Leica’s rumoured new film M-mount camera will be a new version of the Leica M6, according to reports.
Leica Rumors published a post on Friday (16 September) saying the camera, which is supposed to be launched at an event at Leica’s German HQ in Wetzlar next month, will be a new version of the classic model, which first appeared in 1984.
The M6 remained in production until 2002 before being replaced by the M7, which itself remained in production until 2018.
Leica Rumors posted a list of as-yet unanswered questions about the possible return of the classic model, including whether it would be the original model or the M6 TTL released from 1997, whether the new model has any improvements to the original and whether the camera is being built from new parts or a recently discovered stash of original parts.
Leica’s M6 has become a seriously sought-after model amid the recent interest in film photography, with secondhand models often selling for more than £2,000 ($2,300) without a lens.
Despite mounting interest in the rumoured launch of a new film camera next month, Leica have remained tight-lipped. Earlier this month, when contacted by Kosmo Foto, a representative from Leica UK simply said: “Wait and see.”
Leica has admitted it has struggled to keep up with demand for its film cameras, which are now limited to the meterless M-A and the MP.
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 10 years ago.”
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.
