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Leica is a name that echoes when anybody mentions 35-millimeter rangefinder photography. The visionary Oskar Barnack created the first Leica screw mount 35mm camera as a way to make photographic equipment lighter to carry around. Although originally manufactured in 1924, the camera was only released for sale to the public in 1925. Barnack wanted a handy precision camera which can be conveniently taken anywhere, as he suffered fom Asthma. He can't possibly have known how important this to become - it was truly the birth of the 35mm compact camera. Five years later, another version called the Model C or Leica I came into the scene, and in 1931 the iconic Leica 35mm camera was given birth.
In the following year, after the 35-mm Leica I was introduced, came the other, more advanced version – the Leica II, which has a built-in rangefinder. During this time only seasoned photographers and affluent novices could afford the camera, and to this day Leica targets the 'high end' market. The downside of this version was its incapability to perform precision photography. Leica II, nonetheless, paved the way to the next version. In the middle and late 1930s Leica IIIa and IIIb were released. However, in 1940 another version was released – Leica IIIc. In the following decade, Leica IIIf was introduced.
Various modifications and developments were made and, recently, many series are being introduced such as the M9 (part of the Leica rangefinder series). There is no current new model for R (SLR) models. The latest in its S (DSLR) is Leica S2, introduced in 2008.
Leica also produce Leica digital compact cameras in conjunction with Panasonic, the company is also known to manufacture a wide range of lenses used on the various Panasonic digicams.
