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

Leica IIc

Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures · 1948

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

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Leica IIc LTM 1948–1951 — 10,999 cameras (Leica Wiki)
Converted to IIIc LTM 1948–1951 — No figure published
  1. A documented upgrade, and it went further than a IIIc. Leitz Photographica Auction 43, lot 38, catalogued a body as "originally a Leica IIc first delivered in 1949, upgraded in 1954 to IIIf specifications (flash sync, self-timer, slow speeds)", sold with a Summitar 2/5cm for €840 including buyer's premium. A converted IIc can therefore be wearing a IIf or IIIf top plate, not only a IIIc's.
  2. Prices realised at Leitz Photographica Auction: a IIc of 1949, no. 440667, with a matching coated Elmar 3.5/5cm, made €1,320 against a €600–700 estimate in Auction 39, lot 32; an ivory white IIc of the same year, no. 444117, made €3,840 against a €3,000–3,400 estimate in Auction 43, lot 215. Both include the buyer's premium.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The IIIc's 136mm die-cast body
  • Front plate blank where the slow-speed dial would be
  • No accessory shoe

Leica IIc:

  • No slow-speed dial on the front — a blank where the IIIc has one
  • No accessory shoe at all as it left the factory
  • Sharkskin covering on many examples

Converted to IIIc:

  • A slow-speed dial and an accessory shoe fitted to a IIc serial
  • The added shoe is held by TWO screws; a factory IIIc shoe has FOUR

Serial-range notes

440001–449999
9,999 cameras across 1948–1951 in one continuous block.
450001–451000
A final 1,000 in 1951, taking the model to 10,999.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures
Finder (main)
Optical viewfinder · no rangefinder image
Finder (rangefinder)
Coupled split-image rangefinder
Shutter
focal plane, cloth · 1/30 – 1/1000 and Z — no slow speeds
Dimensions
136 × 39 × 65 mm
Country
Germany

Figures we worked out rather than found: 9,999 + 1,000 = 10,999 — the two blocks account for the stated total exactly, with nothing left over · The IIc is about one camera in twelve against the IIIc it is built from

What reviewers say

History

The IIc is the IIIc with two things missing. There is no slow-speed dial on the front, so the shutter runs from 1/30 to 1/1000 and stops, and there is no accessory shoe on top at all. Leitz sold it from 1948 to 1951 to people who wanted a Leica and could do without both, and built 10,999 of them, against 133,626 IIIcs.

For once the arithmetic is clean. Two serial blocks — 9,999 cameras from 440001 and a final thousand from 450001 — account for the stated total exactly, with nothing left over and nothing assumed. After the Model A, the Standard and the IIId, that is worth noting on its own.

The interesting part of this camera is what happened to it afterwards. A IIc becomes a IIIc if you fit a slow-speed dial and an accessory shoe, and enough owners did that the Leica Wiki lists the conversion as a variant of the model. The giveaway is the shoe: a shoe added later is held by two screws, where a shoe fitted at the factory to a real IIIc has four. Anyone examining a IIIc — a far more valuable camera — should count the screws before anything else. Nobody has published how many were converted, which is the same as saying that some proportion of the IIIcs in circulation began life on this page.

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 $450 across 10 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $380–$600). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $450.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$450$380–$60010
2026-09-06$450$380–$60010

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

Show 13 more listings

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

Related: Leica Ic · Leica IIf · 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.