A new Leica film camera is due to be announced by Leitz in October, according to reports.
Leica-centric site LeicaRumors.com has reported that a press event announcing the new M-mount camera will take place at Leitz’s German headquarters in October.
It said that invites for the event had already been sent out and that selected photographers were already testing the new camera.
The new camera would be the first Leica film rangefinder to be released since the Leica M-A – a modernised version of the classic M3 – was launched in 2014. It is one of only two film models, along with the MP, to currently be in production.
The M7, a replacement for the M6 which featured TTL metering and aperture priority along with manual mode, was in production for 16 years before being axed in 2018.
In December 2020, there were reports Leitz was planning a “cheaper” M-mount camera which would be launched in 2021. No sign of such a model emerged last year.
LeicaRumors said it “safe to assume” the new model would not be cheaper than the current line-up.
Leitz has admitted it has struggled to keep up with demand for its film cameras.
In 2020, its global product director Stefan Daniel told a Leica Historical Society of America meeting: “This level of interest in film cameras was something that he hadn’t seen since the arrival of the digital Ms over ten years ago.”
Both the MP and M-A models are said to be currently out of stock in the US because of high demand.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
