willeica Posted February 24 Share #1 Posted February 24 Advertisement (gone after registration) My article here, celebrating 100 years of Leica cameras, attempts to illustrate certain aspects of the Leica Heritage, which have developed over that period.. https://www.macfilos.com/2025/02/24/leica-heritage-the-remarkable-story-of-the-leica-company-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-leica/ Comments are welcome, particularly as regards any aspects of Leica Heritage, which I may have left out, William 10 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Hi willeica, Take a look here Leica Heritage at 100 Years. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
evikne Posted February 24 Share #2 Posted February 24 Thank you for this thorough review of the Leica heritage. It's bookmarked! I find it a little amusing, seen with today's eyes, that the old advertisement for the built-in rangefinder states that it is “ideal for action shots”. 😉 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandro Posted February 25 Share #3 Posted February 25 Very nice again, William! I would have loved to hear what Peter Karbe and Ernst Michael Leitz were talking about. Is he a son of Ludwig Leitz? Lex 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
willeica Posted February 25 Author Share #4 Posted February 25 27 minutes ago, sandro said: Very nice again, William! I would have loved to hear what Peter Karbe and Ernst Michael Leitz were talking about. Is he a son of Ludwig Leitz? Lex Yes he is. I emphasised the Ernst Leitz II connection, of course. I suspect that this may have been at an event run by the local group pf archivists in Wetzlar as they use that scene as a backdrop for their events and literature. I hope you recognised Barnack's personal notebook which both of us handled and read on that day in the Archive. Your knowledge of German is much better than mine, of course. 18 hours ago, evikne said: Thank you for this thorough review of the Leica heritage. It's bookmarked! I find it a little amusing, seen with today's eyes, that the old advertisement for the built-in rangefinder states that it is “ideal for action shots”. 😉 The quickest 'autofocus' in the world is a prefocussed manual lens, of course. Lots of us learnt how to do this in our youth! William 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandro Posted February 25 Share #5 Posted February 25 Yes William, I certainly recognized Barnack's notebook and I remember the excitement about it that we all had looking at it in the archive. Lex 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted February 26 Share #6 Posted February 26 What to say ? Concentrate in such a space more than 100 years and giving it the sense of deep continuity of this important story is not an easy task, and you achieved it very very smartly: we Leica passinates of course have many sources on the matter, but you have chosen images that give to us some new perspective: a superb job, compliments !! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
willeica Posted February 26 Author Share #7 Posted February 26 Advertisement (gone after registration) 2 hours ago, luigi bertolotti said: What to say ? Concentrate in such a space more than 100 years and giving it the sense of deep continuity of this important story is not an easy task, and you achieved it very very smartly: we Leica passinates of course have many sources on the matter, but you have chosen images that give to us some new perspective: a superb job, compliments !! Thanks, Luigi. I have been collecting material for a number years about this subject. Jim Lager said to me that he liked this article and also said that a lot more material is available now than when he started looking at vintage Leicas over 50 years ago. One of the great sources of information available today are the online catalogues of the auction houses which are a great resource which Jim did not have when he started looking Into this subject. I hope to have photos and information about No 112 from Leitz Auction soon, but it may be a few months before I write an article. The camera was also sold in Christies in 1994 and there are some photos of it in Laney's book. It has a folding glass finder and a folding peep sight, which indicates that Barnack was experimenting with finders early on. He was definitely looking for a compact kleinfilm camera. William 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
beoon Posted March 1 Share #8 Posted March 1 On 2/26/2025 at 11:21 AM, willeica said: I hope to have photos and information about No 112 from Leitz Auction soon, but it may be a few months before I write an article. The camera was also sold in Christies in 1994 and there are some photos of it in Laney's book. Nice article William and as others have commented it captures nicely the 100 years history in a good summary. Regarding No 112, I have the original Christies catalogue from 9th June 1994, also, prior to the auction Christies issued a large photograph postcard showing N0 112 and on the rear inviting entries for the forthcoming auction. The details in the Christies catalogue state it is the property of a "Private European Collection" and at the auction on 9th June 1994 it failed to reach its reserve price of £100,000. The highest bid on the day was £95,000 so it failed to sell by not reaching the reserve price If you require any of the above for your article, please let me know and I can arrange photos etc. Alan 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
willeica Posted March 1 Author Share #9 Posted March 1 (edited) 3 hours ago, beoon said: Nice article William and as others have commented it captures nicely the 100 years history in a good summary. Regarding No 112, I have the original Christies catalogue from 9th June 1994, also, prior to the auction Christies issued a large photograph postcard showing N0 112 and on the rear inviting entries for the forthcoming auction. The details in the Christies catalogue state it is the property of a "Private European Collection" and at the auction on 9th June 1994 it failed to reach its reserve price of £100,000. The highest bid on the day was £95,000 so it failed to sell by not reaching the reserve price If you require any of the above for your article, please let me know and I can arrange photos etc. Alan Thanks, Alan. I hope you enjoyed seeing the Barnack notebook which we viewed together in 2023. I think that Ulf Richter said that it contained something about M875 and I recall telling Jim Lager about this, but there was some disagreement about what it actually said. If you have seen Mike Eckman's online piece https://mikeeckman.com/2022/12/oskar-barnacks-first-leica/ about M875 you will probably have seen most of what is now known about the device. You will also see our forum colleague Ray (Ambro51) mentioned in that piece. If you can send me the Christie's listing from June 1994 by email I would be delighted. I have some extracts from the Leitz Bergmann of Berlin catalogue from around 1907 which I can swop for the Christies listing. I think you will find the contents interesting. I could have used them for my article for Macfilos, but I always go easy on the technical details of early cameras in order to make the historical narrative more comprehensible. However, the Klapp camera in that catalogue looks like the Goerz Anschutz which I showed in my article. William Edited March 1 by willeica 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
willeica Posted March 7 Author Share #10 Posted March 7 Now available in German on 'messsucherwelt' https://www.messsucherwelt.com/leica-erbe-die-bemerkenswerte-geschichte-der-firma-leica-zum-100-jaehrigen-jubilaeum-der-leica/ William 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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