Description
Introduced in 1984, the Leica M6 is one of the classics from the Leica range and is a milestone in the development of the Leica M system. The camera enjoys an almost as legendary reputation as the Leica M3 and was produced continuously from 1984 to 1998. At the 1998 Photokina, the M6 TTL was presented, a M6 flash-metered camera, built until the end of production in 2002.
Probably the rarest version of the classic Leica M6 is the very short built M6 0.85x with a viewfinder system derived from the anniversary model M6J. But also within the regular series production there were various rarities. These include, for example, referred to as M6 "Panda" silver chrome-plated cameras with black control elements or early M6 without plastic insert under the strap lugs. In this form, only the first 6,000 cameras were produced!
During the production period, the name on the red logo badge changed from Leitz to Leica and the Leica M6 models built in Wetzlar until 1988 still had the engraving "Ernst Leitz Wetzlar GmbH" on the top cap. From 1988 onwards, the M6 was produced at the new Leica factory in Solms. There also emerged the titanized version of the Leica M6 and some special models were made.
Total production: approximately 75.453 units, only approx. 22.070 units in black chrome from Wetzlar!
Rarity: R6 (for an early M6 from Wetzlar production)
Rarity forecast: R7