Leica Camera Wikipedia. Coordinates 5. 03. N0. 083. 21. 1E 5. N 8. 5. 36. 39E 5. YUK3-343953584.jpg' alt='Leitz Wetzlar Serial Numbers' title='Leitz Wetzlar Serial Numbers' />Leica Camera AGAktiengesellschaft. Industry. Photography, Digital Imaging, Still cameras, SLR cameras, DSLR cameras, binoculars monoculars, binocular telescope, laser rangefinder. Founded. Germany 1. WK8-18352384.jpg' alt='Leitz Wetzlar Serial Numbers' title='Leitz Wetzlar Serial Numbers' />Headquarters. Wetzlar, Germany. Key people. Dr. Andreas Kaufmann Chairman, Board of Directors, Oliver Kaltner CEOProducts. Cameras, photographic lenses, binoculars and other optical equipment. Revenue 3. 65 million1Number of employees. Leica Camera AG is a German company that manufactures optics and high end cameras. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1914. The name Leica is derived from the. Websitewww. leica camera. The M9 is a modern digital rangefinder camera from Leica. First image taken from the Ur Leica by Oskar Barnack 1. Eisenmarkt, Wetzlar, Germany. Leica Camera AG is a German company that manufactures optics and high end cameras. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1. The name Leica is derived from the first three letters of his surname Leitz and the first two of the word camera lei ca. Leica cameraseditThe earliest Leica prototypes were developed by the company Ernst Leitz during the first years of the 2. The Leicas were innovative, by orienting the image frame sideways for the 3. The cameras were compact with collapsible lenses, for hiking and biking. The rangefinder feature was added with the Leica II during 1. In 1. 93. 3 the Leica III offered slow speed shutter controls and a fast 11. III a,b,c,d,f, g series became the flagship models and best sellers into the late 1. Microscopes/photogallery/Leitz_DialuxPolDF_1971Catalog.jpg' alt='Leitz Wetzlar Serial Numbers' title='Leitz Wetzlar Serial Numbers' />M3D Black Paint sold for EUR 1,680,000. Famous forerunner of all MP cameras specially designed and built by Leitz for the American photographer David Douglas Duncan. Leica Camera Compendium Courtesy of Justin Scott, Australia. Additional R data courtesy of Douglas Herr of WildlightPhoto. If you are looking for the Leica. Science Honors Program Results. Further iterations of the models I and II were offered, but did not sell well. Prior to WWII Leica and competing Contax cameras from Zeiss Ikon were considered to be the finest 3. WWII the companies had competition from Soviet and Japanese copies. During the 1. 95. Japanese quality and innovation, along with low pricing, devastated the European camera industry. Leica became an expensive type of camera bought largely by professional or serious photographers. However, the advent of reflex camera technology made rangefinders somewhat obsolete, leaving Leica the main product of a diminishing market segment. Leica has remained a notable trade name into the 2. Century. The original producer of the cameras, Ernst Leitz Gmb. H, is now three companies Leica Camera AG, Leica Geosystems AG, and Leica Microsystems Gmb. H, which manufacture cameras, geosurvey equipment, and microscopes, respectively. Leica Microsystems Gmb. H owns the Leica brand and licenses its use by the other two companies. HistoryeditBefore WWIIeditThe first 3. Leica prototypes were built by Oskar Barnack at Ernst Leitz Optische Werke, Wetzlar, in 1. Intended as a compact camera for landscape photography, particularly during mountain hikes, the Leica was the first practical 3. The Leica transports the film horizontally, extending the frame size to 2. The Leica had several model iterations, and in 1. Barnack convinced his boss, Ernst Leitz II, to make a pre production series of 3. Though the prototypes received a mixed reception, Ernst Leitz decided in 1. It was an immediate success when introduced at the 1. Leipzig Spring Fair as the Leica I for Leitz camera. The focal plane shutter has a range from 12. Z for Zeit time position. Barnack conceived the Leica as a small camera that produced a small negative. To make large photos by enlargement, the small negative, large picture concept requires that the camera have high quality lenses that could create well defined negatives. Barnack tried a Zeiss Tessar on his early prototype camera, but because the Tessar was designed for the 1. Leicas 2. 