 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | 35 mm camera |
| Lens | |
| Lens mount | Leica 39 mm |
| Focusing | |
| Focus | helical |
| Exposure/metering | |
| Exposure | 24 × 36 mm on 35 mm film |
The Leica Standard, Model E was the fourth version of the original 35 mm Leica camera to be launched from Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, Germany. The concept was conceived by their employee Oskar Barnack in 1913. Production of the camera began in 1925 but it was not until the end of the decade that it was perfected and full-scale production was established.
The Leica Standard, Model E was the fourth version of the original 35 mm Leica camera to be launched from Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, Germany. The concept was conceived by their employee Oskar Barnack in 1913 at which time two prototypes were built. However, it was not until 1924 that Leitz decided to go ahead with the concept and production began the following year. By the end of the decade, the camera had been perfected and full-scale production was established.
The Leica Standard was introduced as a basic model by Ernst Leitz, Wetzlar in October 1932. The camera began production in the same year as the Leica II with a coupled rangefinder. The Leica III with lower shutter speeds was introduced in 1933; this model would later have the faster speed of 1/1000 sec with the IIIa of 1935, though the Leica III would continue in parallel production for several years. All these models use the standardised lens mount with distance from film plane to lens flange fixed to 28.8 mm, a Leitz standard. This feature was first seen on late Leica I model C cameras in 1931, and all Leica II, Model D from 1932, identified by a "0" (zero) stamped on the lens mount flange at the top, to indicate the implementation of the standard, a practice that was continued for some time. It is found on early Leica Standards as well. On the back of these models there is a hole covered by a black plug, presumably for back focus calibration. The original lens for the Leica Standard when introduced was the Leitz Elmar 1:3.5 F=50mm in a collapsible nickel-plated focusing mount with infinity catch. [1]
The Leica Standard was at first made only in black enamel finish, with nickel-plated lens barrel and camera controls. The only improvement over its predecessor, the Leica I model C, was the smaller-diameter extendible rewind knob. The accessory shoe on the top plate sits exactly above the lens mount for fitting either a rangefinder or an accessory viewfinder. The serial numbering began at 101.001 and continued consecutively to 106.000. These cameras were made between October 1932 and early 1934. By this time, production of chrome-finished Standard cameras had started in small numbers. After 1936, however, most of the production was finished in chrome, and from 1940, the Standard was available in chrome finish only. Not many were made each year after 1940, except that 461 cameras were made in 1947. The Standard camera was replaced in 1949 by the viewfinder-less Leica Ic as the basic camera in the Leica line. Those made after 1945 share body casting with the contemporary models prepared for slow speeds. A disc covers the spot occupied by the slow speed dial found on the other Leica models. [2]
The Standard in its basic version is not a rangefinder camera. However, the black enamelled FOKOS short base rangefinder was made available from the start, as well as a higher ever-ready case accommodating it. The measured subject distance using the rangefinder must be set on the lens' distance scale manually. Some Standard cameras were assembled at Leitz New York during the 1940s from spare parts using Leica III body shells and equipped them with Wollensak lenses. Standard cameras imported from Germany later were also sold with Wollensak lenses. As with all early Leica cameras, Ernst Leitz, Wetzlar offered upgrading customers' cameras when new features were introduced during the course of product development, and it was even possible to upgrade to other models as well. This practice in consequence makes the early models in original condition quite scarce, especially the Standard, which had fewer features than the later models and therefore is more likely to be upgraded. [3]
A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder, typically a split-image rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus. Most varieties of rangefinder show two images of the same subject, one of which moves when a calibrated wheel is turned; when the two images coincide and fuse into one, the distance can be read off the wheel. Older, non-coupled rangefinder cameras display the focusing distance and require the photographer to transfer the value to the lens focus ring; cameras without built-in rangefinders could have an external rangefinder fitted into the accessory shoe. Earlier cameras of this type had separate viewfinder and rangefinder windows; later the rangefinder was incorporated into the viewfinder. More modern designs have rangefinders coupled to the focusing mechanism so that the lens is focused correctly when the rangefinder images fuse; compare with the focusing screen in non-autofocus SLRs.
Leica Camera AG is a German company that manufactures cameras, optical lenses, photographic lenses, binoculars, rifle scopes and microscopes. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869, in Wetzlar, Germany.
Contax began as a camera model in the Zeiss Ikon line in 1932, and later became a brand name. The early cameras were among the finest in the world, typically featuring high quality Zeiss interchangeable lenses. The final products under the Contax name were a line of 35 mm, medium format, and digital cameras engineered and manufactured by Japanese multinational Kyocera, and featuring modern Zeiss optics. In 2005, Kyocera announced that it would no longer produce Contax cameras. The rights to the brand are currently part of Carl Zeiss AG, but no Contax cameras are currently in production, and the brand is considered dormant.
