Leica I
IconicKnown as "Leica A"
The world's first mass-produced 35mm camera. The Leica I launched an entire industry and made spontaneous, available-light photography possible for the first time. Every 35mm camera ever built owes something to this design.
Famous for
- The camera that launched the 35mm photography revolution in 1925
- Max Berek's collapsible Elmar f/3.5 was its original lens
The Leica I went on sale at the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1925, and the world of photography was never the same. Ernst Leitz II had made a bet that still photographs taken on 35mm cine film could be enlarged to exhibition quality, and the Leica I proved him right. The camera was compact enough to fit in a coat pocket, quiet enough to use in a theater or courtroom, and capable enough to produce images that rivaled much larger equipment.
For anyone new to Leica: this is the camera that invented the category. Before 1925, "serious" photography meant large glass plates or medium-format film, a tripod, and deliberate, planned shots. The Leica I made photography spontaneous. Photojournalism as we know it — Henri Cartier-Bresson, Erich Salomon, Alfred Eisenstaedt — all trace back to this little camera. Early models had a fixed lens; later variants introduced interchangeable lenses. The Leica I sold in the thousands and proved the market existed. Everything Leica has made since is a direct descendant.
Key specs
- type
- 35mm viewfinder camera
- film
- 35mm
- frame size
- 24×36mm
- lens
- Elmar 50mm f/3.5 (fixed on early models)
- shutter
- cloth focal-plane, 1/25–1/500s
- production
- tens of thousands (1925–1936)
Variants & finishes
The original Leica I — Oskar Barnack's landmark 35mm camera from 1925 with a fixed 50mm Elmar lens. This is where the entire Leica lineage begins; a historical artifact rather than a shooter today.
Market value
Used-market price history is coming soon.
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