Leica 250 Reporter

Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 24×36mm on bulk 35mm film loaded into two large cassettes, giving about 250 exposures in one loading — roughly seven ordinary rolls without stopping to reload. · 1933

Also known as: Leica 250 · Leica Reporter · Leica 250 GG · Leica 250 FF · ライカ250

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Model DD	LTM	1933–1933	—	Two cameras (Leica Wiki)
Model FF	LTM	1934–1942	—	Counted together with the GG: 981 cameras for both
Model GG	LTM	1936–1953	—	Counted together with the FF: 981 cameras for both
With motor drive	LTM	1934–1942	—	No figure published

The motorised camera is the one that carries the money. Leitz Photographica Auction 34, lot 28, sold a 1942 250 GG with the Leica-Motor MOOEV for €456,000 including buyer's premium against a €300,000–400,000 estimate. Its catalogue states that 92 cameras were fitted with the MOOEV motor for aerial reconnaissance, most of them permanently installed in Stuka dive bombers, and that roughly fifteen are thought to survive.
Unmotorised examples sell for a fraction of that. A 1938 GG, no. 300087, made €9,000 in Leitz Photographica Auction 35, lot 31, against a €12,000–14,000 estimate; a 1941 GG with a Xenon 1.5/5cm made €18,000 in the same house's 100 Years of Leica sale, lot 21. Both figures include the buyer's premium.
An independent statement of the count: Leitz Photographica gives the Reporter's serial range as 130001 (1934) to 359916 (1953) and its total production as fewer than one thousand cameras. That range begins a year after the two 1933 DD bodies and ends well below the 375883 the serial tables use for the late assemblies, so it corroborates the order of magnitude without settling either end of the span.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Two film chambers the size of the camera body, one at each end, so the camera is about twice as wide as an ordinary Leica
18×24 is NOT this camera: the Reporter takes full-frame pictures, just a great many of them

Model DD:

No slow-speed dial — the central body is a Leica II (model D)

Model FF:

Slow-speed dial on the front — the central body is a Leica III (model F)

Model GG:

1/1000 top speed — the central body is a Leica IIIa (model G)
Chrome finish on most; the serial tables mark these GG-CHROM

With motor drive:

A motor drive fitted beneath the camera

Model DD: Two cameras, serials 114051 and 114052. The DD is the first attempt and effectively a prototype pair.
Model FF: The working Reporter, and the one press photographers actually used.
With motor drive: The reason the format existed: 250 exposures is only useful if you are not winding each one by hand.

Serial-range notes

114051–114052: The two DD cameras, 1933.
126801–137400: A 10,600-number block printed in the Reporter's table but marked Leica III, its batch figure in brackets. Two cameras inside it, 130008 and 137041, are confirmed Reporter FFs.
375883 and after: 36 cameras between 1944 and 1953 credited to Pacific Rim Camera, with no starting serial — almost certainly assemblies from remaining parts rather than production.

Specifications

Format: 24×36mm on bulk 35mm film loaded into two large cassettes, giving about 250 exposures in one loading — roughly seven ordinary rolls without stopping to reload.
Finder (main): Optical viewfinder · no rangefinder image
Finder (rangefinder): Coupled split-image rangefinder
Shutter: focal plane, cloth · Depends on the central body: 1/20 – 1/500 (DD), 1s – 1/500 (FF), 1s – 1/1000 (GG)
Designed by: Oskar Barnack — camera
Country: Germany

Figures we worked out rather than found: 988 + 36 = 1,024 numbers, against a model page total of 983 — a spread of about 4% · Two DD cameras against roughly a thousand FF and GG: the first version is 0.2% of the line

Where sources disagree

Total production

983 cameras — 2 DD plus 981 FF and GG (Leica Wiki, model page)
988 serial numbers assigned for 1933–1943, plus 36 more for 1944–1953 (its own serial list)

Better supported: Around 1,000, and no closer

The list's own total excludes the 36 late cameras it separately records, and its largest row is a 10,600-number block belonging to the Leica III with two confirmed Reporters inside it. Nothing here supports a figure to the nearest camera.

