Leica R8

Leica · Leica R mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film · 1996

our own finding

Known as “The Hunchback of Solms”

Also known as: Leica R8 · Leica R 8 · Leica R-8 · ライカ R8 · ライカR8

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Leica R8 black (10081)	Leica R	1996	Blocks the Leica Wiki labels black: 2427001–2429000, 2429501–2431500 (1997); 2464101–2466100 (1998); 2725401–2726400 (2000); 2775001–2776000 (2001) Blocks it labels chrome and black together, from 2291501–2293500 (1996) to 2751401–2752400 (2001)	—
Leica R8 silver chrome (10080)	Leica R	1996	Blocks the Leica Wiki labels chrome: 2290501–2291500 (1996); 2416001–2418000 (1997) Blocks it labels chrome and black together, from 2291501–2293500 (1996) to 2751401–2752400 (2001)	—

Lens cams, the buyer's question for any R body. The R8 meters at full aperture with 3-cam, R-only and ROM lenses, and it is the first R body to read the ROM contacts: focal length goes to the camera and to the flash, which sets its zoom head and power, to the flash program, which picks the slowest hand-held speed, and to the Digital-Modul-R's files (English Wikipedia's Leica R bayonet article; camera-wiki). The slowest-speed rule, set by focal length, is described in Leica's R9 instructions; apotelyt adds vignetting correction and correct aperture display with extenders. 1-cam and 2-cam Leicaflex lenses have only the sloped cams; the compatibility tables in English Wikipedia and camera-wiki give them stop-down metering on the R8 with possible damage to the ROM contacts, and say they should first be fitted with the stepped R cam. Apotelyt says Leica does not recommend them, and Leica's own R9 instructions say Leicaflex lenses without the R cam "may not be used on the LEICA R9, as they can damage the camera". Sam of Camera Legend writes that he has used 2-cam lenses on his R8 without trouble and does not recommend it. A Leicaflex lens converted with ROM contacts loses its Leicaflex cams and, in the words of the R9 instructions, can then only be used on Leica R models from the R3.
The early electronic faults. Yao, writing in 2001, found the first R8s reliable until the Motor-Winder R8 arrived in 1998; with it fitted, cameras locked up after a few frames until the back was opened, a few seized, and some kept firing after the release was let go. The local importer blamed recessed contacts in the base, poor sealing against static, and winder circuitry that corrupted the camera's EPROM, and Yao was told the winder had been designed and made by a third party. Apotelyt adds faulty micro-switches, and early bodies that scratched film and had their back doors replaced under the five-year warranty. Camera-wiki says Leica recalled all cameras for modification. Yao reports the Motor-Drive R8 gave no significant trouble.
Digital-Modul-R. The R8 and R9 are the only 35mm SLRs that take a user-fitted digital back (English Wikipedia; Leica Wiki): a 10-megapixel back with a 1.36× crop, made with Imacon around a Kodak sensor, with its own power unit on the base; Nemeth and camera-wiki give the crop as 1.37×. Nemeth dates it from the announcement of 25 June 2003, first shipments in June 2005 and the phase-out of February 2007, at about US$5,995 or EUR 4,750 retail in March 2006; English Wikipedia says production units began shipping in 2006. Nemeth warns that older R8s may be incompatible, and apotelyt says early bodies need a firmware update and a change from flat-headed to round-headed contacts before the back works.
No special editions are known (apotelyt). A member of the Leica forum in 2015 knew of none, only works cameras marked "Betriebsk." (Betriebskamera) on the back door, some sold to private buyers and carrying no real premium.
Used prices the Leica Wiki recorded: about €895 in 2009, €230 in 2011 and €490 in 2015. Camera Legend gave $350–500 as the going rate in 2016. Neither source gives them as auction results.
Service. Apotelyt says Leica no longer supports R bodies and refers owners to Paepke-Fototechnik in Düsseldorf. Ashley Pomeroy warns that a single failed capacitor kills the camera and that the repair is now uneconomic.
Camera-wiki notes that 1/250 sync was faster than any earlier R body, and that many large studio flashes at high power burn longer than that and need a slower speed set; Leica's SF 20 and SF 24 and later Metz units are suitable.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Large asymmetrical body with sloping shoulders that run into the prism housing, a full-height right-hand grip and a tapered left end, nothing like the boxy R3–R7 (English Wikipedia; camera-wiki)
1/8000 on the shutter-speed dial, with the release in its centre; no other R body before the R9 goes past 1/2000
A strip of ROM contacts inside the lens mount, at the bottom of the throat (Wikimedia Commons photo of the mount)
LCD panel on the back door showing frame count and film speed; a row of contacts inside the back for the Digital-Modul-R (camera-wiki)
Mirror lock-up and flash-curtain switches beside the lens mount, the second marked I II (camera-wiki)
Top-plate LCD frame counter or a mode-dial lock means an R9, not an R8 (English Wikipedia)

