Leica R6.2

Name: Leica R6.2
Brand: Leica

The Leica R6.2 is a 35mm SLR that Leica built from 1992 to 2002, and it ignored a market that had gone fully automatic. It is manual focus, manual exposure and fully mechanical - the last fully mechanical R-Leica, in fact. Batteries run only the built-in LED readout light meter. The earlier R6 topped out near 1/1000 sec. The 6.2 pushed the mechanical shutter to roughly 1/2000 sec and kept flash sync at 1/100. In terms of equipment, it was most comparable to the Nikon FM2.

Besides the faster shutter, the R6.2 brought some small improvements. The meter has three LEDs: two arrows pointing toward a center circle. The left arrow means underexposure and the right means overexposure. When the center circle lights, exposure is correct. The arrows also show which way to turn the shutter and aperture dials, which are labeled with "-" and "+" symbols. That makes it very intuitive to shoot. Two metering modes are available, an average reading of the entire field and a fairly large spot meter. A control dial switches between them, and your forefinger can find it with the camera to your eye. A ring on the split-image focusing screen shows the size of the spot pattern. Shutter speed and aperture are both displayed clearly in the viewfinder. A switch on the front left turns on a light in the head to illuminate them when needed.

Hamish Gill reviewed the camera for Casual Photophile. He noted that anyone familiar with the Leica M6 TTL will recognize the exposure display concept, but the R6.2 brings more to the table. He found it "quite a pleasure to shoot," and admitted he'd talked himself into thinking he didn't like SLRs at all until the R6.2 surprised him. The camera reviewed belonged to Alan Starkie of Cameraworks-UK.

Surviving information on this model is thin in places. Production years are given as both 1992-1997 and 1992-2002, depending on the source. No original retail price, weight, or dimensions were found in the available documentation. A 2015 kit listing (body with 50mm f/2 and 28-70mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom lenses) was priced at £3,500 "as new." A more recent body-only listing at The Classic Camera was offered at £899. One user on a Leica forum reported a metering discrepancy of 3-4 stops between selective and integral modes. A camera repair shop noted that when these shutters act up, the problem typically starts around 1/250 sec rather than at the top speeds.