The Leica M3 is a 35 mm rangefinder camera by Ernst Leitz GmbH, introduced in 1954. 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). The M3 introduced several features to the Leica, among them the combination of viewfinder and rangefinder in one bright window, like on the Contax II, a bayonet lens mount, and rapid film advance lever. It was the most successful model of the M series, with over 220,000 units sold by the time production of the M3 model ended in 1966.
The FED is a Soviet rangefinder camera, mass-produced from 1934 until around 1996, and also the name of the factory that made it.
Oskar Barnack was an inventor and German photographer who built, in 1913, what would later become the first commercially successful 35mm still-camera, subsequently called Ur-Leica at Ernst Leitz Optische Werke in Wetzlar.
The M39 lens mount is a screw thread mounting system for attaching lenses to 35 mm cameras, primarily rangefinder (RF) Leicas. It is also the most common mount for Photographic enlarger lenses.
The Leica M8 is the first digital camera in the rangefinder M series introduced by Leica Camera AG on 14 September 2006. It uses an APS-H 10.3-megapixel Kodak KAF-10500 CCD image sensor.
Walter Mandler was a lens designer of Ernst Leitz Canada in Midland, Ontario. Mandler is credited with the design of more than 45 Leica lenses for the Leica rangefinder cameras and Leica SLR cameras.
The Leica CL is a 35mm compact rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses in the Leica M-mount. It was developed in collaboration with Minolta who manufactured it. It first appeared in April 1973 and was released in the Japanese market in November 1973 as the Leitz Minolta CL. Both the Leica CL and Leitz Minolta CL were manufactured in a new Minolta factory in Osaka. In 2017, Leica announced a new digital mirrorless camera, again named Leica CL.
The Canon rangefinders of the late 1940s and early 1950s are Leica-compatible screw-mount cameras. Many were brought to the U.S. by servicemen who bought them while visiting Japan during the Korean War. Typically these were mounted with a 50mm Serenar lens.
The Leica M2 is a 35 mm rangefinder camera by Ernst Leitz GmbH of Wetzlar, Germany, introduced in 1957. Around 82,000 M2s were produced between 1957 and 1968. Around 1500 M2s were produced by Ernst Leitz Canada, but most of these are not marked as such on the top plate.
The Konica Hexar RF is a 35 mm rangefinder camera which was sold by Konica. It was introduced to the market on 13 October 1999. and subsequently discontinued some time before the end of 2003. The camera used the "Bayonet Konica KM-mount", a copy of the Leica M-mount, thus sharing interchangeable lenses with those designed for Leica cameras and others compatible with them. The Hexar RF has a combined rangefinder/viewfinder modeled on that of Leica cameras, a similar body shape and size - and so is similar to Leica M-mount cameras in many aspects of operation.
The Konica Hexar is a 35 mm fixed-lens, fixed focal length autofocus camera which was produced through the 1990s. It was introduced to the market in 1993. While styled like a rangefinder camera, and intended for a similar style of photography, in specification it is more like a larger "point and shoot" camera.
The Leica M5 is a 35 mm camera by Leica Camera AG, introduced in 1971. It was the first Leica rangefinder camera to feature through-the-lens (TTL) metering and the last to be made entirely in Wetzlar by hand using the traditional "adjust and fit" method.
The Kodak 35 Rangefinder is an improved version of the Kodak 35 that was launched by the Eastman Kodak Company in 1938 as their first 35mm camera manufactured in the USA. After some two years, the Company presented this improved Kodak 35 camera, with a new superstructure housing containing a viewfinder and a separate rangefinder, but without any addition to the identifying inscription on the body. It is generally referred to as the Kodak 35 Rangefinder model.
The Leica copies originate from the Leica camera that was launched by Ernst Leitz, Wetzlar in 1925, using the Leica 39mm screw mount of 26 threads per inch, and the standard 35mm film. The design was carried out by Oskar Barnack, beginning in 1913 by building a camera for 24×36 mm negatives that by now is called the Ur-Leica; but Ernst Leitz did not decide to manufacture it until 1924. Once started, the Leica production volume doubled each year; in 1929, some 16.000 cameras were produced. In 1930, an improved model with interchangeable lens was introduced, followed a year later by the fully developed Leica II with standardized film to lens flange distance, and in 1932 the basic Leica Standard; the Leica concept was established. This camera's features are the basis for defining a Leica copy.
The Minolta-35 was launched in the spring of 1947 by Chiyoda Kogaku. It was the first successful new 35mm rangefinder camera with Leica specifications to emerge on the market after World War II that uses the 39mm screw lens-mount. The Minolta-35 range of cameras was manufactured in quantities during its twelve-year production period, totalling about 40,000 units. Only the 1933 FED and the 1940 Leotax cameras had appeared successfully before it, although several Leica copies had appeared in both Italy and Japan.
Ernst Leitz GmbH was a German corporation now divided into four independent companies:
The Leicaflex series of single-lens reflex 35 mm format film cameras were introduced by Leitz Camera in 1964. The first camera body was paired with the new R bayonet series of lenses. Three model of the cameras were sold by Leitz; the Leicaflex Standard, the Leicaflex SL and the Leicaflex SL2.
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