Leica R8 black (10081):

Black top plate, prism housing and base; LEICA in white on the front of the prism housing and R8 under it on the right shoulder (Wikimedia Commons photo of no. 2421972)
No LCD frame counter on the top plate between the wind lever and the speed dial, and no lock on the exposure-mode dial: both arrived with the R9, which otherwise looks almost the same (English Wikipedia)
Japanese dealers write ブラック or ブラッククローム (black chrome)

Leica R8 silver chrome (10080):

Silver top plate and prism housing over a black body covering and black grip (Wikimedia Commons top view by Randy Wu)
Japanese dealers write シルバー or シルバークローム
The R9 has no silver version: Leica replaced it with anthracite, so a silver top with the R8's flat, counter-less top plate is an R8 (English Wikipedia)

Leica R8 black (10081): Order number 10081 (Leica Wiki; apotelyt). The Leica Wiki calls the finish black; apotelyt, and Bill Caldwell's summary of Leica User's Group reports on Andrew Nemeth's site, call it black chrome. The stock number never changed through the electronic revisions of 1997–2000, so the serial number, not the order number, says which generation a black body is. The years of the first and last labelled blocks are 1996 and 2001; the 2002 blocks carry no finish in the Leica Wiki's table, so the last year of the black camera is not recorded.
Leica R8 silver chrome (10080): Order number 10080 (Leica Wiki; apotelyt; Caldwell via Nemeth). No separate production figure exists: Leica's later serial blocks mix the two finishes. The last chrome-labelled block is the mixed one of 2001.

Serial-range notes

2285001: "R8 First Production", block assigned 24 July 1996, the last R entry in the list Leica gave Stephen Gandy. The Leica Wiki adds a single number, 2285000, before the first 1,000-number block 2285001–2286000.
2285000–2422000: First generation, on a Leica User's Group report summarised by Bill Caldwell in September 2000 on Andrew Nemeth's site. The Leica Wiki's table marks the same breaks between generations. Dr Joseph Yao, writing in December 2001, came across 228xxxx bodies in 1999 and 2000 with updated electronics and the latest papers, which he believed the factory had updated before sale. Nemeth warns that Leica did not ship R8s first in, first out: David Young bought a new 22922xx in March 2002.
2427001–2435800: Second generation (Caldwell): 2427001–2429000 and 2429501–2431500 black, 1997; 2433801–2435800 mixed, 1998 (Leica Wiki).
2464101–2477300: Third generation (Caldwell): 2464101–2466100 black and 2475301–2477300 mixed, both 1998 (Leica Wiki).
above 2477300: Fourth generation (Caldwell): 2552501–2554500 (1999), 2725401–2726400 black (2000), 2751401–2752400 mixed and 2775001–2776000 black (2001), and four small blocks in 2002, the last 2854751–2855050 (Leica Wiki).
247xxxx and later: The bodies to buy. Apotelyt says cameras from 247xxxx appear free of both early faults, the lock-ups with the motor and the film scratching; Yao calls German R8s from 247xxxx and Portuguese ones from 272xxxx very reliable, and says the latest new cameras, in the 275xxxx range, came from Portugal with a five-year warranty.
2435539: Flagged in the Leica Wiki's table as a stolen camera.

