Leica Society International

06/05/2026

Our 2026 European Spring Shoot took place in London this year. Attendees were able to connect with each other, hear from experts, and spend time shooting around London.

Thank you to our speakers, presenters, and panelists — Laura Pannack, Adam Rouhana, Irina Werning, Karin Kaufmann, Hilary Roberts, Stefan Daniel, Frank Dabba Smith, Dr Oliver Nass, Claus Bredenbrock, Nick Hensman, Stuart Rayson, and Jose Sarmento de Matos. Your knowledge, skills, and support mean the world to us.

To our members who joined us, thank you for choosing to be a part of this community. We quite literally would not be here without you.

06/04/2026

The collapsible 50mm f/3.5 Leitz Elmar lens that first appeared on the Leica I (Model A) of 1926 was in production in coated screw mount (LTM) form until 1961. Acclaimed for its excellent imaging performance across the field by f/5.6, its lovely rendition, and its beautiful “natural” bokeh, it is also an exquisite physical object with a timeless charm that exemplifies the Bauhaus dictum “form follows function.” Despite all the accolades and its legendary status in the Leitz pantheon, over the past century, more Leica users have complained about the 50mm f/3.5 Elmar than any other lens in the company’s extensive optical arsenal. The reason: that pesky little aperture-setting tab on the front!

Leitz utilized a small tab (or lever) on the front of the 50mm f/3.5 Elmar and the 50mm f/2.5 Hektor, rather than conventional aperture rings, primarily because of the collapsible design of these lenses and the limitations of early manufacturing techniques needed to keep them compact. Here’s the rundown:

Optical Design Constraints: As a 4-element, 3-group design, the physical structure of the Elmar lens head left little room for a separate, rotating ring on the outside edge without widening the barrel. The same applied to the 50mm f/2.5 Hektor, a compact 6-element, 3-group design. The iris diaphragm in the 50mm f/3.5 Elmar was placed directly behind the front element. The iris diaphragm in the 50mm f/2.5 Hektor was placed behind the front group, a cemented doublet.

Compactness and Space Constraints: The early 50mm Elmar and Hektor designs (of the 1920s and early ‘30s, respectively) prioritized being as compact as possible when collapsed. A front aperture ring would have required a larger, more complex mechanical structure that would hinder the ability to collapse the lens completely into the camera body.

Manufacturing Limitations: The front-mounted f/stop tab allowed for a more direct, simple connection to the diaphragm blades, simplifying production at a time when technology for geared aperture rings was not as advanced, particularly for such a small, thin-barreled lens.

Preventing Mis-settings: The tiny lever was designed to be precise, ensuring that the desired aperture maintained its set position.

Evolution of the Design:

The classic "tiny tab" appeared on all earlier screw mount (LTM/M39) 50mm f/3.5 Elmars. In the 1950s, later "Red Scale" versions of the 50mm f/3.5 screw mount lens retained this aperture tab, but some final models and later M-mount versions of the 50mm f/3.5 and f/2.8 Elmar were redesigned with more conventional (and convenient) aperture rings.

Leitz to the rescue with (what else?) special diaphragm-adjusting rings!

During the 1950s, Leitz provided special VALAU or VOOLQ diaphragm adjusting rings to make it more convenient to change apertures when using the 50mm f/3.5 Elmar or 50mm f/2.5 Hektor on enlargers such as the Valoy or Focomat. Without these accessories, it was nearly impossible to change apertures in a darkroom. Leitz also offered the more elegantly designed VALOO aperture-adjusting lens hood for general photography and the VOOLA, a simple flat-form diaphragm-adjusting ring that facilitates changing the f/stop on a 50mm f/3.5 Elmar with a mounted A-36 filter. The VOOLA was installed into the filter by press fitting, and the combo was then attached to the lens. To change the aperture, you loosen the filter clamp screw and turn the filter. According to James Lager, “This is a far more convenient approach than removing the filter to change the aperture…a procedure that is hard on the operator’s fingernail!"

If you hanker for a VALOO of your own, be prepared to fork over $100.00 to $175.00 for a pristine example. The VOOLA is a bargain at $15.00 to $30.00 per copy, and a mint VALAU will set you back $800.00 to $1,000. The VOOLQ was primarily designed for the 50mm f/2.5 Hektor, which was therefore made in much smaller quantities, and is thus likely to command a princely price. In short, don’t ask.

Profuse thanks to James Lager for providing the illustrations and much of the background material for this post.

06/01/2026

LSI President's Newsletter May 2026 | A message from LSI President William Fagan. Catch up on news, meetings, and more: https://bit.ly/3Qeun95

05/29/2026

Congrats to Nathalia Angarita, our 2026 Women in Photo Grant recipient!

