By Ked · June 2026
June 2026
For fifteen years, Leica let buyers order an M built to their own spec. The program was called à la carte, and instead of choosing a catalog model you worked through a menu of options and Leica assembled the camera to match. It ran from its Photokina 2004 launch until June 2019, and over that span it covered four bodies: the film MP and M7, and the digital M (Typ 240) and M Monochrom (Typ 246). The menu wasn't the same across all four, and that difference matters when you shop for one used.
You did not order online. You filled out a configuration sheet, took it to an authorized Leica dealer, and the dealer submitted the order to Leica, which built the camera to that specification. Every genuine à la carte body therefore corresponds to a specific factory order, which is the single most useful fact when you try to authenticate one, since there is no public database of à la carte serial numbers and configurations to check it against.
The film bodies got the deepest menu, because a mechanical M has the most parts you can vary. The MP configuration ran through roughly nine choices. The ones that move the camera's look and value the most:
The M7 à la carte menu tracked the MP's closely: the same finish choices (black paint, silver chrome, premium black chrome), the same three viewfinder magnifications, and the same engraving and leather options. The one difference is the rewind. The standard M7 already shipped with the fold-out crank that was an upgrade option on the MP, so rewind style wasn't a choice on an M7 order the way it was on an MP order. A black-paint M7 with a scarce 0.58x or 0.85x finder and a documented factory order is the M7 equivalent of the classic MP combination above, and it's the configuration that tends to carry the strongest premium in the M7 à la carte listings we track (see Prices Today, below).
The digital bodies got a narrower menu, because a digital M has far less to vary. There is no paint-over-brass finish to choose and no interchangeable viewfinder magnification, since the rangefinder is fixed. What à la carte offered on the M 240 and M Monochrom 246 was essentially the cosmetic layer: a custom leather covering from a range of certified colors and textures, and an individual engraving. So a digital à la carte camera is distinguished mainly by its leather and engraving rather than by finish or finder, and the premium it carries is correspondingly smaller and more taste-dependent than on the film bodies. When Leica retired à la carte in 2019, it replaced it in 2020 with a simpler retrofit service offering much the same custom leather and engraving, which is worth knowing because a 2020-or-later custom job is not strictly an à la carte camera.
The single most important thing on any à la carte camera, film or digital, is documentation. The program is discontinued, so the original order paperwork, ideally confirmed against Leica's own records, is the best evidence the camera left the factory in its current form. This matters because a standard body can be repainted, re-engraved, or re-leathered aftermarket to imitate an à la carte camera, and on the digital bodies the line between a factory à la carte job and a post-2020 retrofit is especially easy to blur, since both are essentially leather-and-engraving work.
Beyond the paperwork, check that the configuration is internally consistent and cleanly executed: even paint with no bleed at the edges, correct engraving fonts and depth, and factory-quality leather fit with no lifting at the seams. Then apply the same functional checks you'd run on any used copy of that model. On the MP, the shutter is fully mechanical and should fire accurately at every marked speed with a dead or missing battery, since the battery powers only the meter. On the M7, only two speeds, 1/60 and 1/125, are mechanically governed; confirm those two fire with the battery removed, then confirm the full electronic speed range and the meter both come alive with a fresh cell. On both film bodies, confirm the rangefinder patch is bright, aligned, and free of flare. On the M (Typ 240) and M Monochrom (Typ 246), check the sensor for dust and corrosion, confirm the LCD and electronic finder (if fitted) function, and run the camera through a full battery cycle to rule out a failing cell.
Because each à la carte camera is bespoke, value follows the specific combination rather than a model number. On the film bodies the configurations that command the strongest premiums are the predictable ones: black paint, a classic engraving, and a scarcer finder magnification such as 0.85x or 0.58x. An unusual leather color can help or hurt depending on a buyer's taste, which is the risk of any bespoke object, on the digital bodies as much as the film ones. As a class, à la carte cameras sell well above their standard-production counterparts, partly for the extra build cost of finishes like black paint and black chrome, and partly for scarcity and the cachet of a camera that was ordered rather than pulled off a shelf.
Fair-price data pulled September 20, 2026. Here's a fair-price snapshot of standard-production asking prices across all four à la carte-eligible bodies, using this site's standard method: median as the typical price, the 25th-to-75th percentile as the fair range, à la carte and other special-edition builds excluded from the pool:
| Body | Fair price (median) | Fair range (middle 50%) | Body-only listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| MP (standard production) | $5,600 | $5,000–$6,000 | 25 |
| M7 (standard production) | $3,940 | $3,710–$4,241 | 28 |
| M (Typ 240) (standard production) | $3,551 | $3,173–$4,641 | 37 |
| M Monochrom (Typ 246) (standard production) | $4,178 | $3,996–$4,491 | 26 |
À la carte cameras are thin on the used market and priced individually rather than to a going rate. We're currently tracking 4 active listings explicitly described as à la carte for the MP, running $8,016 to $12,910, roughly 1.4x to 2.3x the standard-production median above. The M7 has more in the channel: 6 active à la carte listings spanning $4,011 to $25,440, the low end barely above the standard M7 median and the high end a factory black-paint example with Magnum-linked provenance at over 6x the median. The digital bodies have none: zero active listings for either the M (Typ 240) or M Monochrom (Typ 246) are explicitly identified as à la carte in the title, confirming they're scarcer still than the already-thin film-body supply. That's too small a sample on any of the four to call a fair range, so treat these as rough anchors, not market rates, and figure the real number for any specific configuration and documentation on its own merits.
An à la carte camera makes sense if you specifically want a configuration Leica no longer sells, a black-paint MP with a 0.85x finder and the M7 crank, or a black-paint M7 with a scarce finder, say, and you value that it came from Leica that way, with the paperwork to prove it. It's a collector's and connoisseur's camera. If you simply want an MP, M7, M (Typ 240), or M Monochrom (Typ 246) to shoot, a standard body is mechanically and functionally identical and costs far less; the à la carte premium buys finish, configuration, and provenance, not capability.
Because supply is this tiny and every camera is unique, there is no clean going rate for any of the four models. The practical way to shop is to start from the standard model's price as a floor and judge the à la carte premium from the configuration and the paperwork. Our price guides track the live market for each base model: MP, M7, M (Typ 240), and M Monochrom (Typ 246), which is the right reference point for valuing the à la carte version of any of them.