Leica launches M-P to strip photography back to ‘essentials’

Aimed at professional photographers, the M-P contains a buffer size of 2GB, double that of the Leica M.

Priced £5,650, the Leica M-P (Type 240) comes in a black paint and a silver-chrome version.

Claimed features include manual viewfinder frame selection, with traditional ‘frame selector’.

‘With the frame selection lever, bright-line frames for six different focal lengths can be projected into the viewfinder to simulate subject framing,’ the firm said in a statement.

‘The corresponding frames are shown in pairs for the focal lengths 28mm and 90mm, 35mm and 135mm, or 50mm and 75mm.

‘This avoids the need to change lenses to assess suitable subject framing, offers greater freedom and allows photographers to concentrate fully on composing their pictures.’

The original Leica M, a 24-million-pixel model announced almost two years ago, cost £5,100 at launch.

Earlier this month, in an interview with AP, Leica’s new UK boss, Jason Heward, denied that Leica had shifted away from the basics of photography, as he outlined plans to inspire more enthusiasts to use rangefinder cameras.