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

Leica If

Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures · 1952

Also known as: Leica If · Leica If red dial · Leitz Leica If · ライカIf

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Black dial LTM 1951–1952 — 1,118 cameras (Leica Wiki)
Red dial LTM 1952–1958 — 15,786 cameras (Leica Wiki)
Swedish military (three crowns) LTM 1952–1958 — No figure published
Swedish Post Office LTM 1952–1958 — No figure published
  1. The Swedish three-crown cameras were issued as a numbered outfit, not as bare bodies. Leitz Photographica Auction 41, lot 209 — body 578081 of 1953, engraved with three crowns and "MS-HK2 NR 8" — was sold with a Meyer Tele Megor 5.5/250mm, number 1001767, carrying the same military markings, together with a hood with built-in yellow filter, an SFTOO finder with a 250mm mask, a chrome FOKOS rangefinder, cable release, two spools, strap and an outfit case from the Stockholm dealer Molander & Son marked to the same designation. The auction house puts the run at about fifty outfits; this one realised €12,000 including buyer's premium against an estimate of €12,000–14,000.
  2. A plain Swedish military If is a far commoner thing. Auction 42, lot 211 — body 760954 of 1955 in A/B condition, with a red-scale Elmar 3.5/5cm number 1244401 engraved with a small crown, camera and lens both originally supplied to Brandt in Sweden — realised €4,320 including buyer's premium against an estimate of €4,000–5,000.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • No rangefinder and no viewfinder — a bare top plate
  • Two accessory shoes side by side, as on the Ic
  • Flash sync ring, which the Ic does not have

Black dial:

  • Sync numbers engraved in black

Red dial:

  • Sync numbers engraved in red

Swedish military (three crowns):

  • Three crowns engraved on the body — Swedish armed forces property

Swedish Post Office:

  • Swedish Post Office markings

Serial-range notes

562801–565000
2,200 black-dial cameras in 1951 — before the model's stated 1952 introduction.
575001–580000
5,000 red-dial cameras, 1952–1953.
683446
Flagged by the Leica Wiki as a Leica IIIf inside If numbering.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures
Finder
None. Accessory finders and rangefinders mount in the two shoes · no rangefinder image
Shutter
focal plane, cloth · 1/25 – 1/500 or 1/1000 depending on version, and Z. No slow speeds
Dimensions
136 × 39 × 65 mm
Country
Germany

Figures we worked out rather than found: 1,118 + 15,786 = 16,904 — the two dial versions sum exactly to the stated total, with nothing unaccounted for · Black-dial cameras are 6.6% of the model

Where sources disagree

First year of production
  • 1952 (Leica Wiki, model page)
  • 1951, the date on its own first serial block of 2,200 black-dial cameras

Better supported: 1951 for manufacture, 1952 for sale

The usual gap between building and selling, and the reason black-dial Ifs exist at all: they were made before the red-dial revision reached this model.

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 If continues what the Ic started: a Leica with nothing to look through. No rangefinder, no viewfinder, two accessory shoes on a bare top plate, and now the flash synchronisation that gives the f generation its letter. It is a IIIf with the finders left out, sold to people mounting a camera on something — a microscope, a copy stand, a Visoflex — or willing to carry a separate finder and rangefinder in the shoes.

Its numbers are the tidiest in this whole family. 1,118 black-dial cameras and 15,786 red-dial cameras sum to 16,904, which is exactly the total the page prints. After the Model A’s 249-camera gap, the Standard’s twelve thousand and the IIId’s assumed block of 325, an entry where the arithmetic simply works is worth remarking on.

The black dials are the scarce ones at under seven per cent of production, and the reason they exist is chronological rather than deliberate: the first block of 2,200 was built in 1951, before the red-dial revision reached this model, which is also why the serial list starts a year earlier than the model page’s introduction date.

Then there are the institutional cameras. Some Ifs carry three crowns for the Swedish armed forces; others are marked for the Swedish Post Office. A postal service ordering finderless Leicas says plainly what these bodies were bought for — copying documents under fixed lighting, frame after frame — and it is a useful corrective to the idea that every Leica was carried through a war or around Paris. Most cameras do ordinary work.

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 $530 across 25 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $450–$690). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $530.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$530$450–$69025
2026-09-06$530$450–$69026

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

Show 22 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 Ic · Leica Ig · Leica IIf · Leica IIIf

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.