Leicaflex
Leica · Leica R mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film; hinged back with a bar lock (Leitz instruction booklet) · 1964
our own findingKnown as “Leicaflex Standard”, “Original Leicaflex”
Also known as: Leicaflex · Leicaflex Standard · Leica Leicaflex · Leitz Leicaflex · Leica Leicaflex Standard · Leitz Leicaflex Standard · Original Leicaflex · Leicaflex I · Leicaflex Mark I · Leicaflex Mark II · Leicaflex Mk I · Leicaflex Mk II · Leicaflex Mk1 · Leicaflex Mk2 · ライカフレックス · ライカフレックス スタンダード
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-series (1964) | Leica R | 1964–1964 | 1080200 is the one catalogued example, inside the reserved block 1080001–1085000 | "Only a few of these cameras were made for evaluation before the production commenced" (Leitz Auction). No count is published. |
| First series (Mark I) | Leica R | 1964 | — | — |
| Second series (Mark II) | Leica R | — | — | — |
| Black paint | Leica R | 1965 | From 1084001, the first black batch (Leitz Auction) | About 1,000 in black paint, the rest silver chrome (English Wikipedia). Camera-wiki and Apotelyt call the black finish rare without a figure. The factory serial list does not split the blocks by finish. |
- Launch price: $585 with the Summicron-R 50mm f/2, the figure Mike Eckman and Jason Schneider (LSI) both give in US dollars without naming a period source or saying whether it is a list or a dealer price. With no Leitz price list or DM price behind it, the page carries no structured launch price.
- Unproduced experiments, in photographs supplied by James Lager and published by Jason Schneider for LSI: a version with a selenium cell on the prism front, a chrome Leicaflex with interchangeable waist-level and prism finders, and a black "Leicaflex P" with an interchangeable prism. Eckman writes that only three interchangeable-finder bodies were made. Schneider reports Lager's account that Leitz's technical staff rejected interchangeable finders and screens for fear of misalignment and dust.
- A US patent for a "Monocular reflex camera", filed 26 December 1961 (camera-wiki), is credited by Eckman to Paul Naumann and Ludwig Leitz; its drawing shows a large selenium meter on the prism front.
- The Super-Angulon-R 21mm f/3.4 is a Leicaflex-only lens: it is used with the mirror locked up and an accessory finder, and the SL, which replaced mirror lock-up with a depth-of-field preview, cannot take it (camera-wiki; Apotelyt names it as a reason for the lock-up). A Japanese Yahoo! Auctions listing offers one as ライカフレックス用, "for the Leicaflex".
- Order number 10002 per Apotelyt, citing the Leica Wiki; no Leitz catalogue is cited for it.
How to tell them apart
- A small rectangular meter window and a round battery cover on the front of the prism housing, with a battery-test button below the window; the SL has the letters SL there instead (camera-wiki; Commons photographs)
- LEICAFLEX engraved on the front of the top plate at the shutter-dial end and Leitz WETZLAR at the rewind end; no SL, SL2 or MOT anywhere (Commons and Leitz Auction photographs)
- Shutter-speed dial overhanging the front edge of the top plate (Eckman), silver on chrome bodies; the SL's is black (English Wikipedia), but so is the dial of the black-paint Leicaflex
- Two levers left of the mount, mirror control and self-timer, and twin flash sockets to its right
- Serial in 1080001–1085000, 1115001–1128000, 1145001–1155000, 1165001–1173000 or 1173251–1174700
Pre-series (1964):
- A very low serial early in the 1080001–1085000 block
- Fan- or pie-shaped frame-counter window and the early tripod socket of the first series
- What Leitz Auction calls 'the very unusual back opening system', different from the production bar lock
First series (Mark I):
- Frame-counter window shaped like a fan or a slice of pie (camera-wiki; Apotelyt; 35mmc)
- Tripod socket held to the base plate by three screws (camera-wiki; Apotelyt; 35mmc, which says Phillips-head; the screws on Leitz Auction's black 1084127 are slotted)
- No meter switch: the advance lever does not turn the meter off when folded in
Second series (Mark II):
- Round frame-counter window (camera-wiki; Apotelyt; 35mmc)
- Tripod socket integral with the base plate
- The advance lever is also the meter switch: folded against the body it turns the meter off (Leitz instruction booklet)
Black paint:
- Black paint (black enamel, camera-wiki) instead of silver chrome, with a black shutter-speed dial; on the Leitz Auction body the paint has worn through to brass at the edges
- Serial from 1084001 for the first batch
- Pre-series (1964): Known from one body, 1080200 of 1964, which Leitz Auction 46 sold as lot 215 with an unnumbered pre-series Summicron-R 50mm f/2 for €7,800 including buyer's premium, against a €4,000–5,000 estimate. The same entry says "production starts with no.1080001", which leaves it unclear whether the auction house counts the pre-series as part of production or means that serial production began at the bottom of the same block.
