Leica Accessories (tripod, flashes, etc.)

Leica Accessories

by Karen Nakamura

Overview and Personal Comments

One of the joys of buying into the Leica system is the 80+ years of history and quirky accessories available for the system. This is just a quick overview of some of my favorites.

Leica used to use a 5-letter code-name for its products. This was used imaginatively and some products have very fanciful names: BOOWU, ITOOU, etc.

Leica Tabletop Tripod + Ballhead

The M7 uses Leica's signature horizontal travelling cloth focal plane shutter. The shutter curtains travel at a relatively low speed, which results in the Leica's pitifully slow 1/50 second flash sync speed, unchanged from the 1940s. The cloth shutter is also very susceptible to getting pinholes burned in it by an uncapped lens in bright sunlight. But the Leica horizontal cloth shutter design has a couple of benefits:

One of the things I enjoy the most about the Leicas is that the frameline selector falls right where your left index finger would be when gripping the camera. This allows you to quickly preview other lens choices. The Hexar has this as well. In fact, the Hexar seems like 90% of the Leicas for about 25% of the price. If I could get over the motor drive, it'd be a no-brainer.

I ruled the Voigtlander Bessa series out almost immediately. The vertical metal bladed shutters are just as loud as on an SLR. The overall feel is much cheaper than any other other camera system, especially the wind lever, which is stiff. I enjoy the haptics of my cameras, and the Bessa just doesn't have it. Their lenses, on the other hand, are simply wonderful.

Technical Details

Short Baselength Cameras

My Leica Mount Lens Collection (15mm , 25mm, 28mm, 35mm, 40mm, 45 mm, 50mm, 52mm, 85mm, 90mm, 100mm, 135mm)

Leica Flashes

After some debate about which flash to get, I ended up getting the Leica SF-20 because it has TTL metering. I'm a bit annoyed that despite it being a Leica flash, it doesn't have HSS (high-speed synchronization) with the M7! In order to get HSS, you have to get the Metz flash units with the SCA3502 adaptor, by which time you might just want to tie a boat anchor to your "lightweight" "portable" Leica. The Nikon SB-30 is designed for digital cameras but works great with the Leica although it doesn't have TTL, just a thyristor auto.

The best featured flash for the M7 is the Metz 54MZ3 which will give you TTL and HSS. But... amazingly you can't have both at the same time! And to make things worse, you can't have auto-flash either. I'm not sure which idiot at Leica thought that one up. If you want to take daylight, auto-balanced fill flash photography, get a SLR (Canon EOS or Hasselblad).

Compact Flash Units

Large Boat Anchor Flashes

Is the Leica a Good Investment?

You often hear on the Leica User Group about people who bought a Leica for $300 in the 1950s, and how it's now worth $1000. So aren't Leica's good investment? Just as point of info, the February 1952 issue of Photography had ads for:

Sterling Howard Company (NYC):

• Contax III, f/1.5 Sonnar $189.50 used
• Leica IIIc, f/2 Summitar $209 used
• Leica IIIf, f/2 Summitar $385 new

Brooks Camera (San Francisco)

• Contax IIa, T coated f/2 Sonnar $440 new
• Contax IIIa, T-coated f/1.5 Sonnar $550 new
• Leica IIIf no lens $221 new
• Leica IIIc f/2 Summitar $350 new
• Nikon 50mm Nikkor $198 new

Before anyone uses this data to brag that their $200 Leica is now worth $1500.... according to the AIER calculator, $100 in 1952 is worth approximately $690.57. So the Leica IIIf in 1952 cost about $1526 new in our current dollars. Give that M6 TTLs go for about that much, it's remarkable how much Leica prices have remained stable, but no they aren't good "investments." Cameras are tools, not investments. A better investment would have been in International Business Machines stock.

About Leitz/Leica

Leitz... blah blah.... and in 2000, fashion conglomerate Hermes bought 31% of Leica's stock.

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