43. 6mm negative. Barnack resorted to a Leitz Mikro Summar 1 4. The first Leica lens was a 5. Cooke triplet of 1. Max Berek at Leitz. The lens has five elements in three groupsthe third group being three cemented elementsand was initially named the Leitz Anastigmat. Unlike other triplets, the Leitz Anastigmat has the diaphragm between the first and second elements. When the Leica was first vended, this lens was renamed the ELMAX, for E Leitz and MAX Berek. By 1. 92. 5, the Leitz laboratories had produced glasses with improved optical properties, and Professor Berek designed an improved version of the ELMAX named the ELMAR that had four elements in three groups. The third group was simplified to two cemented elements, which was easier and cheaper to make. Professor Berek had two dogs, Hektor and Rex. The first of these, Hektor, gave his name to a series of Leica lenses, and the name of the second appeared in the Summa. REX. 3In 1. 93. 0 the Leica I Schraubgewinde was first produced, with an exchangeable lens system based on a 3. Leica Thread Mount or LTM. In addition to the 5. During the mid 1. Thambar 9. 0 mm f2. It is now a rare collectors item. The Leica II was first produced in 1. This model has a separate viewfinder showing a reduced image and rangefinder. In 1. 93. 2 the flange to filmplane was standardised to 2. Leica model C, and the Leica Standard the next year. The Leica III added slow shutter speeds down to 1 second, and the model IIIa added the 11. The IIIa is the last model made before Barnacks death, and therefore the last model for which he was wholly responsible. Leitz continued to refine the original design through to 1. The final version, the IIIg, includes a large viewfinder with several framelines. These models all have a functional combination of circular dials and square windows. Early Leica cameras bear the initials D. R. P., which stands for Deutsches Reichspatent, the name for German patents before May 1. This is probably a reference to German patent No. Rollfilmkamera granted to Ernst Leitz, Optische Werke in Wetzlar, on 3 November 1. Ur Leica original Leica, from 1. Leica I, 1. 92. 7Leica I, from 1. Leitz Elmar 1 3,5 F5 cm lens. Reproduction of the Leica Prototype, 1. The company had always had progressive labor policies which encouraged the retention of skilled workers, many of whom were Jewish. Ernst Leitz II, who began managing the company in 1. Hitler in 1. 93. 3 by helping Jews to leave Germany, by assigning hundreds even if they were not actually employees to overseas sales offices where they were helped to find jobs. The effort intensified after Kristallnacht in 1. September 1. 93. 9. The extent of what came to be known as the Leica Freedom Train only became public after his death, well after the war. After WWIIeditAfter the war, Leitz continued to produce the late versions of the Leica II and the Leica III through the 1. However, in 1. 95. Leitz introduced the Leica M3, with the new Leica M mount, a bayonet like lens mount. The new camera also combined the rangefinder and viewfinder into one large, bright viewfinder with a brighter double image in the center. This system also introduced a system of parallax compensation and a new rubberized, reliable, focal plane shutter. Leica continues to refine this model the latest versions being the MP and MA, both of which have frames for 2. Post war models bear the initials DBP, standing for Deutsches Bundespatent Federal German Patent, instead of the DRP Deutsches Reich patent found on pre war models. A number of camera companies built models based on the Leica rangefinder design. These include the Leotax, Nicca and early Canon models in Japan, the Kardon in USA, the Reid in England and the FED and Zorki in the USSR. Leica IIIf 1. 95. Leicas, with 5. 0mmf. Summarit. Leica M3 chrome Singlestroke 1. Leica Meter M, Booster and collapsible Elmar f5 cm 1 2,8 M3. Leicas MP of 2. 00. M3 of 1. 95. 4Modern Leica M series.