- First series (Mark I): The launch body. Without a switch the CdS cell draws current whenever light reaches it, and Apotelyt's advice is to cover the cell, for instance by keeping the camera in its ever-ready case. The serial or date at which the second series took over is not published. Two examples are of the first series: the black body 1084127 of 1965, whose three-screw tripod socket shows in the Leitz Auction photographs, and a chrome body numbered 1125xxx, inside the block the factory list dates 1965, which its photographer on Wikimedia Commons labels Mark I.
- Second series (Mark II): Camera-wiki calls the two series "virtually identical" in use. The English instruction booklet scanned by Pacific Rim Camera, list 111-56b/Engl., printed in April 1967, describes the lever as the meter's on/off switch, which suggests the second series was in production by then; when it began is not recorded. The end of the model in 1968 is the end of this series.
- Black paint: Leitz Auction 45, lot 199, sold black 1084127 of 1965, a first-series body by its three-screw tripod socket, delivered to Odin in the Netherlands on 25 April 1966, for €4,080 including buyer's premium against a €2,800–3,200 estimate. Its catalogue calls it an "extremely early first version" and says the black run begins at 1084001, which puts the first black bodies inside the block the factory list marks as reserved and not used. Whether black second-series bodies were made is not recorded.
Serial-range notes
- 1080001–1085000
- 5,000 numbers, assigned 10 October 1963 and labelled "Reserved for Flex-Camera (SLR not used)" in the factory list Leica supplied to CameraQuest. Real cameras sit inside it all the same: the pre-series body 1080200 and the first black batch from 1084001 (Leitz Auction).
- 1115001–1128000
- 13,000 numbers, Leicaflex; the factory list dates the block 1 January 1965 and notes that the exact date is unrecorded.
- 1145001–1155000
- 10,000 numbers, Leicaflex, assigned 3 May 1966.
- 1165001–1173000
- 8,000 numbers, Leicaflex, assigned 28 December 1966.
- 1173251–1174700
- The last Leicaflex block, assigned 21 May 1968, the same day as the first Leicaflex SL numbers 1173001–1173250 that sit just below it. The list gives it as 1,500 cameras; the range holds 1,450 numbers.
Specifications
- Format
- 24×36mm on 35mm film; hinged back with a bar lock (Leitz instruction booklet)
- Finder
- fixed eye-level pentaprism; clear screen with a central microprism spot as the only focusing aid
- Shutter
- horizontal-travel rubberised cloth focal plane, mechanically timed · 1s–1/2000 and B; intermediate settings usable everywhere except between 1/4 and 1/8 (Leitz booklet) · flash sync 1/100 for electronic flash, on its own contact; a second contact for bulbs (Leitz booklet) · self-timer
- Film advance
- Single-stroke lever with a "ready position" set out from the body before the working stroke (Leitz booklet). Eckman notes that in the ready position it points almost straight back, into the forehead of a left-eye shooter.
