Updates, tips, and insights about used Leica lenses.
July 2026
My interest in LTM 90 is rooted in a fascination with Leica's collapsible lenses. Well, that and the fact that I shoot an IIIg regularly. The IIIg happens to have 90mm framelines, always visible, inside the 50mm framelines. …read more
June 2026
The 28mm focal length has an unusual history in the Leica system. It was available in screwmount before the M camera existed, briefly contemplated for M-bayonet in the mid-1950s and then shelved, redeveloped as a fast M-mount lens before …read more
June 2026
The Leica Noctilux is the marquee "night lens" of the M system, the family of extreme-aperture primes that defined what was technically possible at the wide end of the f-stop scale. …read more
June 2026
Leica's reputation is built on its prime lenses. The Summicron, Summilux, Noctilux, and Apo-Summicron lines define what the brand is known for. …read more
June 2026
Search "Leica L-mount" on eBay and you will see, mixed in among modern Leica SL lenses, a number of pre-WWII screw-mount Elmars from 1935. That's not a Leica problem; it's a categorization problem. …read more
June 2026
Leica's Tri-Elmar lenses are one of the most original optical designs in the M-mount catalog and one of the least understood by buyers who haven't owned one. They look like zooms. They aren't zooms. …read more
June 2026
The Leica R-mount ran from the 1964 Leicaflex through the 2009 R9: 45 years of bodies, with the lens-to-body coupling reinvented four times along the way. …read more
May 2026
The phone in your pocket has a camera with a wide-angle lens roughly equivalent to a 24mm or 28mm on a full-frame body. It also has a sensor that, by 2026 standards, is genuinely good: clean files at moderate ISO, surprising dynamic range …read more
May 2026
You just bought (or are about to buy) a Leica M body. Now you need a lens, and the catalog options are overwhelming: three focal lengths to choose from, four maximum apertures across the standard lineup, sixty years of Summicron 50mm …read more
May 2026
For me, the collapsible lenses are one of the things I really love in the Leica catalog. The mechanical ingenuity (it is not that complicated really) and the deliberate intention to make cameras as compact a possible, while retaining …read more
May 2026
If you only know Leica through the M-mount, you might be surprised to learn that Leica also made a complete SLR system, the R-mount, from 1964 until 2009. …read more
May 2026
If you ask ten Leica M photographers which focal length they shoot most, you'll get answers from one of three numbers: 28mm, 35mm, or 50mm. …read more
May 2026
If you own a screw-mount Leica from the I, II, or III families, or are thinking about buying one, you need a 50mm lens that fits the camera. …read more
May 2026
The Leica Hektor 135mm f/4.5 was designed in 1933 and produced through the late 1950s, with final production ending around 1960. It is old. It is slow. …read more
May 2026
In our earlier post on the R-mount trinity we covered the 28mm, 35mm, and 50mm R lenses, along with the case for buying into the R system as a way to access Leica optics at roughly half the price of equivalent M-mount glass. …read more
May 2026
If the Summicron 50mm is the most-shot Leica lens, the Summicron 35mm is the most-debated. The lens has gone through five distinct optical generations across more than sixty-five years of production, each with passionate defenders, and the …read more
May 2026
If the Summilux is Leica's sprinter 50, the Summicron is Leica's workhorse 50. It is the lens many M shooters reach for first, the one that defines the brand's signature rendering at f/2. …read more
May 2026
The traditional argument for spending nearly twice as much on a Summilux (f/1.4) compared to a Summicron (f/2) at the same focal length was simple: low-light shooting. …read more
May 2026
The Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 has been in continuous Leica production for sixty-seven years. From its 1959 launch (the M3 had been in production for five years by then, and the M2 had launched in 1957) through the current ASPH version …read more
May 2026
The companion to our camera-side post on the Leica S bodies. If you are weighing the S system, the question is not just which lens to buy but how the whole system fits together: the mount, the sensor, the two lens families, and the …read more
May 2026
Of all the modern Leica M lens families, the Summarit-M line is the one shooters dismiss most casually. Half a stop slower than the Summicron at every focal length. …read more
May 2026
Look at any Leica lens price tag and the obvious question is: what justifies it? A modern Summilux-M 35mm runs around $7,000 new. A Noctilux-M 50/0.95 is around $14,000. …read more
March 2026
If you're shopping for a used Leica lens, vintage optic, or high-end glass on eBay, you've probably noticed listings that seem too good to be true. A Summilux 50mm for $900 when the going rate is $3,000? …read more
February 2026
Buying a used Leica lens is one of the smartest investments a photographer can make. Leica lenses hold their value exceptionally well, and many vintage designs still produce stunning results on modern cameras. …read more
February 2026
When I first started building this site, I tried to come up with a way to normalize the lens condition ratings. Each seller has their own method for rating condition, but I thought I could get them all onto a 5-point scale ranging from …read more
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