“I want to be a street photographer with a Leica, but I don’t think I can afford the Leica part” by Mark Kronquist ILS LHSA PHSNE PSPCS Leica historian and photographer (Instagram: Kronquistm):
Long ago in a place far away, called Wetzlar, Germany, and later, Midland, Ontario, Canada, Leica was faced with a dilemma…Leitz was traditionally a microscope company, and microscope customers, scientific users, and government agencies purchased a fair number of Leicas, but the budgetary bureaucrats objected to “unnecessary” frills and expenses for things like, say, Range and Viewfinders, which added expense and might be prone to damage in labs and industrial settings.
Leitz (henceforth Leica) was more than happy to oblige these users (and buyers) with the Leica Ic being launched right after World War II. Leica had always had a bit of a Good Better Best marketing strategy, and the Ic/Iic/IIIc became the standard for the future, with the finderless I1 the most affordable and the most usable with lab, government, and industrial users. The Ic and following cameras also gained a following with the users of Leica Visoflex I/II/Iia and III Mirror Reflex Housings. These made it easy to use long lenses and bellows with the Leica body. Who needs an expensive range and viewfinder when turning the camera into a pseudo SLR?
The If added Sync to the Ic along with a few other changes, the Ig had a new top and a few other refinements but was essentially the same as the Ic/If…the 1954 introduction of the Leica M3 spawned a whole new family of “industrial” Leicas including the odd M1 with had a viewfinder but lacked a rangefinder. The MD quickly replaced the M1 and was styled much like the Ic/f/g family, with the important difference that a 4mm channel (and special baseplate and strips) allowed data to be written on a strip, inserted into the film channel, and exposed with the image (can you say Kodak Autographic)
making a permanent record of the data and the image on one negative…like a 1980s databack on an
R6.
When the M4 was released, the MD was updated to become an MDa with the M4 style advance and crank rewind for faster handling. In 1976, the M4-2 was announced, and the MDa morphed into the
MD-2, black chrome finished with the ability to take the M4-2 (and later) motors and winders. It also gained a hot shoe.
Finderless Leicas are relatively rare, and they come in an amazing array of weird models yet they have not captured the attention of collectors…according t The Leica Pocket Book 8th edition, for example, there were…
Ic 12,013 IIc 10,999 IIIc 133,626 models made.
If 15,786
Ig 5,968
M1 9,650
MD 3,451
MDa 14,925
MD-2 2,593
Compare that to the 225,000 M3s or hundreds of thousands of other Leica models and you get some idea of how uncommon they are. Couple that with the fact that most of these were heavily used by the institutional users and disposed of when outdated or damaged…”This Leica’s jammed, I think the gears are very worn, can you go ask the lab storeroom for another because I have to photograph another 1200 tissue samples this week” sort of scenario…
But, to your delight, the street photographer, even though they are cool and Leica and uncommon, they are not in very high demand. Where else can you go to eBay and find a working Leica M camera body for under $600 (there are several closed auctions in the past month) or a Ic/f/g for under $300 (again, many auctions, closed sales, past month).
Add the lens you love, some Candido film, set the proper shutter speed and aperture, use the hyperfocal distance of the lens/f stop combo, sling it over your shoulder, and start creating masterful images.
If you have an interesting idea for a guest post, you can contact me here.
