The charming Leica M wooden camera is back for pre-order at B&H Photo and this delightful beechwood toy re-sparks the love for photography for just $70 (approximately £50 / AU$100).
Sporting the signature Leica red dot and a removable lens with you take off via a pressable release button, the toy is made to a high standard of craftsmanship and the tan finish looks great.
It also boasts the signature Leica lettering engraved into the lens, which adds that extra touch of collector’s value, as does sth fact that Leica itself produces the toy. Coming in at just 4.5 x 1 x 3 inches, the beechwood Leica M toy camera fits snugly on any desk, and I can see it as an ornament at my editing station.
The Leica M wooden toy camera is modeled after the classic Leica M camera line. This timeless range established itself in 1954 with the 35mm Leica M3, which featured a single-window viewfinder and the legendary Leica rangefinder system for focussing.
Since then, the series has evolved constantly innovating on itself. In the latter half of the past century, the Leica M5 introduced Through-the-lens (TTL) metering and the compact M6 saw light metering integrated into the classic M design.
The 2000s brought the shift to digital with the release of the Leica M8 followed by the M9 which was the first full frame digital rangefinder camera.
And the following decade ushered in the modern digital era of Leica cameras, and the M (Typ 240) became the first Leica camera with a CMOS sensor. Later M models such as the M10 and M11 series refined the lineup’s capabilities with higher resolution and electronic viewfinders.
Coming back to the wooden Leica M toy camera, it obviously isn’t the next generation of Leica M models, but it keeps the nostalgic allure of these cameras alive.
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