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

Leica IIf

Ernst Leitz · LTM mount · 24×36mm on perforated 35mm cine film, 36 exposures · 1951

our own finding

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

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Black dial LTM 1951–1952 — The opening block of 4,000 at 451001–455000 is black dial with sharkskin covering
Red dial, 1/500 LTM 1951–1954 — No separate figure published
Red dial, 1/1000 LTM 1954–1956 — No separate figure published
Betriebskamera (works camera) LTM 1951–1956 — No figure published
  1. A IIf serial number need not be a IIf number at all. Leitz Photographica sold, in its 47th auction, a camera catalogued as "Leica IIf no.190" whose lot note records that it left the factory on 20 February 1925 as a Leica I Model A with an Anastigmat lens, went back to Leitz for repair in 1949, 1951 and 1954, and was then "upgraded to IIf specifications (black dial) without slow speed, but keeping the original serial number". It made €3,360 against a €4,000–5,000 estimate. Any serial-number argument about this model has to allow for factory upgrades that carry the donor camera's number rather than a IIf one.
  2. An ordinary IIf is one of the cheaper Barnack cameras at auction. In the same sale a black-scale IIf with an Elmar 3.5/5cm made €780 against a €800–900 estimate — against €3,840 for a IIIf with a pre-series Leicavit and €108,000 for the black-paint Swedish Army IIIf in the same session.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • No slow-speed dial: the front is blank where a IIIf has one
  • Flash sync ring under the shutter-speed knob, as on the IIIf
  • A spring-blade accessory shoe held by two screws — fitted at the factory, unlike the IIc, which had no shoe at all

Black dial:

  • Sync numbers engraved in black
  • Top speed 1/500

Red dial, 1/500:

  • Sync numbers in red; shutter dial tops out at 1/500

Red dial, 1/1000:

  • Sync numbers in red; shutter dial reaching 1/1000

Betriebskamera (works camera):

  • Engraved Betriebsk. or Betriebskamera — a camera issued to Leitz's own staff
  • Some are engraved Eigentum, marking them as company property

Serial-range notes

451001–455000
4,000 cameras in 1951, black dial with sharkskin covering — the model's first block.
762932
Flagged by the Leica Wiki as a Leica IIIf sitting inside IIf numbering.

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 – 1/500, later 1/30 – 1/1000, and Z. No slow speeds
Dimensions
136 × 39 × 65 mm
Country
Germany

Figures we worked out rather than found: 35,091 cameras against the IIIf's 184,100 — the economy model is roughly one camera in six · Three shutter specifications inside one model name: black dial 1/500, red dial 1/500, red dial 1/1000

What reviewers say

History

The IIf is what the IIc should have been. Same idea — a IIIf-family body without the slow speeds, sold cheaper — but where the IIc left off the accessory shoe as well, the IIf has one fitted at the factory, a spring-blade type held by two screws, and it keeps the flash synchronisation that the f generation is named for. Leitz built 35,091 between 1951 and 1956, about one camera for every six IIIfs.

Inside that one model name are three different shutters. The camera launched as a black dial reaching 1/500. A red-dial version followed, still at 1/500, with the flash timing and speed series revised in the same way as the IIIf’s. Then in about 1954 the top speed went to 1/1000, which is the specification the model ends on. So “red dial IIf” describes two cameras, and the only way to tell which one is on the table is to look at the number the shutter dial stops at.

Two footnotes worth carrying. First, the shoe: a two-screw accessory shoe is normal on a IIf and suspicious on a IIIc, where the factory used four screws and a two-screw shoe means a IIc was converted. The same detail, read on two different bodies, supports opposite conclusions. Second, some IIfs are engraved Betriebskamera or Eigentum — works cameras issued to Leitz’s own employees, and company property rather than stock. They are not a market variant and they do not always sit in the ordinary serial blocks.

The serial table has one of the family’s usual crossovers: camera 762932, inside IIf numbering, is flagged as a IIIf.

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.

Photographs

Leica IIf
Leica IIf, 1955, with two red-scale Elmars — sébastien amiet;l, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $500 across 39 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $340–$600). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $500.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$500$340–$60039
2026-09-06$500$380–$60038

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

Show 44 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 IIIf

Sources (6)

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.