This is the World’s First Underwater Housing for the Leica M6 Film Camera
Sub13, makers of some of the only underwater housings available for Leica cameras, announced the development of the world’s first housing made for the Leica M6, the revived film camera announced in 2022.
The M6 was manufactured from 1984 until 2002, over which time Leica produced almost 175,000 of them. After a 20-year hiatus, the camera returned to production in 2022 in response to the resurgent popularity of film photography. Now, a brand-new Leica M6 can be purchased for $5,995.
But what if a photographer wanted to take the M6 into the ocean, a place where Leica cameras have not typically found themselves? It’s not necessarily a widespread use case, but it’s at least possible now thanks to the developments of Sub13. The company has been making underwater housings for Leica cameras for a few years now, including for the M-series digital rangefinders and for the Leica Q3. Both are dripping (pun intended) with style and give Leica photographers the ability to capture subjects they’ve previously been barred from — those underwater. Now the company is adding another Leica to its list of supported cameras.
“This is a world-first and has been over a year in design. We are only doing one production run of 13 M6 and 13 M6TTL housings,” the company’s co-founder Matt Draper tells PetaPixel. “Each unit will feature a fully functional film advance lever machined from titanium. The detailed internal actuator is set behind a curved viewing window sculpted from sapphire glass, allowing owners to observe the complete motion of their film advance. The housing’s lever precisely mirrors the radius of the viewing window below, seamlessly blending form and function.”
Sub13’s brand name is a double entendre, derived from the idea of “subversive” creative approaches to design as well as “submarine” which honors underwater exploration. The “13” represents the letter “M.”
As the small production run shows, the M6 housings are going to be available in a very limited capacity. Sub13 tells PetaPixel that each model is mil-spec engineered, meaning only the cameras we have designed them for will fit inside.
The first prototype of the M6 housing is currently in testing and the company is expected to have its final runs ready by October 2024. It will start at $7,495 and interested parties can reach out to the company directly.
Image credits: Sub13
