The Leica was not the first 35 mm still camera but it was the first commercially successful one, with a basic design still recognizable into the 1960s with the Leica IIIg (1957). The first radical redesign took place in 1954 with the introduction of the Leica M3 with its new body design and bayonet-fitting lenses.
The Leica benefited from a number of factors. The lenses designed by Max Berek were of good quality, essential for use with 35 mm negatives, then considered ‘miniature’. Photographic emulsions were increasingly sensitive, with a reduction of grain and defects that allowed enlargements to be made with little loss of quality. Oskar Barnack's camera was small, portable, and well made, appealing to photographers used to heavy, cumbersome plate and roll-film cameras. Last but not least, the huge demand for news and lifestyle pictures by the contemporary illustrated press put compactness and versatility at a premium.
Ernst Leitz's Leica I (or Model A) was introduced in 1925 with a fixed 50 mm Anastigmat lens that was replaced by an Elmax and then Elmar lens, which remains the standard Leitz lens today. The camera was immediately successful, with almost 1, 000 being sold in the first year and nearly 59, 000 examples made up to 1932. Interchangeable lenses were introduced with the model I (c) of 1930. The Leica II of 1932 incorporated a coupled rangefinder into the body housing for precise focusing and the Leica III of 1933 added slow shutter speeds down to one second. With the new cameras a range of accessories and lenses were also issued that added to the functionality of the camera. By the time production of the Leica III ceased in 1939 over 220, 000 examples of these models had been made and the lenses ranged from the wide-angle 28 mm Hektor to the telephoto 400 mm Telyt. Alongside these were specialized viewfinders, copying attachments, stereo, and other camera bodies with further refinements.
— Michael Pritchard
Bibliography
- Rogliatti, G., Leica: The First Fifty Years (1975)
