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

Leica Ig

Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures · 1957

our own finding

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

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
With slow-speed dial LTM 1957–1963 — No separate figure published
Without slow-speed dial LTM 1957–1963 — No separate figure published
Siemens cameras LTM 1958–1958 — Two blocks of 34 in the serial list
Military, olive jacket LTM 1957–1963 — No figure published
Ernst Leitz Canada LTM 1957–1963 — No figure published
  1. Leitz Auction 48, lot 46: the Ig prototype no. 750000, c.1955, whose top plate combines construction elements of the Ic, If and Ig and carries an unusual raised flash platform. It sold for €540,000 including buyer's premium against a €400,000–500,000 estimate, and is published in James L. Lager's Leica: An Illustrated History, Volume I at page 132 and in Lars Netopil's Prototype Leica at pages 257–261.
  2. Two Siemens Ig cameras have sold at Leitz Photographica, and neither serial falls in the two 34-camera blocks the Leica Wiki labels Siemens: no. 926618 of 1958 made €1,800 including buyer's premium at auction 33, and no. 987453 of 1960 made €3,600 at auction 44 against a €1,600–1,800 estimate. Both are described as factory-modified for Siemens electron microscopes, without accessory shoe or flash synchronisation and with a low-profile winding knob carrying a drive pin — a specification, rather than a plain camera sold to Siemens.
  3. The catalogue entry for no. 987453 states that Ig production ends with no. 987600. That is an independent reading agreeing with the last block of the serial list, and against the 1963 end date printed on the model page.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • No rangefinder and no viewfinder; two accessory shoes
  • LEICA engraved on the front of the body, as on the IIIg
  • The 136mm die-cast body, unchanged since the IIIc of 1940

With slow-speed dial:

  • Slow-speed dial on the front, as on a IIIg

Without slow-speed dial:

  • Blank front plate where the slow-speed dial would sit

Siemens cameras:

  • Listed as Siemens in the Leica Wiki's serial table

Military, olive jacket:

  • Olive-coloured covering in place of black vulcanite

Ernst Leitz Canada:

  • Canadian markings; assembled at Midland, Ontario

Serial-range notes

924589–926000
1,412 cameras — and the two 34-camera Siemens blocks at 924590–924623 and 925021–925054 both fall inside it.
987301–987600
300 cameras in 1960, the last block the list records though the model page runs to 1963.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures
Finder
None. Accessory finders mount in the two shoes · no rangefinder image
Shutter
focal plane, cloth · 1/30 – 1/1000 and B; slow speeds to 1s on bodies fitted with the front dial
Dimensions
136 × 39 × 65 mm
Country
Germany

Figures we worked out rather than found: The serial rows sum to 6,368, but 924590–924623 and 925021–925054 sit inside the 924589–926000 block already counted · Deduplicated, the list gives 6,300 numbers against a stated 5,968 — a gap of 332

Where sources disagree

Total production
  • 5,968 cameras (Leica Wiki, model page)
  • 6,368, the total printed under its own serial list
  • 6,300, that list corrected for the two Siemens blocks it counts twice

Better supported: 5,968 is the published figure; none of the three can be checked

Even after removing the double-counted Siemens cameras the list still exceeds the model page by 332.

Last year
  • 1963 (Leica Wiki, production era)
  • 1960 — the last block in its own serial list

Three years of a model with no recorded serial numbers. Either bodies were assembled from stock without new blocks, or the catalogue outlived the production.

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 Ig is the last screw Leica, and it got there by not being a camera anybody looked through. A IIIg body with the rangefinder and viewfinder omitted, two accessory shoes on top, sold to laboratories, copy departments and industrial users who mounted it on something and left it there. The IIIg stopped in 1960; the Ig stayed in the catalogue until 1963, because the people buying it had no reason to want an M.

It is a IIIg in the ways that show. LEICA is engraved on the front — the innovation the IIIg introduced — and the body is still the die casting Leitz designed for the IIIc in 1940, twenty-three years earlier and unchanged. Some Ig bodies have the slow-speed dial on the front and some do not, both sold under the same name, so the model number does not tell a buyer what shutter is fitted.

Its production record contains the clearest counting error this site has found in the Leica Wiki, and it is worth setting out because the correction is small and the method matters. The model page says 5,968 cameras. The serial list beneath totals 6,368. Two of that list’s rows are 34-camera blocks marked Siemens, at 924590–924623 and 925021–925054 — and both sit inside the 1,412-camera block from 924589 to 926000 that the same table counts in full. They are subsets being added as though they were separate batches. Take them out and the list gives 6,300, which is still 332 more than the model page but is at least a real disagreement rather than an arithmetic one.

The dates have their own gap. Production is given as 1957 to 1963; the last serial block in the list is 300 cameras in 1960. Whether the intervening three years mean bodies assembled from stock on hand, or simply a catalogue entry that outlived the production line, nothing consulted says.

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 $1,200 across 12 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $700–$1,400). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $1,200.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$1,200$700–$1,40012
2026-09-06$1,200$700–$1,40012

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

Show 2 more listings

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

Related: Leica If · Leica IIIg

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.