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

History

The Reporter is an ordinary Leica with two enormous film chambers bolted to its ends. Inside each is a cassette holding enough bulk 35mm film for about 250 exposures — seven ordinary rolls — and the point of the camera is that a press photographer at a race, a rally or a state visit could work through the whole event without stopping to reload. Fitted with a motor drive beneath, which many were, it becomes something no other 1930s camera could offer: a machine that keeps shooting.

The middle of it is a standard Barnack, and which one determines the two-letter name. The DD has a Leica II at its centre and therefore no slow speeds; the FF has a Leica III; the GG has a IIIa and its 1/1000. Two DDs were built, serials 114051 and 114052, and they read as a prototype pair. The FF and GG together account for 981 cameras across two decades, which makes the Reporter one of the scarcest cameras Leitz sold as a catalogue item.

One thing to be clear about, because the name invites the confusion: this camera does not shoot half-frame. The 250 refers to the number of full 24×36 exposures in a loading, not to a smaller image. The Leica that shoots 18×24 is the Leica 72, a different and even rarer thing.

The counting is once again approximate. The model page gives 2 plus 981; the serial list totals 988 for 1933 to 1943 and then adds 36 more for 1944 to 1953 with no starting serial, credited to Pacific Rim Camera and almost certainly assembled from parts left over. And the list’s largest row is a 10,600-number block that belongs to the Leica III, printed in the Reporter’s table because two cameras inside it — 130008 and 137041 — are confirmed Reporters. Somewhere around a thousand were built. Nothing consulted supports being more precise than that.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Leica 250 Reporter with a frame finder — Rama, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0 fr)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $12,700 across 6 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $4,500–$16,600). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $12,700.

By day

Date	Median	Middle half	Listings
2026-09-11	$12,700	$4,500–$16,600	6
2026-09-06	$12,700	$700–$16,600	7

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Leica KOOBF original Cassette for the Leica 250 Reporter RARE — €349.00 · eBay
Leica KOOBF original Cassette for the Leica 250 Reporter RARE — €349.00 · Arsenal Photo
Leica 250 Reporter 2x Original Leica 250 Reporter Filmpatrone – KOOBF #3754 — €390.00 · eBay
Leitz 2x Film Spool for Leica 250 camera Rare vintage condition — €400.00 · Arsenal Photo
GRBOO Focusing Stage for Leica 250 very rare Sliding Stage — €2,499.00 · Arsenal Photo
Leitz GRBOO for Leica Reporter Focusing Stage Sliding Stage RARE — €3,500.00 · Arsenal Photo
Leica Reporter 250FF No.150109 ca. 1934 full working — €9,999.00 · eBay
Leica 250 FF Reporter early nice original condition Germany 1934Y. — €13,000.00 · eBay
【Exc+】Leica 250 Reporter Vintage 35mm Rangefinder Film Camera Super Rare 1930s — €16,389.20 · eBay
Leica KOOBF original cassette for the Leica 250 Reporter RARE — $444.91 · eBay
Leitz GRBOO for Leica Reporter Focusing Stage Sliding Stage RARE — $4,461.77 · eBay
Leica Reporter 250FF No.150109 ca. 1934 fully working — $12,746.62 · eBay
Leica 250 FF Reporter early nice original condition Germany 1934Y. — $16,572.27 · eBay
【Exc+】Leica 250 Reporter Vintage 35mm Rangefinder Film Camera Super Rare 1930s — $20,000.00 · eBay
VINTAGE LEICA 250 Reporter Camera 198496 Ernst Leitz Wetzlar — $30,000.00 · eBay
Leica KOOBF original cassette for the Leica 250 Reporter RARE — £328.50 · eBay

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.