- Back
- hinged; opened from the left end of the body by pressing the button in the centre of the locking bar while pushing the bar up (Leitz booklet; Eckman)
- Meter
- External CdS cell behind a small window on the front of the prism housing, beside the round battery cover and a battery-test button; not through the lens. Cross-coupled to the shutter dial and the aperture ring, read by matching the follow-pointer to the needle in the finder. The measuring field is about the angle of view of a 90mm lens, ASA 8–6,500 (DIN 10–39), one Mallory PX625 mercury cell, calibrated with the camera held horizontally (Leitz booklet). Because it does not read through the lens, close-up and long-lens work need correction by hand (Apotelyt). The mercury cell is no longer made, and Apotelyt notes that the meter may need adjusting to read correctly on modern batteries.
- Motor drive
- Not compatible — No motor coupling. The first motor-ready Leicaflex was the SL MOT, whose own serial blocks in Gandy's list begin in April 1972; English Wikipedia dates it 1972 to 1974.
- Dimensions
- 148 × 97 × 50 (English Wikipedia) or 148 × 97 × 57 (Apotelyt) mm
- Country
- Germany (Ernst Leitz GmbH, Wetzlar)
- Accessories
- Leica-to-Leicaflex adapter ring 14127, with an aperture simulator coupled to the meter, for the Visoflex II/III lens heads and the Focusing Bellows II; with ring 16486 it also takes the 125mm Hektor, 135mm Elmar and Hektor and the 200, 280 and 400mm Telyts (Leitz booklet) · Elpro close-up lenses VIa and VIb for the Summicron-R 50mm, VIIa for the 90mm and 135mm Elmarit-R, VIIb for the 135mm only (Leitz booklet) · Locking cable release 14067 for time exposures (Leitz booklet) · Ever-ready case (Leitz booklet; Apotelyt)
Not interchangeable, and not full-focusing: outside the central spot the image is an aerial image that cannot be focused or used to judge depth of field (camera-wiki; Apotelyt). Mike Eckman calls it the brightest and most evenly lit finder he has seen. The shutter-speed scale runs below the image and the meter needle and follow-pointer sit at the right (Leitz booklet; Apotelyt). Viewing is at full aperture and there is no depth-of-field preview (Apotelyt). 35mmc gives roughly 0.9× and 92% coverage; the Leitz booklet gives neither figure.
Figures we worked out rather than found: The reserved block plus the four dated blocks (5,000 + 13,000 + 10,000 + 8,000 + 1,500) gives the 37,500 the reference sources print; the dated blocks alone give camera-wiki's 32,500 · 1173251–1174700 holds 1,450 numbers, not the 1,500 the factory list prints for it
Where sources disagree
- Production
- 37,500 — English Wikipedia; Jason Schneider (LSI); 35mmc; Apotelyt's FAQ
- 32,500 serial numbers allotted — camera-wiki, citing CameraQuest's factory list; Apotelyt's comparison table (about 32,500)
Better supported: 32,500 numbers in the dated Leicaflex blocks; 37,500 with the reserved block
The two figures differ by exactly the 5,000-number block 1080001–1085000, which the factory list marks reserved and not used. The four dated blocks hold 32,500 cameras by the list's own batch column (32,450 by their ranges). The reserved block did carry cameras, the pre-series body and the first black batch among them, so 37,500 counts it and 32,500 does not; how many of its numbers were used is not recorded. Apotelyt calls 37,500 the number produced and sold, but neither figure is traced to a sales record.
- Weight (grams)
- 770g — English Wikipedia; Apotelyt
- 833g, body weighed by Mike Eckman
- 835g, body 1125xxx weighed by its photographer (Wikimedia Commons file description)
- 880g — 35mmc
All three figures for individual bodies are heavier than the 770g the reference sources print, which they give unchanged for the SL and SL2 as well.
