I have recently purchased a used M6 in top condition. SN 1726879. The camera markings a slightly different than any other I have seen , in person or books. The back of the camera reads: LEICA GMBH GERMANY The front insignia above the lens turret is the standard: raised "Leica in Silver Script on a red field". But, on the front top cap where most cameras read "Leica M6", it just says M6 in a large font. In addition, when looking at the view finderwindow ther are no markings indicating the size of viewfinder ie . 0.58, 0.72, 0.85

-- Mark Williams (tailstix@earthlink.net), March 06, 2002

Answers

July 3, 1987.

http://www.cameraquest.com/mtype.htm

-- Cosmo Genovese (cosmo@rome.com), March 07, 2002.

Mark: the stand-alone "M6" label (recreated on the new M7) was a variant early on. The date quoted above was the date the BLOCK of numbers including yours was issued - the camera itself could have been made anytime in the following couple of months. Take a look at the 'cameraquest.com' Web site - it has a lot of useful (or at least entertaining) info on M6 variations, serial number runs, etc.

EVERY M6 camera had a .72 viewfinder until the last half of the 1990s - so there was no need to identify the viewfinder size in the window.

Leica began adding the ".72" only after the ".85" viewfinder also became available, to avoid confusion.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), March 07, 2002.