Specifications

Format: 24×36mm on 35mm film
Finder: Fixed eye-level pentaprism, high eyepoint, interchangeable focusing screens, eyepiece shutter, dioptre correction −2 to +2 · 0.75× magnification · 93% coverage
Shutter: Copal vertical-travel metal-blade focal-plane shutter, electronically timed · 32s – 1/8000 stepless in aperture priority and program; 16s – 1/8000 in half steps in manual and shutter priority; B (English Wikipedia; Leica Wiki; apotelyt). Camera-wiki's 16s figure is the manual range. · flash sync X at 1/250 or slower; first- or second-curtain sync; hot shoe and PC socket (English Wikipedia; apotelyt; camera-wiki) · self-timer
Film advance: Single-stroke lever; film is laid across to the take-up spool without threading (apotelyt); multiple exposures by a switch on the body (English Wikipedia's specification table)
Back: Hinged, with an LCD panel; removable, so the Digital-Modul-R can replace it
Meter: TTL with three patterns, each usable in every exposure mode: selective (the 7mm circle of the focusing aid, read by a cell on the secondary mirror), centre-weighted integral, and six-zone multi-pattern from a five-segment cell in the base plus the selective cell (English Wikipedia; camera-wiki; apotelyt). EV −4 to 20 selective, −2 to 20 integral and multi-pattern (apotelyt). Program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual, plus flash pre-exposure measurement for studio flash, triggered by the depth-of-field lever and always selective. TTL flash is full-field, from two small cells beside the multi-pattern cell, with Leica units or Metz units on the SCA 3501 adapter. Exposure compensation ±3 EV in half steps. Film speed by DX from ISO 25 to 5000 and by hand from 6 to 12,800 (English Wikipedia; camera-wiki); apotelyt prints a different range. Two CR2 lithium cells; the camera does nothing without them (Camera Legend).
Motor drive: Leica Motor-Winder R8 (14209), later sold as the Motor-Winder R8/R9, Leica Motor-Drive R8/R9 — Both replace the camera's moulded right-hand grip and battery chamber, so camera and drive share one supply, and both load to frame one, advance and rewind. The winder gives 2 frames a second from two CR123A cells; the drive gives 2 or 4.5 frames a second from a rechargeable pack, adds releases on the front and on the base, and brackets three frames (English Wikipedia; camera-wiki). The Remote Control R8/R9 attaches only to the winder or drive. The winder of 1998 is the accessory that exposed the early bodies' electronic faults (see serial_notes).
Designed by: Manfred Meinzer — industrial designer, chiefly responsible for the styling (English Wikipedia; Leica Wiki) · Alfred Hengst — named with Meinzer as the designers, February 1996 (Leica Wiki)
Weight: 890 g
Dimensions: 158 × 101 × 62 (apotelyt; English Wikipedia's specification table) mm
Country: Germany (Solms); the latest bodies reported as made in Portugal
Original price: US$2,995 for the body alone, the price the Associated Press reported in December, after photokina 1996; the report does not say whether it is Leica's list price. In August 1999 the dealer Cameraworld.com listed the body at $2,395 against $2,295 for an M6 TTL, a dealer's asking price (tax not stated) quoted in Ashley Pomeroy's 2012 article. (today $5,990)
Accessories: Motor-Winder R8 (14209), later Motor-Winder R8/R9; Motor-Drive R8/R9 with rechargeable pack and charger · Remote Control R8/R9 and two electric releases, attached through the winder or drive · Digital-Modul-R back with its own power unit, and screens marked for its crop · Leica SF 24D flash for TTL control; SCA 3501 adapter for Metz units · Interchangeable focusing screens, rubber eyecup, right-angle finder and dioptre lenses

0.75× with a 50mm lens and 93% coverage (apotelyt; English Wikipedia's specification table; Camera Legend gives the 93%). The finder is designed for use with spectacles, which camera-wiki says makes the image smaller. An LCD strip under the image shows exposure and metering mode, shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, a ±3 EV scale in manual, frame count and flash readiness. The standard screen has a split image in a microprism collar; apotelyt lists four alternatives and English Wikipedia five, plus a set marked for the Digital-Modul-R's crop. Nemeth reports the display's colour changed during production, from yellow to green; one owner told him a Leica USA representative said some bodies got blue displays while yellow ones were short, which Nemeth prints as hearsay.

Figures we worked out rather than found: No R body was made in Canada: camera-wiki places R3–R7 manufacture at Wetzlar (the first R3s), Vila Nova de Famalicão in Portugal and Solms, and English Wikipedia puts final assembly of the R-E and every later R body in Solms · 29,551 numbers in the rows of the Leica Wiki's R8 table (22 blocks), against the 38,551 printed as its total · Per generation from the same rows: 13,501 (to 2422000), 6,000 (2427001–2435800), 4,000 (2464101–2477300), 6,050 (above 2477300)

Where sources disagree

Weight (grams)

890 g (English Wikipedia's text and specification table; apotelyt), which agrees with the R9 being 100 g lighter at 790 g
620 g (camera-wiki)
560 g with dimensions of 51 × 86 × 136 mm (English Wikipedia's infobox)

Better supported: 890 g

The two lower figures are close to an R4–R7 body's and contradict every other source, the infobox its own article.

