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Dating from 1925 Leica "SM" and pre "SM" lenses were the first high quality 35mm perforated film to ever be mass produced. As the de facto standard of the industry, Leica "SM" or "LTM" cameras enjoyed increasing popularity through the thirties and up until Leica Replaced these standards with the quicker mounting and much more convenient and technologically more advanced "M" series cameras.
Prototypes and individual working model date from pre WWI. Commercial production of Leica camera date from late 1924 with sales onsetting in very early 1925. The first five years production were of cameras with permanently affixed (non-interchangeable) taking lenses, usually 50mm. Focal Plane shutters were employed from the earliest production on though during this period of initial experimentation some between the lens shutter models were produced. With the thirties Leica started to produce the first interchangeable lens model. In 1932 Leica produced the first universally interchangeable cam based coupled rangefinder model that is the basis of all future rangefinder Leicas including today's M8. |
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