Leica 35mm cameras design classics

The fifth hundred thousand Leica camera produced, a "Leica III F", with the matching serial number — The fifth hundred thousand Leica camera produced, a “Leica III F”, with the matching serial number (with a starting price of 120,000 Euros) is pictured ahead of an auction in Vienna on November 21, 2013. (ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, West Germany, makes a family of 35mm cameras that are considered CLASSICS in terms of design. Around 1913, Oskar Barnack, a technician who worked for Leitz, came up with the idea of a small camera that could use regular movie film. In 1924, a commercial version of the camera went on sale. Soon after, new versions with improvements like range-finder focusing, interchangeable lenses, and a full range of fast and slow shutter speeds were released. The 1930s models F and G were the best examples of Leica’s design, which was based on the technical language of high-quality optical instruments like Leitz microscopes and strict adherence to the camera’s functional needs. Famous photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans liked the camera, and people knew it was technically very good. This made it very popular, and early models are now collected by a group of fans. Leica has kept its high level of design quality in later models, such as the series M cameras made after World War II. Many cameras like the Leica, like the Contax made by ZEISS, were made to compete with it, but none of them was as popular as the Leica.

With the invention of the miniature single-lens reflex camera, the range-finder Leica type is no longer as popular as it once was. Even though Leitz has made a number of reflex models under the Leica name, many of the early Leicas are still in use because of how well they were made and how well they worked.

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL

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