Production

38,551 serial numbers assigned, the total printed under the Leica Wiki's serial table
About 38,500 produced and sold (apotelyt, FAQ)
About 36,500 (apotelyt, specification table on the same page)

The rows of the Leica Wiki's own table add up to 29,551, not 38,551: 13,501 in the first generation, 6,000 in the second, 4,000 in the third and 6,050 after 2477300. Either the printed total is 9,000 too high or blocks are missing from the table. Apotelyt's 38,500 looks like the printed total rounded, but it gives no source and calls it cameras produced and sold. The Leica Wiki's figures count serial numbers assigned, not cameras known to be finished.

Country

Germany (English Wikipedia's infobox: 'Made in Germany'; Yao's 'German made R8s from #247xxxx'); English Wikipedia's R4–R7 article says the R-E and every later R body were assembled in Solms, with the Portuguese factory still making sub-assemblies and accessories
Portugal for the latest cameras, from 272xxxx, with new stock in the 275xxxx range 'from Portugal' in 2001 (Dr Joseph Yao via Nemeth)

Yao writes from first-hand trade experience of the cameras; no Leica document separating the two has been found.

Finish names

Chrome and black (Leica Wiki: 10080 chrome, 10081 black)
Silver chrome and black chrome (apotelyt; Caldwell via Nemeth)

The same two finishes under two names; sellers use all four.

What reviewers say

apotelyt (blog) — Sees the R8 as a clean break from the Minolta-derived R3–R7, bigger and heavier: some praise its handling and balance with telephoto and zoom lenses and its build, others find it too bulky for small hands. Notes that bodies from 247xxxx on appear free of the early lock-ups and film scratching.
Sam, Camera Legend (blog) — A huge, superb, battery-dependent camera he kept after selling much else; its 93% finder is bright but smaller and less positive to focus than the Leicaflex SL's, though his negatives were sharp. Use only 3-cam or ROM lenses, buy with a return warranty, and do not start the R system with it.
Ashley Pomeroy, Women and Dreams (blog) — Feels fantastic in the hand, with a bright, clear finder and a slick winder, but the electronics are the worry: no batteries, no camera, and a dead capacitor is an uneconomic repair. Absurd at its 1999 price of $2,395, far more sensible used, though on a rational level he rates a used Nikon F4 the better camera.

History

The R8 is the camera with which Leica stopped building its SLRs on Minolta foundations. From the R3 of 1976 to the R7 the R bodies had grown out of Leitz’s co-operation with Minolta: English Wikipedia bases the R3 on the Minolta XE, and the R4 to R7 on one chassis derived from the Minolta XD-7, with Leica’s own metering, mirror box and body. Around 1990 Leica decided to design a replacement entirely in-house (camera-wiki), and English Wikipedia, the Leica Wiki and apotelyt all describe the R8 as the first R camera with no Minolta association. The shutter was bought in from Copal: a vertical metal-blade unit running to 1/8000, stepless to 32 seconds in the automatic modes and to 16 seconds in half steps in manual, with flash sync at 1/250. It was shown at photokina in 1996, Stephen Gandy’s list of Leica’s factory serial data, published on CameraQuest, puts its first production block in July of that year, and the Associated Press gave its price as $2,995 for the body alone. Final assembly was in Solms. Dr Joseph Yao, writing from the trade in 2001, says the latest bodies, from 272xxxx, came from Portugal. No R body was made in Canada.

The design was meant to recall the flat top of an M. Manfred Meinzer’s body has sloping shoulders that hide the prism, a deep right-hand grip and a tapered left end, and it weighs 890g, about a third more than an R7. Some critics called it the Hunchback of Solms. English Wikipedia explains the size partly by the need to balance the heavy R zooms, and with the motor winder fitted an R8 is about the size and weight of an R7 with its winder. Inside it was the most complex camera Leica had built. Any of three metering patterns (a 7mm selective spot, centre-weighted and six-zone multi-pattern) works in any of program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual. It adds TTL flash, a flash pre-measurement for studio lights, mirror lock-up and a finder made for spectacle wearers, 0.75× with 93% coverage.

