By Ked · May 2026
May 2026
It's 2026 and Leica still makes two new film M cameras. Both are fully mechanical. Both have brass top and bottom plates. Both are built to the same standards that the original M3 was built to in 1954. The only meaningful difference between them is whether you want a light meter inside the body or not. The cameras are the Leica MP (introduced 2003, in continuous production since) and the Leica M-A (introduced 2014, also in continuous production). For buyers who want to buy new rather than chase a used M6 or M4-P, these are the only two options. For buyers who want a body that will sit on the shelf for decades and still be serviceable when their grandchildren want to shoot a roll, these are the right answers.
This post walks through each one and explains how to choose between them.
The MP, "Mechanical Perfection" in Leica's branding, was introduced in 2003 as a deliberate counterpoint to the electronic M7 of the same year. Where the M7 added aperture priority and an electronic shutter, the MP doubled down on what made earlier Ms great: fully mechanical operation, no batteries needed except for the meter, and a build that prioritizes longevity over features.
The MP is the camera Leica makes for the shooter who wants brand-new build quality without giving up the M6's meter. Most buyers who walk into a Leica store wanting a new film M leave with an MP.
The M-A is the MP without the meter. That's the simple version. The "A" stands for "Analog," which is Leica's branding for "no electronics whatsoever." It was introduced in 2014, eleven years after the MP, for buyers who wanted to take the no-electronics commitment one step further than even the MP did.
The M-A is the camera Leica makes for the buyer who wants to commit fully to the no-electronics aesthetic. It has the most minimal viewfinder of any current M body (the brightlines and the rangefinder patch and nothing else) and the cleanest look.
Strip away the meter difference and the M-A and MP are mechanically the same camera. Both have:
Both cameras come with the same Leica factory warranty, are serviceable at any Leica service center worldwide, and will be supported for decades. Leica has historically kept M-body parts in stock for the full life of the model and well after discontinuation.
Both cameras have brass top and bottom plates. This matters more than it might sound. Most M Leicas after the M4 used non-brass plates (the M6 used zinc alloy, the M4-P used aluminum). Zinc looks fine but it doesn't wear into character. When it scuffs, you see scratched paint or scratched chrome, never the underlying metal. Brass, when it brasses through, reveals the warm yellow of the metal at the wear points, and that brassing becomes part of the camera's character over years and decades of use.
If you buy an M-A or MP and use it for ten years, you'll have a camera that visually tells its story. Both finishes (chrome and black chrome) can brass through with use, though black chrome shows it more dramatically because of the contrast.
This is one of the reasons both bodies are popular as "shooter's keepers," cameras meant to be used hard for decades and to look better the more they're used. That's a value proposition that doesn't apply to any M body Leica has made with zinc plates.
Fair-price data pulled August 26, 2026. Here's a fair-price snapshot of body-only asking prices for standard-production 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 special-edition examples are excluded from the pool, since a bespoke build or a numbered edition skews what a plain production body actually costs:
| Body | Fair price (median) | Fair range (middle 50%) | Body-only listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| MP | $6,032 | $5,400–$6,922 | 26 |
| M-A | $5,691 | $5,238–$7,639 | 22 |
Worth flagging: raw, unfiltered active listings run to 73 for the MP against just 24 for the M-A, a gap that looks like a much deeper MP market. Most of that gap disappears once à la carte and special-edition builds are stripped out, since the MP's extensive custom-order program inflates its raw listing count far more than the M-A's does; in the standard-production pool the two cameras are close in both depth and price. 0.85x and 0.58x MP viewfinder variants trade at a premium over the standard 0.72x because they're harder to find, and chrome M-A bodies are slightly more common than black chrome on the used market. The MP holds a modest median edge over the M-A, which surprises some buyers who'd assume the more purist no-meter body would command a premium; the market disagrees, since most buyers value having the meter as backup even if they shoot with a handheld meter most of the time.
The choice between M-A and MP is one of personal philosophy more than capability. Some questions to ask yourself:
For most shooters, the practical answer is the MP. The meter is genuinely useful, you don't pay more for it, and a brand-new mechanical M with a built-in meter is hard to argue against.
For shooters who specifically want the purist experience, and who already meter externally, the M-A is the more satisfying object to own. It commits fully in a way the MP doesn't quite.
Both the MP and M-A can be ordered through Leica's À La Carte program with custom finishes, custom engravings, and various small modifications (different leather covering, custom shutter button, knob wind on the MP). À la carte bodies typically run $1,000–$3,000 more than standard production and are common enough on the used market that you'll occasionally see one come up. Mostly these are cosmetic differentiators; the underlying camera is identical.
There are also occasional named special editions (Hammertone, Brass Patina, Anton Bruckner, various commemoratives) built on MP or M-A platforms. These are collector pieces and trade at substantial premiums.
Browse current MP and M-A listings on UsedCameraTracker. Both models have their own buckets in the dropdown, so you can compare prices, conditions, and special editions side by side.