Updates, tips, and insights about used Leica cameras.
June 2026
The Leica M7, introduced in 2002 and built until 2018, is the most technically advanced film camera Leica ever made on the M mount. …read more
June 2026
Most used Leica cameras are simple to value. You grade the cosmetics, count the shutter actuations where you can, check the rangefinder, and the price follows. …read more
June 2026
Most M-mount Leicas are defined by the thing in the top of the body: the bright-line rangefinder you focus with. A small, deliberate corner of the M family does without it. …read more
June 2026
By the late 1980s the Leica R line had settled into a clear pattern: a fully-featured electronic body and a stripped-down economy version of the same camera sold beside it for less. The R4 had its R4s; the R5 had the R-E. …read more
June 2026
Of the ten R-mount bodies Leica built between 1976 and 2009, exactly two run a mechanical shutter: the R6 and the R6.2. Every other R body, from the Minolta-derived R3 through the in-house R8 and R9, times its shutter electronically and …read more
June 2026
Every other camera in the Leica R line was a refinement of something that came before, or a co-production with Minolta. The R8 was neither. …read more
June 2026
For most of the 1950s Leica bet that the rangefinder was the serious photographer's camera and the single-lens reflex was a fad. …read more
June 2026
Between 2012 and 2015 Leica built three digital M bodies around one sensor. The Leica M (Typ 240), the Leica M-P (Typ 240), and the Leica M (Typ 262) all share the same 24MP full-frame CMOS imaging core, so their files are effectively …read more
June 2026
The Leica Q-P is the rare comparison where image quality is not part of the conversation. It is the original Q (Typ 116) with the same 24-megapixel full-frame sensor and the same fixed Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH lens, so the two cameras …read more
June 2026
This is the closest the lineup gets to a genuine head-to-head, because the Leica Q3 and the Leica SL3 share the same heart: a 60-megapixel full-frame sensor, phase-detect autofocus, and in-body stabilization. …read more
June 2026
Leica's SL line is its full-frame, L-mount mirrorless system, and after a decade it has grown into five bodies that split neatly into two generations and two personalities. …read more
June 2026
One of the best things about the Leica SL system is how many lenses it accepts. Every SL body, from the original SL (Typ 601), the SL2 and SL2-S, to the current SL3 and SL3-S, uses the same L-mount and takes the same native and adapted …read more
June 2026
Most Leica conversations stay in the M-mount world or the SL world. The S system, Leica's professional medium-format-style DSLR line, barely gets discussed outside the small community of working pros who own it. …read more
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. …read more
June 2026
Viewfinder magnification is one of the few Leica M specifications that changes how the camera actually shoots. On the film Ms it is a permanent choice you make when you buy, because the finder is built into the body and cannot be swapped …read more
June 2026
The Leica MP is already the purist's modern film M: fully mechanical, brass top and base plates, and the flare-resistant finder that cured the rangefinder-patch flare of the M6. …read more
June 2026
One of the more unusual ideas in the Leica lineup is the digital camera with no screen at all. Four M bodies have done it: you get a full-frame digital sensor and the rangefinder, but the back of the camera has no LCD, no menu to scroll …read more
June 2026
Leica makes more limited and special editions than almost any other camera company, and the used market for them is large: we track several hundred active special-edition bodies and lenses at any given time. …read more
June 2026
Every few years someone writes a piece arguing that film Leicas are a better store of value than the S&P 500, and every few years someone else writes the counter-piece explaining why that argument is mostly survivorship bias and …read more
June 2026
Mechanical Leicas have a clean durability story: take care of them, get a CLA every few decades, and they outlive you. A 1954 M3 in working condition in 2026 is a seventy-two-year-old camera that fires accurately at every shutter speed and …read more
June 2026
Leica's marketing has always traded on permanence. The brass top plates, the lifetime-serviceable rangefinders, the M3 that still works seventy years after it left Wetzlar: every Leica buyer hears some version of "this is the last camera …read more
June 2026
One of the most common worries from people considering a used film Leica is the battery. "What if I buy an M5 and can't find batteries for it?" "Does the M7 still work if the battery dies?" …read more
June 2026
Most people who buy a digital Leica aren't buying it as an investment. They're buying a camera. But the difference between a camera that holds its money and one that loses half of it over a decade is real, and for some buyers it's the …read more
May 2026
Long before the M-mount existed, before the rangefinder window and the viewfinder were combined into one bright frame line, Leica had already invented the 35mm camera as we know it. …read more
May 2026
In our previous post we covered the three Leica model families that established 35mm photography as we know it: the I (1925), the II (1932), and the III (1933). That post stuck to the big picture of how each family differs from the others. …read more
May 2026
The Leica M3 and the Leica M2 are the two cameras that launched the M-mount era. They are mechanically near-identical, they take the same lenses, and a shutter-released frame from one is indistinguishable from a frame released by the …read more
May 2026
If you want a fully mechanical M-mount Leica with no built-in meter and no electronics of any kind, the M4 family is where you shop. …read more
May 2026
Of all the M-mount Leicas, the M5 is the one that buyers love or hate. There is no middle ground. Introduced in 1971 as Leica's first M-body with built-in TTL metering, the M5 abandoned the classic dimensions of the M2, M3, and M4. …read more
May 2026
The Leica M6 is the M body that introduced built-in light metering to the Leica rangefinder without giving up the fully mechanical shutter. …read more
May 2026
Three film M Leicas were in production at the same time in the 2000s, and a lot of buyers get stuck choosing among them. The M7, the M6, and the MP shoot the same lenses, frame through similar finders, and produce identical negatives. …read more
May 2026
This post walks through each one and explains how to choose between them. read more
May 2026
The Leica Q line is one of the most successful product introductions Leica has made in the digital era. Since the original Q (Typ 116) launched in 2015, every Q body has shared the same basic concept: a full-frame sensor, a fixed Summilux …read more
May 2026
If you want a Leica and you don't want to spend three or four thousand dollars to get one, the R-mount SLR system is where you shop. …read more
May 2026
The Leica D-Lux line has been Leica's premium pocket-sized digital compact since 2003. Nine generations across twenty-one years, all designed in partnership with Panasonic, all aimed at the same buyer: someone who wants Leica image quality …read more
May 2026
The Leica Minilux, introduced in 1995, is the autofocus 35mm point-and-shoot camera Leica spent the 1990s producing for photographers who wanted Leica image quality in a pocketable, fully automatic package. …read more
May 2026
A new Leica M11 is $9,000. A new Leica Q3 is $6,000. The cheapest current Leica, the D-Lux 8 compact, is $1,600. Compare that with what you can build a complete Sony or Fuji kit for, and the obvious question is: what justifies it? read more
March 2026
If you're shopping for a used Leica, high-end mirrorless body, or vintage lens on eBay, you've probably noticed listings that seem too good to be true. A Leica M6 for $1,800 when every other one is listed at $4,500? …read more
February 2026
eBay is the 800-pound gorilla in almost any online marketplace for used (and sometimes new) equipment. On usedcameratracker.com and usedlenstracker.com you'll find independent sellers ranging from mom-and-pop stores with 7 cameras to big …read more
February 2026
I am a Leica M shooter and I use both film and digital cameras. Everyone has their own reasons for shooting with Leica cameras. …read more
February 2026
Buying a used Leica camera is one of the best ways to enter the Leica ecosystem without paying full retail price. Whether you're after a classic film body like the M2 or a modern digital like the M11, the used market offers excellent …read more
February 2026
When I first started building this site, I tried to come up with a way to normalize the camera condition ratings. Each seller has their own method for rating condition, but I thought I could get them all onto a 5 point scale ranging from …read more
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