The

Leica Leica may refer to: Companies * Ernst Leitz GmbH, later divided into: ** Leica Biosystems GmbH, a cancer diagnostics company ** Leica Camera AG, a German camera and optics manufacturer ** Leica Geosystems AG, a Swiss manufacturer of surveying and ...

M mount is a

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

lens mount A lens mount is an interface – mechanical and often also electrical – between a photographic camera body and a lens. It is a feature of camera systems where the System camera, body allows interchangeable lenses, most usually the rangefinder ...

introduced in 1954 with the

Leica M3 The Leica M3 is a 135 film, 35 mm rangefinder camera by Ernst Leitz GmbH (now Leica Camera, Leica Camera AG), introduced in 1954. It was a new starting point for Leitz, which until then had only produced screw-mount Leica cameras that were increm ...

, and a range of

lenses A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

. It has been used on all the Leica M-series cameras and certain accessories (e.g. Visoflex reflex viewing attachment) up to the current film Leica M-A and digital

Leica M11 The Leica M11 is a full-frame digital rangefinder camera from Leica Camera AG. It was introduced on 13 January 2022. It uses a 60.3-megapixel image sensor, and is compatible with almost all Leica M mount lenses. Features The M11 uses a 60-me ...

cameras. This lens mount has also been used by

Epson Seiko Epson Corporation, commonly known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano, Japan, t ...

Ricoh is a Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company. It was founded by the now-defunct commercial division of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) known as the ''Riken Concern'', on 6 February 1936 as . Ricoh's hea ...

Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, lenses, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It made the first integrated ...

Konica was a Japanese manufacturer of, among other products, film, film cameras, camera accessories, photographic and photo-processing equipment, photocopiers, fax machines and laser printers, founded in 1873. The company merged with Japanese peer Mino ...

Cosina Voigtländer Cosina Voigtländer (often abbreviated CV) refers to photographic products manufactured by Cosina under the Voigtländer name since 1999. Cosina leases rights to the Voigtländer name from RINGFOTO GmbH & Co. ALFO Marketing KG in Germany. Cosina V ...

Rollei Rollei () is a German manufacturer of optical instruments founded in 1920 by and in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord series of cameras. Later products included specialty and nostalgic type films for the ...

Carl Zeiss AG Zeiss ( ; ) is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany, in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe (joined 1866) and Otto Schott (joined 1884) he laid the foundation for today's ...

and

Rollei Fototechnic Rollei () is a German manufacturer of optical instruments founded in 1920 by and in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord series of cameras. Later products included specialty and nostalgic type films for the ...

on some of their cameras.

Overview

The Leica M mount was introduced in 1954 at that year's

Photokina Photokina is a trade fair held in Europe for the photographic and imaging industries. It is the world's largest such trade fair. The first Photokina was held in Cologne, Germany, in 1950, and since 1966 it has been held biennially in Septemb ...

show, with the

as its first camera. The 'M' stands for ''Messsucher'' or

rangefinder A rangefinder (also rangefinding telemeter, depending on the context) is a device used to Length measurement, measure distances to remote objects. Originally optical devices used in surveying, they soon found applications in other fields, suc ...

in German. This new camera abandoned the

M39 lens mount The M39 lens mount is a screw thread mounting system for attaching lenses to 35 mm cameras, primarily rangefinder (RF) Leicas. It is also the most common mount for Photographic enlarger lenses. True Leica Thread-Mount (LTM) is 39 mm in ...

in favour of a new bayonet mount. The bayonet mount allowed lenses to be changed more quickly and made the fitting more secure. Other innovations introduced by the M3 included a single window for the

viewfinder In photography, a viewfinder is a device on a camera that a photographer uses to determine exactly where the camera is pointed, and approximately how much of that view will be photographed. A viewfinder can be mechanical (indicating only direct ...

(for

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

) and the rangefinder (for focusing). With a double-stroke

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

advance lever (later models have a single-stroke lever). The M3 was a success and over 220,000 units were sold, by the time production ended in 1966. It remains the best-selling M mount camera ever made. The M3 uses

135 film file:135film.jpg, 135 film. The film is wide. Each image is 24×36 mm in the most common "small film" format (sometimes called "double-frame" for its relationship to the "single-frame" 35 mm movie format or full frame after the introduc ...

(or 35 mm film), with the canister being loaded behind a detachable bottom plate. The M3 was followed by many other M mount cameras, released over 40 years, with many of the basic concepts remaining in these designs. With the introduction of the

Through-the-lens metering In photography, through-the-lens metering (TTL metering) refers to a feature of cameras whereby the intensity of light reflected from the scene is measured through the lens; as opposed to using a separate metering window or external hand-held light ...

