My 6 Favorite Leicas Ever
My 6 Favorite Leicas Ever
Schneider’s fearless picks for the timeless Leicas that ring his Westminster chimes.
“What’s your favorite Leica?” is a question I’ve been asked several thousand times over the past 50 years, and here’s my stock answer: my beloved single-stroke Leica M3, serial number just over 1,100,000, with 50mm f/2 Dual-Range Summicron and goggles that I bought brand new in 1966. I own a little over 200 cameras in all and that M3 is the only camera I’ve ever bought with the express purpose of collecting it—all the rest are user-collectibles. I do run a couple of rolls of film through it every year just to keep its shutter limbered up, but most if the time my mint M3 just sits on the shelf so I can gloat over my prized possession and marvel at its beauty.
Recently, as I cradled the comfortably rounded ends of my now 53-year-old Leica M3 in my hands, peered through its magnificent viewfinder, and fired off a few blank frames, another question occurred to me—what other Leicas would I put on my short list of “favorites?” After considerable cogitation, and batting the subject around with a few fellow Leica fanatics, I think I’ve come up with five more, and it’s noteworthy that all 6 models listed below mark significant turning points in the Leica’s nearly 100-year-long history. While I’m deeply indebted to my knowledgeable Leica buddies for their astute suggestions, please blame me if you take exception to any of the choices that follow, or if your favorite Leica has been omitted. And by all means let me know your preferences so I can do a follow up piece, “Readers’ Favorite Leicas” covering models didn’t make my personal cut.
Leica I (model A) of 1925. It’s a no-brainer because Oskar Barnack’s masterpiece is on everybody’s short list. It established the Leica legend and set a high standard for everything else that followed, but it’s easy to lose sight of the sheer technical audacity and conceptual perfection of this “simple” manual focus camera that set it apart from everything that preceded it. For starters, winding the film to the next frame automatically cocks the 1/20-1/500 sec (plus T) horizontal cloth focal plane shutter for the next exposure and advances the (manually zeroed) frame counter placed concentrically below the film wind knob by one frame—pretty spiffy for 90+ years ago. And the fact that its high quality 4-element 50mm f/3.5 Leitz Elmar lens was collapsible kept its body size (L x W x H) to a minuscule 133 x 39 x 65 mm or 5.24 x 1.54 x 2.60 inches—a true pocket precision miniature with superb ergonomics that swiftly became the connoisseur’s point and shoot of its day. At its initial U.S. selling price of $75 in 1925 (about $1,100 in today’s dollars) most Leica I purchasers were pretty well heeled, but it was nevertheless such a smashing success that it singlehandedly put 35mm still photography on the map, forever changing the course of photography.
Leica I (model A) with typical brassing
Leica I (Model A) top view showing shutter speed dial, wind and rewind knobs, frame counter
Leica I (model A) with 50mm f_3.5 Elmar (2)
Leica I (model A) with 50mm f_3.5 Elmar (2)
Leica II (model D) of 1932. Many Leica aficionados underrate the importance of the Leica II but it’s one of the most ingenious Leicas ever devised, and it established the basic design of all subsequent screw-mount rangefinder Leicas up to and including the last Leica IIIg that was discontinued nearly 3 decades later in 1960. The Leica II included a coupled short-base (39mm base length), high magnification (1.5x) rangefinder with an effective base length (EBL) of 58.5mm, and a 50mm inverse Galilean optical finder with a separate eyepiece, all built within the same ultra-compact form factor as the original Leica I model A, and the 39mm screw mount Leica Standard (model E) that preceded it! It also pioneered the spring-loaded, roller-ended rangefinder coupling arm that follows the focusing cams on the rear helicoids of all Leica II-, III-, and M-series Leica lenses, not to mention scads of competitive rangefinder lenses for Leicas and other cameras. The only thing the Leica II did not have was shutter speeds slower than 1/20 sec, but that was remedied only a year later in 1933 with the introduction of an alternative model, the Leica III, the first Leica with that charming little front mounted slow speed dial.
