This $19K Leica Has No Screen, But the Separate $11K Lens Is Legendary

Leica

The Leica M Edition 60, created to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the company’s M-series rangefinders, has pretty much everything you’d expect in a $19,000 camera. A 24-megapixel full-frame sensor? Check. A 35mm/F1.4 kit lens? Check. A limited run of 600 units so you can feel more special when you buy one? Check. A big, sharp LCD viewfinder? Che… Nope. This crazy-expensive camera doesn’t have an LCD viewfinder.

That’s on purpose, not some weird oversight. The lack of an LCD is meant to simulate the way you’d use the original Leica M3 (or any film camera), where reviewing images right after you shot them was the stuff of fantasy. It’s an homage, see? And in a way, it makes this limited-edition digital rangefinder the perfect camera for terrible photographers. No one will be able to see your photos right after you shoot them, including yourself.

Given how hard it can be to focus a rangefinder camera through its optical peephole, that might be for the best. And what you lose in photo-reviewing capabilities, you gain back in spades with the camera’s build materials: The stainless-steel body is wrapped in textured “anthracite”-colored leather.

Smack-dab where the LCD screen would normally be on the back, there’s an ISO-adjustment wheel instead. Those settings reach up to ISO 6400, and the M Edition 60 captures RAW files in DNG format at up to three frames per second.

I know what you’re thinking: This thing looks like a must-buy, but its silver body will clash with that black Noctilux-M 50mm F0.95 lens stashed in your closet. Hey, no worries: There’s now a silver version of that same Kubrickian-apertured aspherical lens available for pre-order, and it’ll only set you back around $12,000.

So if you’ve been looking for the ultimate $30,000 rangefinder camera package, your long search is over. Both high-end pieces of hardware will be available at the end of October, but B&H Photo’s website has them listed for pre-order at the moment, and they’re downright cheap compared to the European list prices for each piece. The M Edition 60 is priced at just $18,500 with its 35mm/F1.4 kit lens, while the Noctilux-M 50mm/F0.95 sits on the shelf awaiting your mere $11,350.