Asking for information about Leica Lai Ci

More than 80 years ago, most of the cameras people saw were huge machines: the wooden body was stupid and heavy, the lens was fixed, the shutter speed was fixed, a large glass negative of 8 x 13 cm was used, and a heavy tripod was needed, which was extremely inconvenient to carry. In those days, taking pictures was a hard job for photographers, but it was a tedious and expensive job for ordinary people. In the midwest of Germany, there is a small town called Witzler. Between the green hills, there are high and low pagodas, wooden buildings, narrow streets and a quiet life. /kloc-at the end of 0/9th century, it was once an important base of German optics and precision manufacturing. The world-famous Lai Ci Company and Leica camera were born here.

The history of Leica cameras began when 19 1 1 oskar barnack (see photo) became the research director of Lai Ci. Oskar barnack is a talented mechanical engineer and an avid photographer. He likes to take pictures with a heavy camera and tripod, and he prefers to shoot short films with a movie machine. At that time, he was addicted to the film machine, so he was familiar with the 35 mm film used for making movies. In order to be portable, he specially designed a small camera that can shoot 24x36mm film using 35mm film as a reference when shooting film exposure.

I didn't expect the film taken by this camera to have a good effect after amplification. And its lightness and dexterity made him fondle admiringly. So, he began to consider developing a new generation of cameras that are easy to carry. And this one uses a 42 mm lens. With a shutter speed of L/l/40s, a "photometer" that can take 40 negatives became the first 135 camera in the world. At that time, there was no brand for cameras. Later, people called it "Ul-Leica". In fact, oskar barnack was not the first person who thought of making a small practical camera with 35mm perforated film, but he was a mechanical engineer. He was lucky to find a job in a company that could give full play to his talents. This is the difference between him and those people.

Barnach hand-made two (some say three) prototypes (one of which is still kept in the museum of Leica factory; The other one used by Barnah was kept in Munich Museum and auctioned after the war), which was not out of the need of work, but out of his hobby and convenience. However, ernst Letz, the boss of Leeds Company at that time, was quite appreciative of his subordinates' "hobbies". The street view of Wezler town (see photo) shot by Barnah with "prototype Leica" in 19 14 is still clear and moving. At that time, it was not easy for photographers who used large-format cameras to accept such small cameras.

Moreover, due to the outbreak of World War I, the camera could not be put into production. As soon as the war ended, Ernst Lai Ci began to put the camera designed by Barnah into production. It was not until the 1925 Leipzig Spring Expo ten years later that 30 A-type deep card cameras were officially launched. However, many photographers are still skeptical and unacceptable. This kind of camera looks too small, but it can be put in your pocket and is very attractive. It enables photographers to take pictures in a new dynamic way without being bound by tripods.

Leica I camera and accessories (including: camera bag, viewfinder, hood, cable releaser) and the famous Leica Manual written by Fritz Weiss. As a matter of fact, since 1924, the Lai Ci factory has manufactured a Leica A (also known as Leica I, see figure) based on the "prototype Leica". The Leica A is equipped with an Elmar lens with a focal length of 50 mm and a diameter of F3.5 The lens is fixed on the fuselage and cannot be replaced; There is no distance measuring device in the fuselage, so we should focus on the distance visually when taking pictures. Leica A was only produced for one year and was replaced by Leica B at 1926.

The main feature of B standby card is that the focal plane shutter is changed to compur shutter, and the shutter speed ranges from 1 s to 1/300 s. This is the only model with a mirror shutter in Leica's history, and it was later called "Kangban Leica" by camera collectors. The production of Leica B lasted for five years, and about 1500 vehicles were produced. 1930 C Leica came out. An important step taken by Leica C is that the lens is no longer fixed on the fuselage, but can be replaced. The matching Elma wide-angle lens with a focal length of 35 mm and F3.5 and the Elma telephoto lens with a focal length of 135 mm and F4.5 also appeared at the same time. Leica A, B and C, as the first stage of Leica's development, are collectively called Leica I. ..

From 19 14 to 1923, the "prototype Leica" * * * is made of 3 1 set, and the fuselage number starts from 100. During the period of 1924- 1925, under the guidance of typical German ideas, Lai Ci factory produced more than 800 Type A Leica with the fuselage number 1000. The name Lei-Ca is a combination of Leitz and camera (LEI-CA). At first, it was also composed of the pronunciation of "LECA", but it was changed to "Leica" because it was easily confused with the pronunciation of "EKA" camera produced by French Kades company and introduced by 1924, and 35 mm non-porous film was used. So the name of the camera is later than the name of the camera. Although the brand of the camera was identified as "Leica", it was never engraved on the camera. It was not until 1932 that the Leica II dual viewfinder camera was engraved with this name. Previously, the names on the camera were "ERNST LEITZ WETZLER" and the letters "D R P" (abbreviation of Deutsche Reichspatent, meaning "German patent").

"Leica" not only represents a new camera model, but also the name of the first photography system (including camera magnifying glass and projector) at that time. For more than 80 years, the development of Leica cameras has demonstrated the historical track of camera development in the world. At the same time, many photographers use Leica cameras to record countless important moments and ordinary lives in human life. Therefore, the invention of Leica camera not only promoted the development of human photography history, but also made great contributions to the development of human society.