Leica 72

Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 18×24mm — half the standard frame, turned the other way up — giving about 72 exposures on a 36-exposure roll, which is where the name comes from. · 1954

our own finding

Also known as: Leica 72 · Leica 18x24 · Leica half frame · Leitz Midland 72

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Wetzlar (ELW)	LTM	1948–1950	—	33 cameras (Leica Wiki), serials 357151–357183
Ernst Leitz Canada, Midland (ELC)	LTM	1948–1950	—	About 150 cameras (Leica Wiki)

Camera 357151 — the first serial in the Wetzlar block, and the one this entry records with sharkskin covering — has an auction record. It was lot 30 of Leitz Photographica Auction 19: "The very first Leica 72 Wetzlar, the only Leica 72 with sharkskin covering! Listed in the Hahne list as the first Wetzlar Leica 72, two years before the next camera. IIIa type without synchronisation, in perfect and 100% original condition." Catalogued c.1949, estimated €20,000–24,000 against a €12,000 start, and sold for €26,400 including buyer's premium.
That lot description bears on the two open questions. Leitz Photographica dates the camera c.1949, which sides with the Leica Wiki's serial table rather than its 1957–1963 production line, and calls it a "IIIa type without synchronisation" — the opposite of the Leica Wiki's statement that the model carries flash synchronisation.
A Midland camera has also sold: no. 357364, catalogued to 1954, "Rare original Leica 72 Midland Ontario, in mint condition and good working order, with Elmar 3.5/5cm no.970110, feet scale (front cap)", lot 45 of Auction 41, estimated €12,000–14,000 against a €6,000 start, realised €10,800 including buyer's premium. Its 1954 date sits between the two dates the Leica Wiki gives and matches neither.

How to tell them apart (expand)

18 x 24 engraved on the top plate — the identifying mark, and the only one that cannot be faked without engraving
A IIIa-family body with flash synchronisation, on the Leica Wiki's account

Wetzlar (ELW):

18 x 24 engraved on the top plate
Wetzlar markings; camera 357151 is recorded with sharkskin covering

Ernst Leitz Canada, Midland (ELC):

Canadian markings

Wetzlar (ELW): The German-built minority, and the smaller half of an already tiny run.
Ernst Leitz Canada, Midland (ELC): Most Leica 72s are Canadian. The serial block they come from, 357201–358500, is annotated in the source as Nummern nicht vergeben — numbers not issued — with 150 cameras drawn from 1,300 reserved numbers.

Serial-range notes

357151–357183: 33 Wetzlar cameras. The block is 33 numbers wide and 33 cameras were built: a rare exact fit.
357201–358500: 1,300 numbers reserved, marked in the source as not issued, against about 150 cameras actually built. The gap is why no serial-based estimate of this model works.

Specifications

Format: 18×24mm — half the standard frame, turned the other way up — giving about 72 exposures on a 36-exposure roll, which is where the name comes from.
Finder (main): Optical viewfinder masked for the 18×24 frame · no rangefinder image
Finder (rangefinder): Coupled split-image rangefinder
Shutter: focal plane, cloth · 1s – 1/1000 and B, with flash synchronisation
Country: Canada

Figures we worked out rather than found: 33 Wetzlar + about 150 Midland ≈ 183 cameras — Canada built roughly 82% of them · 150 cameras came out of 1,300 reserved numbers: 88% of the block was never used

Where sources disagree

Years of production

1957–1963 (Leica Wiki, production era line)
1948–1950 (Leica Wiki, its own serial table, on the same page)

Better supported: Unresolved

Nine years apart, on one page, about a camera of which fewer than two hundred exist. The serial numbers themselves sit in the 357xxx range, which the same wiki's other tables place around 1948–50, so the table is the more internally consistent of the two.

Which body it is built on

A modified Leica IIIa (Leica Wiki)
A version of the IIIc (camera-wiki's screw-mount overview)

The serial range supports neither cleanly. A camera with flash synchronisation, which the Leica Wiki also states, would be an f-generation feature rather than a IIIa one.

What reviewers say

José Manuel Serrano Esparza (Leica Barnack Berek Blog) (blog) — "An unprofitable but fascinating story", told from the archives rather than a roll of film: two vertical 18×24 frames in each 24×36 space, with the counter, finder and wind rebuilt to suit — and enlargements acceptable only to about 20×28 cm on ISO 32 and 40 emulsions, which is why Tri-X killed the format for Leitz. single source, unconfirmed

History

The Leica 72 takes 18×24 pictures — half the standard frame, standing upright — and gets about 72 of them onto a roll that would otherwise give 36. That is the whole concept, and it was a reasonable one in the late 1940s, when film was expensive and half-frame promised twice as much of it. Almost nobody bought it. Somewhere around 183 cameras were built, which makes it the rarest thing Leitz ever listed as a regular model rather than sold as a special order.

Most of them are Canadian. Ernst Leitz Canada at Midland built roughly 150; Wetzlar built 33, in a serial block from 357151 to 357183 that is exactly 33 numbers wide — a rare instance in this family of a block and a batch agreeing precisely. The Canadian cameras came out of a block of 1,300 reserved numbers of which the source says the numbers were not issued, so nearly nine tenths of that range was never used. Anyone trying to estimate this model from serial ranges will get a figure seven times too large.

The identifying mark is “18 x 24” engraved on the top plate. There is not much else to go on, which matters on a camera this valuable.

Two things about it are unsettled, and both come from the same page. The Leica Wiki’s production line says 1957 to 1963; its own serial table, a few inches below, says 1948 to 1950. That is a nine-year disagreement about a camera with fewer than two hundred examples, and the serial numbers themselves — the 357xxx range — sit where the same wiki’s other tables put the late 1940s, so the table looks the more consistent of the two. The second question is what body it is. The Leica Wiki calls it a modified IIIa; camera-wiki’s overview calls it a version of the IIIc built in Canada. The Leica Wiki also says it has flash synchronisation, which belongs to the f generation rather than to a IIIa, so its own two claims sit awkwardly together. This entry does not resolve it.

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.

Live listings

Asking price, EUR: a median of €14,000 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half €5–€14,000). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from €14,000.

By day

Date	Median	Middle half	Listings
2026-09-11	€14,000	€5–€14,000	3
2026-09-06	€14,000	€5–€14,000	3

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

PHOTO DEAL 91 Zeiss Ikon Leica 72 Pathex Hasselblad Mini-Fex Squeezer Ihagee — €4.99 · eBay
Leica 72 18x24 Midland ca.1955 RARE half frame Leica with clean 3.5/5cm Elmar — €14,000.00 · eBay
Leica 72 18x24 Midland ca.1955 RARE half frame Leica with clean 3.5/5cm Elmar — €14,000.00 · Arsenal Photo
Leica 72 18x24 Midland ca.1955 RARE half frame Leica with clean 3.5/5cm Elmar — $17,847.06 · eBay
Leica 72 Wetzlar Rangefinder Camera Body Rare Collector Vintage from Japan D0727 — $32,047.42 · eBay
Leica 72 Wetzlar Rangefinder Camera Body Rare Collector Vintage from Japan D0727 — £25,406.02 · eBay

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