Built between 1971 and 1975 in Wetzlar, the Leica M5 was the last M-series camera assembled entirely by hand under Leica’s traditional adjust-and-fit standard. Each body was finished, calibrated, and tested in the same small-team workshop system that had produced the M3, M2 and M4 — a method soon replaced by team-line assembly in Midland. When this process ended, so did the era of the “true” mechanical Leica.

Every great journey begins with a spark. In this case, it started as a simple phone call: Craig Sheffer—star of A River Runs Through It, directed by Robert Redford and co-starring Brad Pitt—invited me on a road trip to commemorate the film’s 30th anniversary.