- Dimensions (mm)
- 148 × 97 × 50 — English Wikipedia
- 148 × 97 × 57 — Apotelyt, the same for all three Leicaflex models
- Shutter self-timer delay
- About 8 seconds — Leitz instruction booklet, April 1967
- 10 seconds — Apotelyt
Better supported: About 8 seconds (the maker's booklet)
- Development start
- 1958, after Walther Benser urged Ludwig Leitz to begin in 1955 — English Wikipedia
- At least three years before the 1964 launch; Eckman notes that some sources say eight and doubts it
- Lenses that will not fit
- Apotelyt: the 16mm Fisheye-Elmarit-R, 24mm Elmarit-R, 35mm and 50mm Summilux-R and the 80–200mm f/4.5 Vario-Elmar should not be attached
- Doug Herr (quoted by Photoethnography), for the Leicaflex and the SL: the 15mm Elmar-R and Elmarit-R, 16mm Fisheye, the current 19mm Elmarit-R (the first version is fine), 24mm Elmarit-R, 35mm Summilux-R, the current 50mm Summilux-R (older versions fine) and the 80–200mm f/4.5 Vario
Both lists come from the mirror: the SL2's was redesigned to clear the wide-angles (English Wikipedia), and lenses made for that clearance can foul the Leicaflex and SL mirror.
What reviewers say
- Mike Eckman (blog) — Shot two rolls through a loaned body and Summicron-R: heavy at 1,144g with the lens, with an advance lever that pokes left-eye shooters, but exceptionally smooth, with the brightest finder he has used (he later added that only the centre focuses). Highly recommended.
- Jason S. Ganz (35mmc) (blog) — An owner who uses his 1966 body with a 90mm Elmarit for street work: very heavy and loud, with a meter that needs judgement, but a cheap way into Leica optics that taught him when to trust the meter. Its compatibility section says the camera "only uses 1-cam lenses"; in the comments he accepts that 3-cam lenses work on it too.
- Peter Walkenhorst (Apotelyt) (blog) — A reference review: precision-built but technically behind its time at launch, with a bright finder that focuses only in the centre and a non-TTL meter that makes macro and long-lens work awkward; lists the lenses that should not be fitted.
- Jason Schneider (LSI) (blog) — A history more than a test: an "ultra-conservative" camera with little chance against the Japanese SLRs. He reports experts' conjecture that Leitz was fixated on the Contarex and Lager's account that its engineers rejected interchangeable finders, still credits the 1/2000 shutter and a meter "accurate if you know how to use it", and quotes Lager's "a Leica M3 fitted with a Visoflex reflex housing"
History
The Leicaflex was Leitz’s first single-lens reflex, sold from 1964 to 1968 and made, like every Leicaflex, at Wetzlar. It is now usually called the Leicaflex Standard to separate it from its successor, the SL of 1968 (camera-wiki), and the SL2 of 1974. Leitz came to the reflex late and reluctantly. English Wikipedia has the photographer Walther Benser urging Ludwig Leitz towards an SLR in 1955 and development starting in 1958, though Mike Eckman doubts the longer timeline and writes only that it was in development for at least three years. Eckman compares its build to the M3’s. It has a fixed prism, a clear screen that focuses only on its central microprism spot, a cloth shutter to 1/2000 and an external CdS cell on the front of the prism that reads roughly the field of a 90mm lens. It has no through-the-lens metering, no interchangeable finder and no motor coupling, and Eckman records that the photographic press greeted it with disappointment for all three. The price was high too: Eckman and Jason Schneider both give US$585 with the Summicron-R 50mm f/2, though neither names a period source or says whether that was the list price.
