The Leica M2 is a 35 mm rangefinder camera by Ernst Leitz GmbH of Wetzlar, Germany, introduced in 1957. Leica is a portmanteau formed from the words Leitz and Camera. The M2 has a rangefinder with a 0.72 magnification and frames for 35, 50 and 90mm lenses (instead of the 0.91 magnification and 50, 90 and 135mm frames of the M3). This made it better suited for photojournalists who favour shorter lenses. Unlike the M3, the widest framelines were no...
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The Leica M2 is a 35 mm rangefinder camera by Ernst Leitz GmbH of Wetzlar, Germany, introduced in 1957. Leica is a portmanteau formed from the words Leitz and Camera. The M2 has a rangefinder with a 0.72 magnification and frames for 35, 50 and 90mm lenses (instead of the 0.91 magnification and 50, 90 and 135mm frames of the M3). This made it better suited for photojournalists who favour shorter lenses. Unlike the M3, the widest framelines were not always visible so only one set of framelines were ever displayed at one time. All M2s are single stroke advance. Around 82,000 M2s were produced between 1957 and 1968. Around 1500 M2s were produced by Ernst Leitz Canada, but most of these are not marked as such on the top plate.
The M2 was considered to be a simplification of the Leica M3 of 1954 which made it more affordable than the M3 — thus the name "M2." Notably, the frame counter of the M2 was composed of a disk plate beneath the film advance lever that had to be manually reset to zero...
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