Deathless Leica M Film Cameras Rebound

Dr. Andreas Kaufmann in 2019.
Photo by Cmichel67 (license)

In a recent interview published in French on a French website, Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, the Chairman and also the angel of Leica (he saved the company during the rocky years of the digital transition), has revealed some startling facts about the film Leica M. 

But first, one salient datum: Leica is the only company that has continuously manufactured and marketed high-quality 35mm film cameras through to today. I think that's true. (If only one 35mm film camera could survive into the digital age, it should have been the Leica M. And so it came to pass.)

What Dr. Kaufmann told Phototrend is that in 2015, the company came very close to throwing away all the tooling for the film cameras! Sales had slowed to a trickle, about 500 per annum, and looked like they were only going to continue to decline. The end, it seemed, had come.

That actually echoes another episode in Leica history. When Leitz made the transition to SLRs, the company almost discarded the tooling and dies for the M4 camera, but Walther Mandler wanted to continue designing lenses for the rangefinders at Ernst Leitz Canada (Elcan) in Midland, so he had the M4 tooling shipped to Canada, and the Leica rangefinder line squeaked by into the future, just. (I'm just going from memory here. I'd ask Erwin for amplification of this story, if only I could. R.I.P. He would have been quite happy with this latest development, I would guess.)

Anyway it's a good thing they didn't deep-six the tooling for the film cameras, because, remarkably, sales have rebounded to ~5,000 per year. That might not sound like much. But it is, because Leica is a luxury brand and they're high-priced...meaning that low sales numbers are a feature, not a problem. I mean, nobody wants an exclusive luxury product that everybody has, pretty much by definition, right?

And in the same interview, Dr. Kaufmann gave the sales numbers of the digital M cameras as "eleven or twelve thousand a year." Meaning—and this is as astonishing as it is delightful—that Leica is now selling almost half as many film M cameras as digital M cameras! That is what you would have to call significant.

...Significant how, though, I'm not sure, exactly. Here's my guess: there's a steady but low-level demand for 35mm film cameras, and the vast stock of abandoned and hence cheap 35mm film cameras left over from the film era is aging and deteriorating at the same time that many old-line mechanical repair-persons are cutting back, aging out, or passing away. And with only one good new option on the market, more people who want to shoot 35mm film are turning to it.

Of course, there could be factors that I'm not seeing, which might concern fashion or status: for instance, possibly new film M cameras are a status symbol in Singapore, or have become fashionable in China, or some such, and that's what's helping drive those 5,000 sales.

Of course, personally I hope that what's going on is that people actually want them to take pictures with.

Here's the relevant passage and a translation:

Que pensez-vous du retour de l’analogique?
Nous sommes plutôt satisfaits parce que nous sommes encore les seuls à pouvoir produire des appareils argentiques. Dans nos usines, vous pouvez encore voir de vieilles machines dédiées aux appareils argentiques en fonctionnement. Mais en 2015, on a pensé à tout jeter parce qu’on ne produisait plus que 500 boîtiers argentiques par an. Mais il y a eu un beau rebond depuis et, en 2023, nous allons produire près de 5 000 appareils analogiques M6 et MP.

Et combien d’appareils photo en tout?
Dans la gamme numérique M, je pense que c’est 11 ou 12 000 par an. Comme il s’agit d’un appareil photo à prix élevé, il n’est pas très judicieux d’opter pour une production plus importante. Mais je dirais que nous apprécions beaucoup le retour de l’analogique. Et nous en ferons plus. Les éléments clé sont le développement et la gestion des laboratoires. C’est la partie la plus délicate. Et nous nous penchons sur la question.

What do you think of the return of analog?
We are quite satisfied because we are still the only ones who can produce film cameras. In our factories, you can still see old machines dedicated to film cameras in operation. But in 2015, we thought about throwing everything away because we were only producing 500 film cameras per year. But there has been a nice rebound since then and, in 2023, we will produce nearly 5,000 M6 and MP analog devices.

And how many cameras in total?
In the digital M range, I think it's 11 or 12,000 per year. Since this is a high priced camera, it is not very wise to go for larger production. But I would say that we really appreciate the return of analog. And we will do more. The key elements are laboratory development and management. This is the trickiest part. And we are looking into the matter.

If you read French, here's the interview. And big thanks to Oren Grad for providing the link, the translation, and the tip.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

JOHN B GILLOOLY: "I don't have a Leica. I've never owned one. I have used a borrowed Monochrome for a week in the past and enjoyed what was a slower and more methodical process than my Nikon and Sony lives. Somehow it does in fact feel more significant when using it? The images feel more important? And I love the Boston Leica Store and how it presents and magnifies photography as a lifestyle and an art. So I love this post and that they are still here and if anything, gaining momentum—with their digital as well as film cameras."

Dan Khong: "Singapore? Leica is doing well here and the main shop is in Raffles Hotel, an iconic old style building filled with history. Many film cameras are on back order. A visit to the shop is highly recommended if you are passing through. There is a gallery with rotation of photos on display every few months. The latest batch - by a traveling salesman - is so good in capturing the faces and lives of people all over the world."