For lenses, the R8 keeps the R bayonet and stepped cam and adds a strip of ROM contacts in the mount. Lenses with 3 cams, R-only lenses and ROM lenses all meter at full aperture. ROM lenses also pass their focal length to the flash and the program, and later to the Digital-Modul-R. The first sloped-cam Leicaflex lenses, 1-cam and 2-cam, are the ones to keep off it: they would meter only stopped down, English Wikipedia and camera-wiki say they may damage the contacts, and Leica’s instructions for the R9, the same mount, say they must not be fitted until the R cam has been added. A Leicaflex lens converted to ROM loses its Leicaflex cams, and Leica’s R9 instructions say it can then be used only on R bodies from the R3. The R8 shares the mount with every R body from the R3, and its winder, drive and digital back with the R9 alone, which replaced it in 2002.

There are two finishes, black (10081) and silver chrome (10080), with no limited editions. What matters more is the serial number. The early cameras were reliable until the Motor-Winder R8 arrived in 1998. With it fitted, many locked up, a few seized and some fired on their own. The causes given were recessed base contacts, static and a winder from an outside supplier. Leica reworked the electronics through four generations of body without changing the stock numbers, and apotelyt and Yao agree that cameras from 247xxxx on are the ones to buy. Leica did not sell its stock in order, so early numbers turned up new for years: Yao found 228xxxx bodies with updated electronics in 1999 and 2000, and one owner bought a new 22922xx in 2002. The Leica Wiki prints 38,551 as the total of its serial blocks, though its own rows add up to 29,551.

When buying, check the serial first. Below 247xxxx, ask whether the electronics have been updated, and test it with any winder or drive you plan to use. Early bodies also need a firmware update and new contacts before they will work with the Digital-Modul-R. The camera does nothing without its two CR2 cells, and apotelyt says Leica no longer services R bodies. Its advice is to send them to Paepke-Fototechnik in Düsseldorf. An R9 looks almost the same: the R8 has no frame counter on the top plate and no lock on the mode dial, and only the R8 came in silver chrome.

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 R8 black, no. 2421972, with the 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-R — Ashley Pomeroy, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Live listings

Asking price, JPY: a median of ¥139,000 across 4 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-10 (middle half ¥116,000–¥139,000). Tracked since 2026-11-09, 2 days: unchanged from ¥139,000.

By day

Date	Median	Middle half	Listings
2026-11-10	¥139,000	¥116,000–¥139,000	4
2026-11-09	¥139,000	¥116,000–¥139,000	4

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

Leica R8 Body — A$855.00 · The Camera Exchange
Leica R8 — A$885.00 · The Camera Exchange
Pre-Owned Leica R8 Silver #2291304 — $699.00 · KameraHaus · likely silver-chrome
LEICA R8 フィルムカメラ — ¥115,999 · Rakuten Rakuma
LEICA R8　ボディ — ¥139,000 · Rakuten Rakuma
【Rare＆Vintage ARCHIVE】LEICA ライカ/フィルムカメラ/Leica R8/R8 28-70mmF3.5-4.5/2475806/ABランク/88【中古】 — ¥139,000 · Rakuten Rakuma
Leica R8 Chrome SLR Film Camera w/ Motor Winder [EXC+] — $1,125.00 · Victory Camera · likely silver-chrome
LEICA R8 — ¥240,000 · Rakuten Rakuma
Leica R8 カメラ(中古品) — from ¥88,000 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-11-12
LEICA R8 SUMMICRON-R 1:2/50(3CAM) ライカR8ズミクロン50mmF2.0標準レンズセット【Fully Tested・動作確認済】 — from ¥178,999 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-11-13
LEICA R8 カメラボディ【Fully Tested・動作確認済】 — from ¥118,999 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-11-14
Leica ライカ　R8 14255 未使用品 — from ¥7,800 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-11-15
美品　動作品　LEICA ライカ R8 SUMMICRON-R 1:2/50　50mm F2 E55 一眼レフフィルムカメラ 2821 — from ¥200,000 · Yahoo! Auctions Japan · auction 2026-11-16

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

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