The Story Behind That Picture:
"The Leica M Model Chronology"

 

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The name game of the Leica rangefinder models

The Leica rangefinder models have been made since 1925 and new models are still being released as digital cameras and film cameras. Below is an overview of the rangefinder model names since 1925.

 

Layla Bego with the Leica in Lisbon. Leica M10-R Black Paint with Leica 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH f/2.0. © Thorsten Overgaard..

 

#Filmisnotdead

Yes, you read that right. Leica still produce film rangefinder cameras. The Leica MP was released in 2003 as a "Mechanical Perfection" film camera (and is still in production), and in 2014 the Leica M-A as a "M Analog" film camera was released (and is still in production). Both have been a little hard finding in stock recently but does appear in small production batches now and then for those who dream of unpacking a brand new film camera.

 

The simple overview of Leica model names

The simple overview is that the first Leica cameras had screw mount (where you screw a lens onto to the camera). Then came the Leica M models with M mount, which is a bayonet for fast mount of lenses, and in 2006 the first Leica M models came with digital sensors instead of film.

 

As you can see below, a Leica M almost look the same no matter the year or model name. The elegance of it all is that any screw mount and M mount lens fits on even the latest digital model Leica M11 (2022) either directly, or via an adapter.

Leica M4-P (1980) film camera		Leica M6 TTL (1998) film camera		Leica M11 (2022) 60MP digital

 

The basic understanding of Leica model names

The Leica M3 (1954) was the foundation of the Leica M lens mount and sort of the mother of all Leica rangefinder camers since then, including the latest digital camera models as Leica M11 (2022). But then it becomes a bit confusing because the Leica M1, Leica M2 and so on came later than the Leica M3.

Fundamentally, there is no logical understanding of the model names, other than "that's how it went". But if you understand that the Leica M3 was named not as a model number to fit into a sequence of model names, it becomes simpler: The Leica M3 was named M3 because it introduced an M mount of the lens and because it had 3 frame line sets and the correct frame lime set was activated by the lens (frame lines in the viewfinder to show what portion of the view would be in the picture).

From the worlds biggest photo fair, the Photokina 1954 where two employees from Ernst Leitz Wetzlar (Leica Camera AG) carries a wooden marketing replica of what is to become the mother of all future Leica rangefinder models, the Leica M3. © 1954 Photoglobus.

 

The model names and their sequence before the Leica M3 can appear even more confusing when trying to understand them in retroperspective. So I will slide over that and simply refer you to my even more detailed overview, "The Leica Camera Compendium" that has each model and models in-between, special models and more listed with year and order number.

What you have here is the quick overview and understanding of the Leica rangefinder model sequence.

	Leica M chronological overview
	By Thorsten Overgaard
	Further resources
	Leica Camera Compendium by Thorsten Overgaard
	Leica Lens Compendium by Thorsten Overgaard
	Leica History by Thorsten Overgaard
	Film cameras Leica screw mount		Film cameras Leica M mount		Digital cameras Leica M mount
	Leica I (1925-1952)
	Leica II (1932-1951)
	Leica Standard (1932-1950)
	Leica 250 (1933-1943)
	Leica III (1933-1939)
	Leica IIIa (1935-1948)
	Leica IIIb (1938-1941)
	Leica IIIc (1940-1951)
	Leica IIId (1940-1947)
	Leica IIIf (1950-1957)
	Leica IIIg (1957-1960)
	Leica Ig (1957-1963)
			Leica M3 (1954-1966)
			Leica MP (1956-1957)
			Leica M2 (1958-1967)
			Leica M1 (1959-1964)
			Leica MD (1963-1966)
			Leica MDA (1966-1976)
			Leica M4 (1966-1975)
			Leica M5 (1971-1975)
			Leica CL/Minolta CLE (1973-1976)
			Leica M4-2 (1977-1980)
			Leica M4-P (1980-1986)
			Leica M6 "Classic" (1984-1998)
			Leica M6J (1994)
			Leica M6 "TTL" (1998-2002)
			Leica M7 (2002-2018)
			Leica MP (2003-)
					Leica M8 (2006-2009)
					Leica M9 (2009-2012)
					Leica M9-P (211-2014)
					Leica Monochrom (2012-2015)
					Leica M 240 (2014-2015)
					Leica M-E (2012-2016)
			Leica M-A (2014 -		Leica M-P 240 (2014-2017)
					Leica M246 (2015-2019)
					Leica M-D 262 (2016-2017)
					Leica M10 (2017-2022)
					Leica M10-P (2018-2021)
					Leica M10-D (2018-2022)
					Leica M10 Monochrom (2020-)
					Leica M10-R (2020-2022)
					Leica M11 (2022 -)

(For an overview of Leica R cameras and Leica SL cameras, see here).

 

More to come

The story unfolds from here. Sign up for the newsletter to stay in the know. As always, feel free to email me with suggestions, questions and ideas.

/Thorsten Overgaard