Huawei announced that their new P9 smartphone would be co-engineered with German camera and optics manufacturer Leica.
If you’re a photographer, chances are that you’ve heard of them before. For everyone else, you’re probably wondering what the big deal is? Leica is a huge name in photography; possibly the most respected brand out there. Besides Hasselblad, they’re among the most expensive brands out there. Even the ‘budget’ Summarit lenses (the ones included on the Huawei P9), retail for a minimum of around £900… If you want to get a an actual camera, you’re looking at something much higher unless you opt for the entry level D-Lux.
Of course, this is only part of what makes Leica such a significant figure within the photography world. Leica is synonymous with street photography, with plenty of renowned photographers such as Alfred Eisenstaedt (the one who did the famous Marilyn Monroe shoot) choosing them over other key brands. The company invests masses of money into glass research and owns proprietary glass designs that makes them a premium niche for quality
Initially created by Oskar Barnack at the Ernst Leitz Optische Werke in 1913, the first Leica product was a 35mm camera that used traditional 35mm film, yet could be carried around and easily transported. Several prototypes later, the company came up with the consumer model, the Leica 1, in 1925. The Leica 1 was pretty special in itself, as it was the first camera to use smaller negatives and enlarge the photos when you then took them to be developed. For this process to work, the lens needed to be extra sharp but unfortunately, all of the ones Leica tried (including a Ziess) were not good enough for the job. The answer? Manufacture their own custom in-house lens.
By 1932, the company was going from Strength-to-strength, with the Leica II debuting complete with a built in rangefinder. Famous faces such as Cartier-Bresson, widely considered as the master of candid photography, would use Leica cameras for their photography and photojournalism needs. They would go on to create the Leica III which had slower shutter speeds down to 1 second and more, with Robert Capa using Leica cameras during the D-Day Landings to get some of the most emotive shots of the entire war. This helped them to get further exposure as one of the pivotal manufacturers in photography.
From 1964 onward, Leica began developing single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, which went on to include the popular R series (this was discontinued in 2009 due to the adoption of more modern digital SLR’s). Today, they exist primarily as more of an optics manufacturer. While the company does produce cameras, they are much more known for their glass, which many consider the best in the world. As a company that has chosen not to embrace the digital revolution and instead kept their feet primarily in old-school film technology, they’ve become something of a niche. Still, for their glass alone, it’s hard to argue that Leica is a big deal.
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