“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 vision of artist Matt Draper. A personal project spanning nine years, 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 alongside engineer Matt Hipsley, extending to creatives and collectors alike.

  • With an unwavering pursuit of perfection, Draper and Hipsley spare no detail, personally investing their time in SUB13. Their small team of four, including Toby Barnhill and Kate Powell, manages all design, engineering, machining, and assembly.

    Production Runs include underwater housing designs for Leica M, Leica Q, and Leica film cameras, and have supported artists such as Leica Oskar Barnack Award winner Narelle Autio, while remaining central to Draper’s own practice.

    SUB13 continues through new designs shaped by art, science, and the ocean.

FEATURED BUILD

New York, Defined

Built exclusively for Leica Store and Gallery New York, featuring a custom logo designed especially for the gallery. Each one of one build is tied to a city and an animal.

The final design centres on NYC, refined through a subtle detail. The letter C is formed from a great white shark jaw, laser engraved and paint filled entirely by hand.

The SUB13 New York build follows an earlier one of one for Leica Store and Gallery Bellevue, featuring an orca, Washington State’s official marine mammal. Together, the two designs establish a continuing thread, grounded in place and meaning.

Presented during Matt Draper’s exhibition, Within One Breath, the New York build remains with Leica Store and Gallery New York.

RESULTS ACHIEVED

MARAUDER

1/1000 sec f/6.8 ISO 640
Leica M11 x Summilux M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH

Neptune Islands, South Australia are defining testing grounds for SUB13. We return each year, spending significant time working in conditions that demand trust in equipment, process, and muscle memory. That repetition, across seasons and encounters, allows our prototypes to be refined in use, not theory.

Uncropped

Marauder could only be made through the ergonomics of the M housing itself, with continuous control of focus, shutter speed, and aperture. Nothing requires the eye to leave the rangefinder. Every critical control remains exactly where the hands expect it to be.