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 was not the same across all four, and that difference matters when you shop for one used.
One thing was constant: you did not order online. You filled out a configuration sheet, took it to an authorized 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.
The film bodies got the deepest menu, because a mechanical M has the most parts you can vary. On an MP or M7 you could choose the finish (black paint, silver chrome, or premium black chrome), the viewfinder magnification (0.58x, 0.72x, or 0.85x), the rewind style (the traditional knob or an M7-style fold-out crank), the top plate engraving, the leather covering, and smaller touches like frame lines and control colors. A black-paint MP with a 0.85x finder and the M7 crank is a classic à la carte combination, and the kind of configuration that drives the strongest premiums today. For the full MP option list and what to check on a used one, see our dedicated MP à la carte guide.
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.
Because each à la carte camera is bespoke, value follows the specific combination rather than a model number, and the most desirable specs are the predictable ones: on the film bodies, black paint, a classic engraving, and a scarcer finder. The thing to verify on any of them is the same: documentation. The program is discontinued and there is no public database of serial numbers and configurations, so the original à la carte paperwork, ideally confirmed against Leica's records, is the best proof 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 and a post-2020 retrofit is especially easy to blur. Beyond the paperwork, apply the normal checks for that model: meter and shutter on the film bodies, sensor and electronics on the digital ones.
À la carte cameras are genuinely rare in the channel. Across all four models there are usually only a handful listed at any given time, mostly MP and M7 bodies, with digital à la carte examples scarcer still. Because supply is tiny and every camera is unique, there is no clean going rate; each one is priced individually, so treat any single asking price as a starting point rather than a market value. 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.