A legend returns: Leica revives its famous M6 film camera with new refinements

Leica Camera AG has announced the return of a new Leica M6. After 20 years, Leica has restarted its production on the 35mm analog Leica M6 camera and given the film camera a few new bells and whistles.

Among the changes to the Leica M6 (2022 Edition) is based around a modern version of the Leica M rangefinder with 0.72x magnification. The camera's optical surfaces are now coated, helping prevent stray light from causing issues. The new M6 features an improved light meter that shows the correct exposure via a red dot in addition to the two arrow symbols originally used. The new M6 has a battery warning indicator. Further, the new M6 has a redesigned top cover made from solid brass and enhanced with scratch-resistant black lacquer. The original M6 used a die-cast zing top cover.

The character of the original M6 remains intact. The new M6 includes the same slanted rewind crank for the film, the mechanically controlled cloth shutter, and Leica's trademark red Leitz logo. At first glance, the 2022's M6 looks like the M6 that was hand built from 1984 to 2002. During that period, Leica built nearly 175,000 M6 cameras.

"The Leica M6 is a milestone in the corporate history of Leica Camera AG. Since 1984, countless iconic pictures have been taken with it; it was a part of the product range for over 18 years and is still a fascinating camera with an extremely high utility value," said Stefan Daniel, Executive Vice of President Technology and Operations. "Conscious analog photography as an antithesis to the flood of digital images is enjoying great popularity. Therefore, it was only logical for us to produce the Leica M6 again as one of the most popular representatives of this camera type."

There's no doubt that analog photography has experienced a rebirth in the two decades since Leica stopped making the M6. While digital photography continues to maintain a firm hold on the industry, analog photography has survived to carve out a small but significant niche. For photographers who missed out on the Leica M6 during its initial production run or perhaps want a new one for their 35mm film photography, the Leica M6 (2022) will be available for $5,295 through Leica retailers starting November 3.