Leica II (Model D) with 50mm f_2 Leitz Summar
Leica II (Model D) with 50mm f_2.5 Hektor lens
Leica II back view showing widely saced rangefinder and viewfinder eyepieces
Leica M3 of 1954. To understand just how significant and revolutionary the Leica M3 was in the evolution of the rangefinder Leica, it helps to compare it with its immediate predecessor, the Leica IIIf red dial with self-timer that was unveiled the very same year. The IIIf is a beautiful classic machine, but it’s really little more than a mildly refined version of Barnack’s original rangefinder Leica II of 1932, albeit with a slightly longer cast body, a more reliable shutter with adjustable flash sync and X-sync at 1.50 sec, surmounted with traditional wind and rewind knobs, and a short base high magnification rangefinder and separate tiny viewfinder that had debuted 32 years previously. In contrast, the totally redesigned M3 was by far the most advanced interchangeable lens rangefinder 35 of its day, with bayonet-mount M lenses, a magnificent long base (68.5mm) high-magnification (0.91x) combined range/viewfinder with an effective base length of 62.33mm, projected auto-indexing, parallax-compensating frame lines covering the fields of 50mm, 90mm. and 135mm lenses, a swing-out back panel for easier loading, a self-zeroing frame counter, and a modern film wind lever (originally 2-stroke, later 1-stroke.) The M3 is also the most exquisitely detailed of all M-series Leicas, with gorgeous, artfully configured metal self-timer and frame selector levers, chamfered range/viewfinder window frames, etc. Remarkably, the M3’s 138mm x 33.5mm x 77mm (L x W x H) body (sans lens) is only slightly larger than the original Leica I, so it still qualifies as the precision miniature, and it provided the conceptual basis of all subsequent M-series Leicas.
Leica M3 body, front view showing bayonet M-mount and rangefinder coupler
Leica M3 double stroke top and back view
Leica M3 double stroke with collapsible 50mm f_2 Summicron lens
Leica IIIg of 1957. It’s fitting that Leica decided to conclude its noble Leica III-series dynasty with this understated technological tour de force that incorporated, albeit in abbreviated form, the M3’s parallax compensating projected frame line system in a slightly taller screw-mount body. The IIIg, which incorporates the IIIf’s traditional short base rangefinder and adds a much larger, closer-but-still-separate viewfinder with frame lines for 50mm and 90mm lenses, was also a nod to the legions of loyal screw-mount Leica fans who wanted an upgraded model that would accept their screw-mount lenses directly with no adapters required. While some screw-mount fans still think the Leica IIIg is too tall, it’s one of the prettiest Leicas ever, and it viewfinder is far superior to the IIIf’s. That’s why it’s on my short list.
Leica IIIg 2ith 50mm f_2.8 Elmar lens, case, and lens cap
Leica IIIg body, front view showing threaded mount
Leica IIIg with 50mm f_2.8 elmar. Note small frosted frameline illumination wodow next to large front viewfinder window
Leica M9. Produced from September 2009 to July 2012, the Leica M9 is and always will be the first full-frame digital Leica M. Although this 18.5MP classic has since been surpassed by the subsequent Leica M type 240 and the latest M10’s it’s still capable of impressive performance. Its superb 0.68x range-viewfinder automatically displays 6 parallax-compensating frame-lines in pairs depending on which lens you attach, 35 and 135 mm, 28 and 90 mm, or 50 and 75 mm. Any of the paired bright-line frames can be displayed via the frame-selector lever. It provides metered manual exposure, and aperture-priority TTL auto-exposure with center-weighted or averaging pattern, has ISO settings 80-2500, a 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD, and a vertical travel metal focal plane shutter with speeds on 32-1/4000 sec. Perhaps the best thing about the M9 is that it accepts virtually the full range of Leica M lenses, widely acclaimed as the best in the world.
Leica M9 body, back
Leica M9 body, front
Leica M9 body, top view shows that body ids thicker than classic analog Leica M's
Leica M9 with 50mm f_1.4 Summilux-M ASPH
Leica M10/M10-P. Introduced in January 2017 the 24MP full-frame CMOS sensor Leica M10 is the first digital rangefinder Leica with a body depth of 33.75mm, the same as Leica M film cameras, and 4mm less than even the Leica M Type 240. As a result the heft and feel of the M10 are, much to the delight of classic M fans, almost identical to the original M3 and its successors. The M10 also has a 30% larger 6-frameline viewfinder than previous digital M’s (magnification is now 0.73x, up from 0.68x), it’s the first M with Wi-Fi connectivity that’s remotely controllable, it incorporates an advanced Leica Maestro II image processor, provides a sensitivity from ISO 100-50000, has an improved dynamic range, a simplified menu system, and can shoot at up to 5 full-res frames per sec. The companion top-of-the-line Leica M10-P that debuted in 2018 adds a rear touchscreen LCD, omits the red dot, and has a built in level, but its signature feature is a new iteration of the M10’s metal-blade vertical-travel focal plane shutter that makes it the quietest shutter ever fitted to an M-series Leica, film or digital. Most notably, the mounting of the shutter to the camera chassis has been changed to a shock/sound reducing rubber-bearing suspension. This new construction of the shutter significantly reduces vibration and noise, making the M10-P’s shutter approximately 50% quieter than the M10 and even 50% quieter than the classic cloth shutters of analog Leica M cameras. Significantly these changes were made without sacrificing the fastest shutter speed of 1/4000s, the flash sync speed of 1/180s, or the shutter’s overall reliability.
Leica M10 body, front view
Leica M10 top view showing slim rounded end bdy contours
Leica M10-P in chrome, front view