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What isn’t clear to anyone in attendance is that this a camera that will change photography forever.
This moment had been a long time in the making.
The Leica I (Type A) with Elmar 50mm f/3.5 lens, photographed by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
The idea of the ‘decisive moment’ could equally be applied to the camera’s development.
That risk was to mass-produce the Leica I the first readily available 35mm Leica camera and it paid off.
The Leica I made photography a regular part of everyday life for more people.
The very first advert for the Leica I, ahead of its debut at the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1925.(Image credit: Leica)
Its impact was significant at the time, and its influence is still felt today.
Our readers are certainly fans of full-frame.
But what about camera design?
A Leica I teardown(Image credit: Leica)
On the one hand, the Leica company of today feels like a far cry from those early days.
Why try and blend in with the DSLR / mirrorless camera crowd?
Like most people, however, I’ll probably never get to call a Leica camera my own.
The people have spoken – full-frame is the most popular sensor size in 2025
The Leica I, in brown. Image supplied by Leica.
