piece!'

Leica M3 (photo taken with an iPhone :p)

I've used just about every type of camera over the years, but what attracted me to the M3 was that Leica put over a decade of research into it because they wanted to make sure they got the M series just right with the very first release (an extremely rare feat for any device).

Over that decade, Leica frequently interacted with customers to help them design the M3. Users wanted it to be streamlined and ergonomic compared to the irksome and intimidating Leica III. Because the principal market was street photography, the M3 also had to feel second nature to users so that they could quickly capture moments around them. It also had to be easy to repair and recycle.

It was one of the earliest examples of a company asking for global customer feedback and beta testing the hell out of the product. The incredible results of that collaboration haven't been replicated so well since. Evidence of that can be seen in the fact that people still enjoy using the M3 65 years later.

Only one change was made during the M3's life-cycle - a change from a double stroke to single stroke advance lever (both equally useful). As time went by, Leica added a few more bells and whistles to the M series that weren't possible in the early 1950s, and sometimes they made mistakes in doing so, but the tradition of keeping their renowned product line pure still exists today in the M10.