Leica has put a 66mm M lens on sale for the first time. The Summicron-M 66 f/2 is a Classic Line reinterpretation of the late-1960s Elcan 66mm f/2, a compact high-resolution optic Dr. Walter Mandler designed at Ernst Leitz Canada for a classified U.S. Navy reconnaissance contract. About 200 originals were made for official use; they were never a catalog item. DPReview puts that history in the headline: this is a tribute to a military lens M shooters have never been able to buy.
The new lens is already available from Leica Stores, the Leica Online Store, and authorized dealers. The U.S. price is $10,900; Leica’s European press release lists €9,850 including VAT. Production is capped at 660 numbered examples worldwide.
Why the original was 66mm
Mandler’s brief was not a new portrait length for civilians. Naval Intelligence wanted a lens that looked ordinary but resolved far more than it appeared to, in a body small enough for discreet work. Sixty-six millimeters was the compromise he chose among resolution, contrast, speed, and bulk — not a styling number. Many of those Elcans traveled with the Leica KE-7A, the military M4 variant. Period kits even included instructions for destroying the camera and lens if they were captured.
Surviving originals that surface now generally come out of old military inventories. One example in the Leica Archive at Wetzlar once lived on the guided-missile cruiser USS Little Rock. DPReview notes how far the collector market has already gone: a 2020 auction opened at €40,000 and still went unsold, and cine versions of the design typically have no public price.
A modern Classic Line lens, not a museum copy
Leica says the optical layout and barrel are based on the original but have been optimized for current standards. Official specifications list 6 elements in 5 groups, a 9-blade diaphragm from f/2 to f/16, a 1-meter close focus (1:13.4), an E49 filter thread, a screw-on hood, and a Leica M bayonet with 6-bit encoding. The lens is about 60.1mm long, 60mm in diameter, and 456g. Full-frame angle of view is 36.3° diagonal.
Mechanically it still refuses to behave like a normal M prime. The aperture ring turns the opposite way — DPReview notes you twist left to stop down — and the distance scale follows the military arrangement. The front ring carries the special three-digit edition number, optical calculation B1047, and Leica’s 12-digit material number, echoing the Elcan’s production number, calculation C283, and 13-digit Navy order number. “Elcan” is gone; Leitz Wetzlar takes its place. A small “60” on the barrel is the old precision-optics shorthand for a measured 66.0mm focal length.
Leica’s rendering claim matches the Classic Line pitch: soft bokeh and high contrast wide open, then the original reconnaissance habit when you stop down — as much fine detail as the negative (or file) will hold. It can also go on an SL body with an adapter.
660 lenses, and number 001 goes to auction
Each Summicron-M 66 f/2 ships with a certificate of authenticity. Serial 001 is held back for the Leitz Photographica Auction in Wetzlar in November 2026. Everyone else is shopping a 660-piece run of a focal length that sat between a 50 and a short portrait lens for half a century and never made the price list.