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The M5 introduced through-the-lens metering to the Leica M, using a CdS cell on a swinging arm set ahead of the shutter. This is a camera from the very first delivery of February 1971: sources disagree on the size of that initial series, giving figures from 50 to 250 bodies, and they carry the two-lug body that hangs vertically on the strap. Silver chrome accounts for roughly 10,270 of the 33,420 M5 serial numbers assigned to 1975, making early chrome examples the least often seen configuration.