“Distinguished by an exquisite design and premium quality materials in order to echo the ethos of the Leica brand.”

— Leica Fotografie International Magazine

SUB13 is the brainchild of artist Matt Draper. A personal project, eight years in the making, driven by Draper's desire to fuse the Leica rangefinder with his underwater practice, forcing the design of his own fully functional underwater housing. As Draper's vision gained momentum, it evolved into SUB13, an industrial design team founded with engineer Matt Hipsley, now extending to creatives and collectors alike.

  • SUB13 is drawn from 'Subversive,' reflecting our approach, and 'Submarine,' honouring DOER Marine, founded by Her Deepness Dr Sylvia Earle as Deep Ocean Exploration and Research. Their ongoing contributions continue to play an important role in our evolution.

    With an unwavering pursuit of perfection, Draper and Hipsley spare no detail, personally investing their time and expertise. Our small team, including Matt, Matt, Toby, and Kate, manages all design, engineering, machining, and assembly.

    SUB13 Production Runs include underwater housings for Leica M and Leica Q cameras and have supported distinguished artists such as Leica Oskar Barnack Award winner Narelle Autio.

LATEST from SUB13

Final Production Runs of 2025

SUB13 has successfully completed all machining for Production Run III for Leica Q and Production Run V for Leica M. All units have passed quality control and are now entering the early stages of assembly and pressure testing.

Alongside these two final runs for 2025 is a special build for Leica Store and Gallery New York City, to be revealed on the 6th of November, celebrating the grand opening of SUB13 founder Matt Draper’s exhibition.

FEATURED BUILD

Honouring 70 Years of Leica M

Designed for the Leica M6, this underwater housing features a fully functional film advance lever, machined from solid titanium, hand-polished, and finished in bronze PVD-coated titanium. The detailed internal actuator sits behind a curved viewing window sculpted from optical crystal glass, enabling owners to observe the full motion of their film advance. The external lever on top precisely mirrors the radius of the viewing window below, seamlessly blending form and function.

Over a year of dedicated design, engineering, and prototyping preceded final machining to achieve our exacting standards.