Photo Op

For its latest release, the German camera maker Leica resurrects a (very) old favourite, one that marries the photographer's skill with its own exquisite engineering

- Adam Morganstern

AS MODERN DIGITAL cameras put ever more megapixels and endless features into the hands of the everyday shooter, what does Leica—one of the most revered names in photography— come out with for its latest release?

A film camera. You read that right. And not even a new film camera, but a reissue of a shooter from 1984, the M6. There’s no screen to review your photos, no button to upload your selfie over Wi-Fi, and— perhaps you should sit down for this— it’s manual focus. Has the company gone verruckt?

Not at all, insists Stefan Daniel, executive vice president of technology and operations at Leica. “The prices for the M6 on the secondhand market have been rising constantly,” he says, “and the majority of people who want it are younger.” A new generation is embracing analogue photography, along with vinyl records, and Leica has been preparing for this moment.

“We never stopped making film cameras,” says Andrea Pacella, director of global marketing and communication at Leica, “even when sales of film were zero and we were only selling one camera per day worldwide. Any other company would have stopped.” And now that there’s a bull market, reissuing the M6 was a natural choice. During its initial 18-year run, nearly 175,000 units sold, making it one of the company’s most popular models.

Why is the M6 so in demand? Leica believes it’s the simplicity. “It has nothing too much and nothing too less,” says Daniel. “Just what you need to make great photographs. Nothing else. It gave rebirth to rangefinder photography.”