Leica M4

Main specs of the Leica M4:

The M4’s viewfinder shares the same framelines as the M2: 35mm, 50mm, 90mm and 135mm. Shutter speeds range from 1s to 1/1000th, bulb mode is present. There is no internal electronics, no battery required for its operation. Selftimer and frameline selector levers on front of the body.

The most important upgrade on the M4 was the new style of loading, advancing and rewinding film. This new way of loading film without separate take up spool was regarded much quicker. A new advance crank was designed which can be recognized by its partly plastic tip. Rewinding the film could now be done with the angled rewind lever, in stead of the old style knob of the M2/3, which took much more time.

Leica M4 variants:

Around 60.000 Leica M4 bodies were made, which is quite low compared to the 220.000 of the M3. The standard M4 was taken out of production when the Leica M5 camera was released. Because the M5 camera had some issues which rumoredly almost killed Leica, they re-released the M4 again and named it the M4-2.

This M4-2 camera was lacking a selftimer and has a slightly redesigned inside to make them more affordable to produce for Leica. Rumors say they made the camera with lower quality gears and parts, but this is not really true and it was and still is a beautiful quality camera.

After the M4-2 the M4-P was released, the P standing for Professional. The camera was also lacking a selftimer and was the first Leica M to feature 28mm lens framelines. The M4-P can be recognized by its large red dot Leica logo on the front of the body.

If you rather have a Leica M4 with built in light meter, the M6 is the perfect one for you but these are often double the price.