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

Leica M6 TTL

Leica · Leica M mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film, loaded through the base · 1998

Also known as: Leica M6 TTL · Leica M6 TTL 0.85 · Leica M6 TTL 0.58 · ライカM6 TTL

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
0.72× finder Leica M 1998–2002 — The standard version; no separate figure published
0.85× finder Leica M 1998–2002 — Blocks of 150 and upward in the serial list
0.58× finder Leica M 2000–2002 — Blocks from 2000 onward, including 2,000 black cameras at 2681401
Titanium Leica M 1998–2002 — No figure published
Final edition Leica M 2002–2002 — 999 cameras, on the Leica Wiki's order-number note (10542 and 10545)
  1. The 999-camera final edition splits 333 bodies with the 0.58× finder and 666 with the 0.85× (Ken Rockwell).
  2. The 0.58× finder drops the 135mm frame line as the 0.85× drops the 28mm: the two optional magnifications give up opposite ends of the frame set (Rockwell).
  3. The taller top plate has a mechanical consequence beyond fit in cases — the close-focus goggle attachment of the dual-range 50mm Summicron will not seat fully on an M6 TTL, though it seats on an M6 (Rockwell).
  4. 608 g with film and batteries, measured on a 0.85× body (Rockwell).
  5. Neither M6 will meter with the Hologon 15mm f/8, either Super-Angulon 21mm, or an Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 below serial 2314921: those rear elements sit over the metering patch (Rockwell).
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A top plate about 2mm taller than an M6's, to make room for the flash electronics
  • A shutter-speed dial that is larger and turns in the OPPOSITE direction to every earlier M
  • An off setting on the shutter dial, which the M6 does not have

0.72× finder:

  • Six frame lines, 28 to 135mm — the M4-P arrangement

0.85× finder:

  • No 28mm frame: the magnification is too high to show it

0.58× finder:

  • The widest M finder — a 28mm frame usable with spectacles

Final edition:

  • The last M6 TTLs built, sold as a numbered run

Serial-range notes

2466101–2470100
The first 4,000 cameras, dated to a single day — 19 June 1998.
2500000
A round-number camera recorded on its own, as Leica does at each million.
2500044
Recorded by name as Hanns-Peter Cohn's camera — Leica's chief executive of the period. Individual attribution of this kind is rare in these tables.
2688501–2688500
A 0.85× block whose end number is below its start, with 2,000 cameras against it. A transcription slip, and the only one in this model's table.
2466101–2760000
51,173 numbers assigned across 24 rows in four years, including 1,050 in titanium.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film, loaded through the base
Finder
Combined viewfinder and coupled rangefinder with LED metering display; three magnifications offered · 0.72× magnification · 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 90mm, 135mm framelines · automatic, in pairs — 35/135, 50/75, 28/90 · automatic parallax correction
Shutter
focal plane, rubberised cloth, mechanical · 1s – 1/1000 and B, plus an off position; the shutter runs without a battery
Meter
Centre-weighted TTL metering as on the M6, plus through-the-lens flash metering with a compatible unit; three-LED display with a central circle for correct exposure; CR 1/3N lithium cell.
Country
Germany

The 0.85× version cannot show the 28mm frame; the 0.58× is the widest M finder made.

Figures we worked out rather than found: 51,173 cameras in four years, against about 145,000 M6s in fourteen · The M6 TTL is 26% of all M6-family cameras despite running less than a third as long

Where sources disagree

Whether it is a separate model or a version of the M6
  • A version of the M6 — the Leica Wiki's own M6 page counts 1984–2003 as one production era
  • A separate model — Leica sold it under its own name, with its own order numbers and its own serial blocks

Better supported: Separate, which is how this catalog files it

The taller top plate and the reversed shutter dial are mechanical differences a user feels immediately, and the two cameras were sold side by side. Counting them together also makes every published M6 production figure ambiguous.

What reviewers say

History

The M6 TTL adds one capability and changes two things people cared about more. The capability is flash metered through the lens, which meant the top plate had to grow about two millimetres to hold the electronics — enough that an M6 TTL and an M6 do not look the same in profile, and enough to matter for anyone using a hard case made for the older camera. The changes are a bigger shutter-speed dial with an off position, and a dial that turns the opposite way from every M built since 1954. Photographers complained about the direction for four years. When the MP arrived in 2003 it turned the right way again.

Underneath it is the M6: mechanical shutter that runs with a flat battery, a meter reading off a white patch on the curtain, the M4-P’s six frame lines. What is genuinely new for buyers is choice of finder. The 0.72× is standard; a 0.85× gives more focusing precision and loses the 28mm frame entirely; a 0.58× is the widest finder Leica has made and is the one to look for if you wear spectacles and work at 28mm. Those three magnifications, introduced here, are still how Leica sells finders today.

51,173 cameras were built in four years, which is a quarter of everything the M6 family produced in a third of the time. The first four thousand are dated to a single day, 19 June 1998, and two individual cameras are recorded by hand in the serial list: number 2500000, a round million as Leica always marks, and 2500044, noted as belonging to Hanns-Peter Cohn, the company’s chief executive. That kind of personal attribution is rare in these tables, and it is a reminder that they were compiled by people who knew the cameras.

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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 M6 TTL
Leica M6 TTL, black — Sodacan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Leica M6 TTL
Leica M6 TTL with the Summilux 50mm — Steve Hodgson from Edinburgh, Scotland, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $4,000 across 24 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $3,200–$4,500). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: down 3% from $4,100.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$4,000$3,200–$4,50024
2026-09-06$4,100$3,200–$5,00025

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

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

Related: Leica M6 · Leica M7

Lenses for this body: APO-Summicron-M 90mm f/2 ASPH (v4) · APO-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4 · Elmarit-M 21mm f/2.8 ASPH · Elmarit-M 24mm f/2.8 ASPH · Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 ASPH (v5, 2006) · Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 (v4, 1993) · Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH · Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH (v5 · v6) · Summicron-M 50mm f/2 (v4 · v5) · Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH (v4, 1994) · Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (v3, built-in hood) · Tri-Elmar-M 28–35–50mm f/4 ASPH (MATE)

Sources (4)

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.