Film Revival: Leica M6 Returns to Production

In 2022 Leica announced the return of the M6, a mechanical 35mm rangefinder with a built-in light meter. The original M6 was produced from 1984 to 1998 (its M6 TTL successor continued until 2002); used prices had risen sharply as interest in film photography grew among younger photographers.

The new M6 is mechanically similar to the late-production original — a TTL match-needle meter, mechanical cloth shutter, and M-mount — updated with a few modern refinements. It is not a nostalgia exercise so much as a commercial response to a real market: used M6 prices had reached levels that made a new production run viable.

The relaunch sits within a broader film revival visible across the industry: film stocks returning to production, developing labs reopening, and a generation of photographers choosing analogue as a deliberate practice. For Leica, it also reinforces the M system's position as the rangefinder of choice for serious film shooters.