Leica Camera AG is a German company that manufactures cameras, optical lenses, photographic lenses, binoculars, and rifle scopes. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869 (Ernst Leitz Wetzlar), in Wetzlar, Germany. The name Leica is derived from the first three letters of the founder's surname (Leitz) and the first two of the word camera: lei-ca (LEItz CAmera).
In 1986, the Leitz company changed its name to Leica and moved its factory from Wetzlar to the nearby town of Solms.
Leica Camera AG is 55% owned by Austrian investment firm ACM Projektentwicklung GmbH and 45% owned by The Blackstone Group[3] which licenses the Leica brand name from the Danaher Corporation-owned Leica Microsystems GmbH.
In 2014, Leica returned its headquarters and production facilities to Wetzlar, inaugurating the Leitz Park campus, which houses its manufacturing, research, and customer experience center. The company continues to focus on high-end camera systems, including the M-series rangefinder cameras, the Q-series compact full-frame cameras, and the SL-series professional mirrorless cameras.
Leica has also expanded its influence through collaborations with Panasonic, providing optical designs for Lumix cameras, and with Huawei, Xiaomi, contributing camera technology to the brand’s smartphones. The company maintains a strong presence in the luxury photography market, offering limited-edition models in partnership with brands such as Hermès and Zagato.
History
In 1849, Carl Kellner founded Optical Institute (Optisches Institut) in Wetzlar, Germany. Here, he produced glasses and telescopes which were popular amongst scientists for their quality and precision. Kellner died at the age of 29 on 13 May 1855 and his wife and apprentice, Friedrich Belthle, assumed responsibility for the company.[4]
In 1864, Ernst Leitz, who studied mechanics, began working at Optical Institute and a year later would become a partner in the company. Belthle died in 1869 and Leitz took over the company. Leitz changed the name of the company to Ernst Leitz-Optische Werke-Wetzlar.[5] From the year 1907 to the 1950s, the buildings that formed Leica factory were built on Ernst Leitz Street in Wetzlar, and remained until 1986, when the factory was moved to the city of Solms. The Wetzlar factory was located on the opposite side of the administrative building of 1957 and formed a special urban architecture; it is upstream from the slope of Kalsmunt and forms a structurally attractive graduation from the skyscrapers to the ruins of Kalsmunt Castle.
In the last decades of the 19th century, Ernst Leitz moved its production facilities to the slopes of Kalsmunt with sufficient residential buildings and workshops on the Laufdorfer Weg.
At the turn of the century, the production of optical devices expanded so much that it originated the first skyscrapers in the city of Wetzlar. The oldest part of this row of tall buildings is now hidden by a new building at the Schützenstraße. The first plans of the architect Jean Schmidt in 1907 show a brick building on a stone base, which was covered by a sloping roof and a slate roof.
Notable adherents and photographers
Leica cameras are particularly associated with street photography, especially in the latter twentieth century;[23] they were used by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Sebastião Salgado.[24]
Antique trade and collecting
Leica cameras, lenses, accessories and sales literature are collectible. There are dozens of Leica books and collector's guides, notably the three-volume Leica, an Illustrated History by James L. Lager. Early or rare cameras and accessories can sell for very high prices. For instance, an anonymous buyer bought a rare 1923 Leica camera for 2.6 million euros ($2.8 million) at an auction in Vienna.[25] Notably, Leica cameras with military markings are highly valued;[26] this started a market for refurbished Soviet copies with fake markings.
Products
Cameras
The earliest Leica prototypes were developed by the company Ernst Leitz GmbH during the first years of the 20th century, but marketing did not commence until the mid-1920s. The Leicas were innovative, by orienting the image frame sideways for the 35 mm film as opposed to the cine-camera tradition of across the film strip. The cameras were compact with collapsible lenses, for hiking and biking. The rangefinder feature was added to the Leica II in 1932, and that year both rangefinder and viewfinder cameras became available with interchangeable lenses. In 1933 the Leica III offered slow-speed shutter controls and a fast 1/1000 s shutter speed, and various iterations of the III (a,b,c,d,f,&g) series became the flagship models and best sellers into the late 1950s. Further iterations of 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 35 mm cameras, but post-WWII the companies had competition from Soviet and Japanese copies. During the 1950s 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 tradename into the 21st Century.
The original producer of the cameras, Ernst Leitz GmbH, is now three independent companies: Leica Camera AG, Leica Geosystems AG, and
See also
- Wild Heerbrugg
- Heinrich Wild
- Hektor (lens)
- Leica Society International
- Leica reel
- Valbray
External links
- Leica Cameras collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
- Leica History and Heritage
References
- Andreas Voll Appointed Chief Executive Officer of Leica Camera AG Effective April 1, 2026 leica-camera.com^
- Umbrüche in Fortoindustrie: Kamerahersteller Leica streicht 80 Stellen 13 September 2019, retrieved 28 October 2019^
- Arno Schuetze. Exclusive: Blackstone in talks to sell stake in camera maker Leica...