(TTL) in the

Leica M5 The Leica M5 is a 135 film, 35 mm camera by Leica Camera AG, introduced in 1971. It was the first Leica rangefinder camera to feature through-the-lens (Through-the-lens metering, TTL) metering and the last to be made entirely in Wetzlar by hand us ...

and the

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

Leica M8 The Leica M8 is the first digital camera in the rangefinder M series introduced by Leica Camera AG on 14 September 2006. It uses an APS-H 10.3-megapixel CCD image sensor designed and manufactured by Kodak. As of 15 November 2014, the most recent ...

being the most notable innovations since then. The lenses for the M mount were also introduced in 1954 and were based on the earlier M39 thread mount. Almost all M mount lenses are

Prime lens In film and photography, a prime lens is a fixed focal length photographic lens (as opposed to a zoom lens), typically with a maximum aperture from f2.8 to f1.2. The term can also mean the primary lens in a combination lens system. Confusion ...

es. These lenses are divided by Leica based on their maximum

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

number (also known as

f-number An f-number is a measure of the light-gathering ability of an optical system such as a camera lens. It is calculated by dividing the system's focal length by the diameter of the entrance pupil ("clear aperture").Smith, Warren ''Modern Optical ...

). They are distinguished by their names: File:Leica M3 mg 3673.jpg, M mount female part of the bayonet on a Leica M3 body. The mechanical sensor seen inside the top of the mount is the rangefinder coupling arm File:Leica M3 mg 3671.jpg, M mount male part of the bayonet on the Leica Elmar 90mm . File:Leica M3 mg 3685.jpg, The Leica M3

shutter speed In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time that the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light (that is, when the camera's shutter (photography), shutter is open) when taking a photograph. The am ...

dial, film advance lever, shutter button and the frame counter. File:Leica M3 mg 3628.jpg, The Leica M3 ASA dial, purely decorative reminder of the

Film speed Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light, determined by sensitometry and measured on various numerical scales, the most recent being the ISO system introduced in 1974. A closely related system, also known as IS ...

showing DIN and ASA comparison dial. File:Leica Camera.svg, Leica "red dot" logo.

M Mount camera bodies

Film cameras

Digital cameras

Professional

Entry-Level

Monochrom

No display

Increased resolution

Other manufacturers

Epson R-D1 The Epson R-D1 is a digital rangefinder camera introduced by Epson in March 2004, and the first digital rangefinder ever commercially produced. The R-D1 was a joint venture between Epson and Cosina, the former developing the electronics, UI, and ...

Minolta CLE The Minolta CLE is a TTL-metering manual & automatic exposure aperture-priority 35 mm rangefinder camera using Leica M lenses, introduced by Minolta in 1980. Leica and Minolta signed a technical cooperation agreement in June 1972. One of its re ...

Hexar RF The Konica Hexar RF is a 135 film, 35 mm rangefinder camera which was sold by Konica. It was introduced to the market on 13 October 1999. and subsequently discontinued (apparently without official notice) some time before the end of 2003. The cam ...

*Bessa R2A, R3A, R2M, R3M, R4M and R4A by

Rollei 35 RF The Rollei 35 RF is a version of the Cosina Voigtländer Bessa R2 marketed by Rollei Fototechnic, but manufactured by Cosina, and released in 2002. Like the Bessa R2, the Rollei 35 RF has a Leica M-mount and a metal focal-plane shutter. Its TTL ...

*Recent Zeiss Ikon rangefinder camera by

Ricoh GXR The Ricoh GXR is a compact digital camera first announced by Ricoh, Ricoh Company, Ltd, Tokyo on November 10, 2009. Unlike conventional cameras which either have a fixed Lens (optics), lens and Image sensor, sensor or interchangeable lens and a fi ...

* PIXII by Pixii SAS

M mount lenses

Other manufacturers

Zeiss Zeiss or Zeiß may refer to: People *Carl Zeiss (1816–1888), German optician and entrepreneur *Emil Zeiß (1833–1910), German Protestant minister and painter * Juan Pablo Zeiss (born 1989), Argentine rugby union player * Mary Zeiss Sta ...

* Zenit M
Brightin Star

Funleader

TTArtisan

References

External links

About the M System

Leica M Lenses

{{Leica M digital cameras Lens mounts

Overview

M Mount camera bodies

Film cameras

Digital cameras

Professional

Entry-Level

Monochrom

No display

Increased resolution

Other manufacturers

M mount lenses

Other manufacturers

See also

References

External links