Minolta produces the R3, R4, and R5 models in the Leica R series.

These included 120 film providing 8, 12 or 16 exposures, 220 film providing 16 or 24 exposures, 127 film providing 8 or 12 exposures ( principally in Brownie cameras ) and 35 mm film providing 12, 20 or 36 exposures – or up to 72 exposures in the half-frame format or in bulk cassettes for the Leica Camera range.

* 1925 – The Leica introduced the 35mm format to still photography.

* 1954 – Leica M Introduced

* Leica I – was first introduced to the market at the 1925 spring fair in Leipzig, based on the Ur-Leica prototype developed by Barnack in 1913 and the Prototyp 1 developed in 1923.

* Leica Standard – 1932.

* Leica II – 1932.

* Leica III – 1933.

* M3 – 1954 – 66 ( Total 200, 000 units manufactured ) Introduced at the German Photokina exhibition in 1954, the M3 was the first of the M series Leicas, a line that is still manufactured today, and featured the first Leica body with a bayonet-style mount for interchangeable lenses.

* CL – 1973 – 76 ( the compact Leica ).

* M-E – 2012 – Announced in September 2012, entry-level model in the Leica M full-frame digital camera range.

* Leica R3 – the first electronic Leitz SLR – 1976 to 1980, based upon the Minolta XE1 / 7.

* Leica R6 – 1988 – 92 mechanical shutter, relied on battery power only for the built-in light meter.

* Leica R6. 2 – 1992 – as R6 but with refinements, including a 1 / 2000th shutter speed.

* Leica R7 – 1992 – yet more advanced electronics.

* Leica R8 – 1996 – 2002 – complete redesign, this time in-house with production moved back to Germany.

It merged with the optical firm of Ernst Leitz of Wetzlar in 1987, acquired a majority interest in Kern in 1988, was renamed Wild Leitz AG in 1989, and became part of the Leica holding company in 1990.

These include the Elias Sourasky Arts Prize in 1974, Premio Nacional de Arte and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975, nomination for the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1982, Hasselblad Award in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1984, Master of Photography Prize from the International Center of Photography in New York in 1987, Hugo Erfurth International Photography Award and the Agfa Gevaert Prize in Leverkusen, Germany in 1991, nomination as Creador Emérito by CONACULTA in 1993 and Gold Medal Award from the National Arts Club in New York along with the Leica Medal of Excellence and the Grand Cross of Merit Order in Portugal in 1995.

Where the original Digilux was developed in partnership with Fuji Camera, the Digilux 1 was developed in partnership with Panasonic with whom Leica continues to partner in sharing technologies — Leica shares their ability to design superb lenses, and Panasonic designs the camera electronics.

When the Leica was being developed Oscar Barnack tried a 50mm Tessar, but because it had been designed to cover only the 18x24mm field of a cine frame he found the coverage of the Leica 24x36mm format to be inadequate.

The 15 mm Hologon was the first super-wide lens on a Leica, and the Leica reflex had access to the 15 mm Distagon lens as part of the Leitz supplied range.

The Contax I had six identifiable variants, but fundamentally identical ; every aspect was designed to be better than the Leica.

It was a new starting point for Leitz, which until then had only produced screw-mount Leica cameras that were incremental improvements to its original Leica ( Ur-Leica ).

Leica IIIf and its predecessors had used a knob to advance the film.

Identifiable by the rectangular shape of the plate covering the front rangefinder ; before it had been an irregular shape as on the Leica II

Also of interest is the Nikon rangefinder camera as it also had a Contax bayonet mount and Leica shutter.

However, it was not until development of the commercial 35mm Leica camera in 1925, and the first flash bulbs between 1927 and 1930 that all the elements were in place for a " golden age " of photojournalism.

In addition, with viewfinders with magnifications larger than 0. 8x ( e. g. some Leica cameras, the Epson RD-1 / s, Canon 7, Nikon S, and in particular the Voigtländer Bessa R3A and R3M with their 1: 1 magnification ), photographers can keep both eyes open and effectively see a floating viewfinder frame superimposed on their real world view.

Image: LeicaIIIf-600. jpg | Leica IIIf ( 1950 ), one of the last screw-mount Leicas, with 50mm / f1. 5 Summarit

The earliest Leica reflex housing was the PLOOT ( Leitz's five letter code for its products ), announced in 1935, along with the 200mm f / 4. 5 Telyt Lens.

Leica lenses for the Visoflex system included focal lengths of 65, 180 ( rare ), 200, 280, 400, 560, and 800mm.

In 1986, the Leitz company changed its name to Leica ( LEItz CAmera ), due to the strength of the Leica brand.

The object lens adapter system was exchangeable, thus object lenses of the systems Leica R, Leica M, Hasselblad, Mamiya 4, 5 × 6, and all mechanic object lenses from Canon ( FD ), Nikon, etc.

The Robot film cameras used 35 mm film, mostly in square 24 × 24 mm image format, but many used 18 × 24 mm ( half-frame ) and 24 × 36 mm ( standard Leica format ), and non-standard formats such as 6 × 24 mm ( Recorder 6 ), 12 × 24 mm ( Recorder 12 ) and 16 × 16 mm ( Robot SC ).

One of the most important companies in the area of microscopy is Leica Microsystems ( formerly known as Ernst Leitz ), which in its peak times employed over 7000 people in the city.

One of their shared interests was photography, and when Emil bought a Leica for their joint use ( a Leica A, the first commercial model of this legendary camera ), Natascha began chronicling the life of the family, as well as the city of Hamburg.

As perfected in the 1954 Leica M3 ( West Germany ), a typical Leica-type horizontal FP shutter for 35 mm cameras is pre-tensioned to traverse the 36 millimeter wide film gate in 18 milliseconds ( at 2 meters per second ) and supports slit widths for a speed range of 1 to 1 / 1000 sec.

Even Leica Camera ( originally E. Leitz ), long a champion of the horizontal cloth FP shutter for its quietness, switched to a vertical metal FP shutter in 2006 for its first digital rangefinder ( RF ) camera, the Leica M8 ( Germany ).

Early representatives include Leica I Schraubgewinde ( 1930 ), Exakta ( 1936 ) and the Nikon F ( 1959 ).

Non-Leitz / Leica bayonet-mount lenses can also be used ( although none were produced in any quantity while the M3 was sold ), and a simple adapter also allows the use of screwmount lenses ( whether from Leitz or other companies ).

The most produced lens and even fitted to the next generation Fed 2 camera and supplied to China for fitting on Chinese made Leica copies-Dai Lai " Popular " ( Fed 1 or Zorki 1 copy ), Shanghai and Chang Chiang " Yangtze River " ( Fed 2 Copy ).