IDS Leica Film M Grip Features

IDS grip for Leica analog Film M camera features

Leica Film M Camera grip from IDSworks are designed for:

Leica M3/M2/M4/M6/M7/MP/MA and it's varients (with the exception for M5)

Tradition Leica Film cameras' bottom plate were designed to have it's 1/4 inch or 3/8 inch screw on one side. Over the years there had been problem designing handgrip for them. Because the screw is on one side it's hard to develope a grip that cover the whole width of the bottom plate (making the addition of the grip visually unfavorable).

Even from Leica themselve they make their original grip half way through the width of the bottom plate (until intergration with auto winder of course, which is another story). The reason is because without an anchor point on the other side of the bottom plate where the bottom plate cover lock is,  a grip covering all the way posses some risk on damaging the bottom plate itself (imaging your strip gets between the grip and the camera). 

Also another unfavorable design on all the existing grips is having make some sort of "flag" or "protruding edges" that extend beyond the original depth of the bottom plate to avoid grip rotation.

With the above design imperfection we have realized, we have spend much effort, even at much greater cost to design a grip that will "flush" with the bottom plate and "keep the original clean look" from a Leica film M camera.

Our design have the grip flush to the body while targeting the above problems mentioned in a way no one had done before. 

We utilized the flipping rotation lock from the camera bottom plate and create an intergrated rotational lock with "snap in locking feed back" to solve the issues. 

Such design solve both the grip rotational issue and tilting grip problem all at once. (For details on how this is achieved please view the video on top of this page).

Aside from this we have also....

As some models of Leica film cameras require battery for metering and sometimes we are caught off handed on the field when we forgot to bring those small back up batteries with us.

A secure battery and note compartment with a magnetic cover were designed with the grip. Not only have this hollow spaces save weight and allow backup battery to be stored but also as film is getting more expensive these days we don't necessary finish a roll on the same day. More then once I forgot what film was in the camera ( Am I suppose to push this roll? Was it Blank and white in there? Was it a daylight balance? ....). With this grip now you can leave yourselve hints by putting little notes in there, especially when you have more than one film cameras.

Consistant design across all our products:

All our product carry the same design language and when they are on your camera, the size, the look and the feel of holding them are exactly the same.

All the differents are in the structures. Therefore you still gets all the benefits from our M10 and M11 grip. Intergrated ARCA grip.... ease on shooting vertically blindly etc....

Photo credit to Marc Virata from Archive Digital (friendly customer indeed)

There are two base colors (Silver and black) to match with the camera body and 6 different grip pad selections for your preference. 

During our development, we perfected our anodizing process to achieve this matte finish by carefully selecting materials, controlling temperatures, and using specific chemical mix in production. The result is a finish that resembles the iconic look of a modern Leica M camera finish. Our anodizing factory charge us by sets, unlike other that charges on total kilogram of products to be anodized.

Grip pad selections

To match your style we have the following 6 grip pad for your selection

Bottom Left: Glass fiber composite (G10)

This is a new material we created for two purpose. Many customers likes black but before we only have African black wood and black aluminum. Some found wood rather “old school" and forced to select black matt aluminum but aluminum grip pad is heavy (25g) so we have now this Fiber glass composite for your selection at only 11 grams. It is light, sturdy and have a grid patten on it. This material is commonly use on knife handles.

Top Left: Walnut  (5g)

This wood is very light (5g) but it is indeed softer because of its density.

Top Middle: Desert iron wood from Africa (11g)

This wood has better color then Walnut and almost the same density as the African black wood.

Bottom Middle: African Black wood (11g)

This wood has a high density and also beautiful wood grain.

Top Right: Metallic gray aluminum (25g)

Milled on 3 axial CNC and anodized with a metallic gray finish

Bottom right: black aluminum (25g)

Milled on 3 axial CNC and anodized with a matt black finish