Chris Bertram: "Reminds me of a story I was told about a Swiss watch manufacturer when I bought my watch (a Nomos, German, with a hand-wound movement). Unfortunately I forget which manufacturer it was. It might have been Patek, but that could be wrong. Anyhow, when quartz came out, the company decided that they would drop all their hand-wound movements and the decision was taken to throw out all the machinery, dies, etc. needed to make them. The guy in charge of the workshop decided not to throw them out but to store them behind a wall that was being built: literally to wall them up. He didn't tell anyone. A few years later when the company regretted its decision, he (retired, I think) was able to tell them where the gear was so they could resume production. It could be apocryphal, but it is a nice story."

John: "Pre-covid, my wife and I would go to China every year to visit her family. There, Leica is clearly a well-regarded luxury brand. Occasionally, my scruffy M6's would be recognised and commented on appreciatively, even in remote country areas.

"The downside of film in China is the plethora of X-ray machines. Seventy to eighty cassettes of HP5+ to be wrangled past elderly and dubiously maintained machines. However, a theoretical problem, not an actuality. As a long-nose, by-passing these dodgy contraptions at railway stations is straightforward.

"However, flying out from Beijing, I'd balk at the up-to-date X-ray machines and insist on a hand check. This necessitates going to a side window, where a young woman will check the plastic bag of film tipped out onto the counter.

"She knows this is a pointless exercise, while knowing that I know she knows that. After five or six film-pots have been opened and peered into, I pick one up, open it and show her the contents. After a couple more, I’d just pop a lid, peer inside then close it. The shared process much speeds things up, repetitive strain injury is avoided, honour satisfied, and both of us are mildly entertained by the nonsense.

"However, this only works with commercially-loaded cassettes, not the bulk-loadable brass Leica cassettes I use in the UK. These IXMOOs, besides their substantial weight, look militaristically sinister to the uninitiated and would be definitely X-rayed, if not dismantled."

Comments

[Ger Lawlor]

Currently scanning some FP4 from my M6. I would love to see a video or even some photos of the plant making the Leicas!!

[Jeff]

I don’t have the link handy, but a Leica executive interview, maybe 10 or so years ago, indicated that the largest market for M film camera sales was Japan. It was a significant percentage, by far.

[Ken Tanaka]

Smoke 'em while you've got 'em. The long period of free money is over. Consumer cash is tightening. Capital investment money is becoming -very- expensive. Film is a very expensive business. Spending $10- +++ for a few photos today is not a sustainable business platform today. Leica can, and probably will make a film body indefinitely. Their customers are not mainstream.

[Arch Noble]

Your comments about the "old", i.e., Leica M film cameras, reminded me about the "new": what happened to the long-promised Jack Mack comments on the iPhone 15?

[Richard Parkin]

You will know that Ricoh are planning to bring out a whole range of Pentax film cameras, not quite the same as continuous production of course but …
https://youtu.be/FXUmpqY3nWQ?si=N0Ui2IbEsR9rH9IR

[Andrew Lamb]

Interesting and good to hear.

There are still plenty of reasonably priced old film cameras out there. However, there is one issue that is only going to get worse and that is the deterioration of coatings on old lenses. Separation is a big issue.. It's making it more and more of a lucky dip if you buy on something like eBay.

You need to examine an old lens very carefully. I have been caught out many times in the past. This morning, I bought a really lovely Voigtlander 50mm f2 Septon. I collected it in person and from a dealer I trust. Caveat emptor....

[Albert Smith]

"I think it's 11 or 12,000 (cameras) per year..."

I really wonder what the true cost of each camera is, plus the infrastructure of the physical buildings, supply chains, salary costs for the employees and all logistical costs of getting the completed cameras into the market. And then divide that monetary outlay by the profit from each of those 12,000 cameras and any additional items like lenses and it's kind of amazing that they are so optimistic.

[Antony Shepherd]

I'm just hoping Pentax deliver the goods with an affordable film camera!

[David Bennett]

A couple of months with an Olympus X-A2 and I am enjoying shooting a film camera for which I have no or few expectations. But if I was going to get something a little spiffier, I wonder what it would be? I have a Nikon FE that I haven't touched for years, and a Super Silette - and I yearn (a little bit) for a camera with a small format and a knockout lens. And of course I think about Leica (heavy though, aren't they) and I wonder what you or your readers think might be a good choice?

[Ade]

might concern fashion or status
I hate to tell you this but I walked past a Leica store in Manchester (UK) a few weeks ago and they are definitely being marketed as ”exclusive” fashionable status symbols. Rather like jewellery. The kind of folk who live around that city and can afford a Leica would almost certainly be buying them for posing value.

[Mark Sampson]

There's probably a story here about other devices that people actually want to use, but barely manage to stay in production.
The only example I can think of, though, is the 1954 MG-TF; an upgrade of the MG-TD that only made it to market because its intended successor, the more modern MGA, was not ready. There must be more stories like that...
Since I bought a 19-year-old M3 in 1978, and a new M6 in 2000, I raise my glass to the continued success of the Leica M, accidental or not. Even though my 50/2 dual range Summicron will not fit on an M digital body.

[Clay Olmstead]

I got a kick out of learning that the French word for "film camera" is "appareil argentique," which translates artfully as "silver machine." I'm sure that refers to the silver iodide emulsion that goes into the film, not to the silver that comes out of your pocket to buy a Leica.