M2 – George Dunbar
Toronto. In 1958 Leitz came out with the Leica M2 shown at left. This was four years after the popular M3 and following tradition, the M2 was less expensive with fewer features than the M3.
But most importantly, it had a more practical viewfinder. A user could use any 35mm lens without the special bug-eyes needed for use on the M3, foregoing the 135mm frame guide instead. The viewfinder was .7x rather than the M3’s nearly life size .9x.
The picture is that of George Dunbar and the IBM Canada Leica M2. The 50mm lens would focus to about 1. An attached SDPOO accessory (there is one on the camera in the auction next month) had a pair of rangefinder lenses allowing a near focus of about 19 inches.