The camera’s lasting contribution is the bayonet. Every Leica SLR through the R9 kept it, and the lens cams grew around it. The four launch lenses (35mm Elmarit-R, 50mm Summicron-R, 90mm and 135mm Elmarit-R) were 1-cam: a single sloped cam carries the aperture setting to the meter. That one cam is all the Leicaflex reads. 2-cam lenses (made for the SL from 1968) and 3-cam lenses (made for the R3 and later bodies) keep the first cam and work on it fully. R-only lenses have a slightly different mount shape so that they will not fit (English Wikipedia). Doug Herr, quoted by Photoethnography, says the same of ROM lenses, whose contacts replaced the first cam, and warns that the Leicaflex cam follower would damage those contacts, so they should not be forced on. English Wikipedia adds that converting a lens to ROM removes its sloped cams, and Leica’s R9 instructions say a lens so converted can then be used only on R bodies from the R3. Some later wide-angles and fast lenses also hit the mirror. Apotelyt and Doug Herr list them a little differently, but the 16mm Fisheye, 24mm Elmarit-R, 35mm and later 50mm Summilux-R and the 80–200mm f/4.5 Vario-Elmar appear on both lists. In the other direction, the Leicaflex is the only body that takes the 21mm f/3.4 Super-Angulon-R, which is used with the mirror locked up; the SL replaced mirror lock-up with a depth-of-field preview and cannot take it (camera-wiki). Leitz’s own booklet adds that the rangefinder lenses cannot be used directly. The Visoflex lens heads fit through adapter 14127, which has an aperture simulator for the meter.
Collectors distinguish two production series, called Mark I and Mark II or Type 1 and Type 2. The first has a fan-shaped frame-counter window, a tripod socket held by three screws and no meter switch, so Apotelyt suggests covering the cell to save the battery. The second has a round counter window and an integral socket, and the advance lever turns the meter off when folded in. The April 1967 English booklet already describes the switch, but no source fixes the changeover. The pre-series body 1080200 has the first-series counter and tripod socket and what Leitz Auction calls a “very unusual back opening system”. Leitz Auction says “only a few” were made for evaluation, and that body, with a pre-series Summicron-R, sold there for €7,800 including buyer’s premium. Black paint is the rare finish, about 1,000 cameras on Wikipedia’s figure. Leitz Auction says the first black batch begins at 1084001; 1084127 from it, a first-series body by its tripod socket, sold there with a later 3-cam Summicron for €4,080 including premium.
Production is printed as 37,500 or as 32,500, and on this page’s reading Stephen Gandy’s list of Leica’s factory serial data, published on CameraQuest, accounts for the gap. A 5,000-number block, 1080001–1085000, was reserved for the reflex in October 1963 and marked “SLR not used”. The dated Leicaflex blocks, from 1965 to May 1968, are listed at 32,500 cameras (their ranges hold 32,450 numbers), and adding the reserved block gives 37,500. The block was not in fact empty, since both the pre-series body and the first black batch are numbered in it, but how many of its numbers were used is not recorded. Neither figure is traced to a sales record.
When buying, check the meter first. It was designed for the PX625 mercury cell, and Apotelyt warns that it may need adjusting to read correctly on modern batteries. Photoethnography names the meter and a desilvered or grimy prism and screen as the usual failures, and 35mmc warns that the prism is prone to desilvering. The shutter and transport need no battery, so a body with a dead meter still works as a mechanical camera, and Eckman wrote in 2020 that untested bodies could sometimes be found for under $100, while the lenses cost far more. A Leicaflex with SL or MOT engraved anywhere is a different, later camera.
The Leicaflex itself owes nothing to Minolta. Leitz’s co-operation with Minolta, which English Wikipedia dates to 1971 and camera-wiki to an agreement of 1972, produced its first reflex only with the R3, which camera-wiki says replaced the last Leicaflex, the SL2, in 1976. From then on the Leicaflex bodies and their 1-cam and 2-cam lenses were the older generation of the same mount.
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
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More sample photos elsewhere
- Pre-series Leicaflex 1080200 (Leitz Auction 46, lot 215)
- Black paint Leicaflex 1084127, first batch (Leitz Auction 45, lot 199)
- Unproduced Leicaflex prototypes, photographed by James Lager (LSI)
These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.
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Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.