Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Leica Ic

Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures · 1949

our own finding

Also known as: Leica Ic · Leitz Leica Ic · ライカIc

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Sharkskin covering LTM 1949–1950 — 5,000 cameras in the 455001–460000 block (Leica Wiki)
Standard vulcanite LTM 1950–1952 — 6,800 across the 520001 and 560001 blocks
  1. A sharkskin Ic, serial 457061 and dated 1950, made €1,920 including buyer's premium against an estimate of €1,000–1,200 as lot 46 of Leitz Photographica Auction 46, sold with a matching 3.5cm Summaron, FOKOS rangefinder and FBLOO finder. The serial falls inside the 455001–460000 block counted here as sharkskin production.
  2. Mike Eckman's 1950 camera carries six speeds from 1/30 to 1/500 plus Bulb on its dial, not the 1/1000 and Z recorded in this entry from the Leica Wiki. One camera is not a survey, and the discrepancy is left standing rather than resolved.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • No rangefinder window and no viewfinder — the top plate is bare except for the shoes
  • TWO accessory shoes, side by side, so a finder and a rangefinder can be carried together
  • The IIIc's 136mm die-cast body

Sharkskin covering:

  • Coarse pebbled vulcanite, listed in the serial tables as SH

Standard vulcanite:

  • The usual fine-grained covering

Serial-range notes

455001–460000
5,000 sharkskin cameras, 1949–1950.
580001–610000
A 30,000-number block printed inside the Ic's serial list but marked as Leica IIIf, with its batch figure in brackets. It is not Ic production and is not counted here.
59478
Noted by the Leica Wiki as a black-lacquer Ic. The number falls in the 1930 range and cannot belong to a camera introduced in 1949 — see this entry's own finding.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures
Finder
None. Accessory finders mount in either of the two shoes · no rangefinder image
Shutter
focal plane, cloth · 1/30 – 1/1000 and Z — no slow speeds
Dimensions
136 × 39 × 65 mm
Country
Germany
Original price
$70 for the body and $140 with the 5cm f/3.5 Elmar in the United States, the figure Mike Eckman gives from the Leica Wiki; no period Leitz price list has been consulted directly.

Figures we worked out rather than found: 5,000 + 4,000 + 2,800 = 11,800 Ic cameras in the three blocks that are actually Ics · The stated total exceeds those blocks by 213

Where sources disagree

Total production
  • 12,013 cameras (Leica Wiki, model page)
  • 11,800 serial numbers assigned (Leica Wiki, its own serial list)

Better supported: Neither can be checked

213 apart. The serial list is also carrying a 30,000-number IIIf block that is not Ic production at all, so its total is describing something other than this model.

What reviewers say

History

The Ic is a Leica for people who were not going to look through it. There is no rangefinder and no viewfinder — the top plate carries two accessory shoes and nothing else — because the camera was made to be attached to something that did the looking: a microscope, a repro stand, later a Visoflex mirror housing. Two shoes rather than one, so that an accessory finder and an accessory rangefinder can both be carried when the camera is used by hand.

Underneath it is the IIIc casting with the same omissions as the IIc: no slow speeds, so 1/30 to 1/1000. Leitz built it from 1949 to 1952 and followed it with the If, which is the same idea with flash sync, and then the Ig, which puts a finder back on. The line of finderless Leicas outlasted the ones with rangefinders: the Ig was still being sold in 1960, four years after the M3 had made the whole screw range obsolete.

The counting has the same shape as elsewhere in this family, with an extra wrinkle. The model page says 12,013 cameras; the serial list below it totals 11,800, which is 213 fewer. But that list is also carrying a block of 30,000 numbers from 580001 to 610000 that it marks, in its own row, as Leica IIIf — a different camera entirely, sitting inside the Ic’s table with its batch figure in brackets. Three blocks in that list are actually Ics, and they come to exactly 11,800.

One note on the same page is simply an error, and this site would rather say so than repeat it. The Leica Wiki records camera 59478 as a black-lacquer Ic. Serial 59478 belongs to 1930 — the same wiki’s tables put it among Model A and Model C production — and the Ic was introduced in 1949 with its first block at 455001. Whatever camera 59478 is, it is not a Ic.

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, USD: a median of $640 across 13 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $480–$1,300). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $640.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$640$480–$1,30013
2026-09-06$640$480–$1,30013

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

Show 31 more listings

eBay links are affiliate links. If you buy through one, Glass Bodies earns a small commission from eBay at no cost to you. It does not change which listings appear, their prices or their order — those come from the search and the sort described above.

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

Related: Leica If · Leica IIc · Leica IIIc

Sources (5)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.