Nathalia is a Colombian freelance photographer specializing in photojournalism and long-form documentary storytelling. Her practice focuses on social inequality, gender, human rights, culture, and environmental issues.

Her project, Still Girls, is an ongoing photographic project that explores adolescent motherhood in Colombia as a consequence of systemic inequality, gender violence, and limited access to reproductive autonomy. Rooted in her own lived experiences growing up in environments where these realities were deeply normalized, the work emerges from a personal understanding of care, responsibility, and the expectations placed on women from a young age.

See more of Nathalia's work: https://bit.ly/4dTzMKs

05/28/2026

The landmark Leica M3 made its official debut at the Photokina exposition of 1954, but many Leica fans are aware that the earliest examples of the production version of the double-stroke M3 were already being turned out in late ’53. What’s not so widely known is that there was a late-stage working prototype of the M3 that was being discreetly field-tested in Europe as far back as 1952. The privileged few who received these bench-assembled Null M3 cameras on loan for testing and evaluation were “friends of E. Leitz, Wetzlar and important users of the Leica,” like the late great Walther Benser, an accomplished photographer famed for his exquisite Leica cases and baseplates, and an ardent advocate for Leica in the U.S.

The Null-Series Leica M3 is one of the rarest of all Leicas — only about 65 examples, individually assembled by master craftspeople, were ever produced, and few have survived intact. The camera is clearly an M3 in its form factor and all its key features, but there are several important differences. The milled-edge frame counter to the right of the film-wind axis is a manually zeroed type like the one on the M2, the wind and self-timer levers are differently shaped from those on the production M3, the embossed metal frames surrounding the front range and viewfinder windows are more pronounced and less elegant than those on the production version, and amazingly, the rewind k**b turns in a counter-clockwise direction, the opposite of the standard M3. Finally, there’s a little “punch button” near the bottom of the hinged back section for marking specific frames on the roll. This last feature, which made sense on a field-test camera, was dropped on the production M3.

Each Null M3 was engraved with a special 3- or 4-digit serial number not included in the official factory serial number list, and the numerals were preceded by “Nr.” rather than prewar “No.” The sequence evidently topped out at “Nr. 0065” but nobody can be 100% certain at this juncture. The Null-Series M3 may not look quite as “finished” as a production M3, but it has a special charm that only something literally handmade in small quantities can possess. It is simply gorgeous. At this point, the Null M3 is a priceless museum piece and a splendid artifact of the Leica M’s noble history. It’s doubtful that more than a dozen examples currently reside in private collections, and anyone foolish or desperate enough to sell one could probably name their own price.

Kudos to James Lager for providing all the images used in this post.

05/27/2026

05/21/2026

Back in the early-to-mid 1930s, E. Leitz Wetzlar was fortunate indeed to have Max Berek, its own world-renowned lens designer. In fact, Berek created over a score of Leitz lenses during his long career, from the iconic 5cm f/3.5 Leitz Elmar of 1926 to the then state-of-the-art 50mm f/2 Summitar of 1939. Nevertheless, nobody at Leitz had the in-house knowledge base or technical expertise to design and manufacture what were then called “ultra-fast” or “super-speed” lenses, optics that could go head-to-head with the remarkable 7-element, 3-group 50mm f/1.5 Zeiss Sonnar designed by the great Ludwig Bertele in 1932 and fitted to the Contax I, II, and III.

Max Berek managed to create the creditable 50mm f/2 Leitz Summar of 1932 to 1940 by legally appropriating (the patent had lapsed!) and ingeniously refining the design of Paul Rudolph’s Zeiss Planar of 1896, a landmark 6-element, 4-group double Gauss formula. However, coming up with a 50mm f/1.5 was still beyond his grasp, and Leitz sorely needed a lens with these specs to meet the needs of photojournalists, combat photographers, and the military, who often had to shoot in low light on slow films—IS0 50-60 film was “high speed” in the mid-‘30s and ISO 100 was literally pushing it. The upshot: Leitz engaged Schneider-Kreuznach to create a super-speed lens to match and compete with the 50mm f/1.5 Zeiss Sonnar, and the result was the 7-element, 5-group 5cm f/1.5 Leitz Xenon of 1936. This amazing lens was created for Leica by the great Albrecht Wilhelm Tronnier, then Schneider’s chief optical designer. And since the f/1.5 Xenon was based on a double Gauss design patented by Taylor, Taylor & Hobson, the venerable British optical house located in Leicester, England, early examples of this lens sold internationally (estimated at 2,000 units) are often inscribed with UK and/or US patent notifications on their identification rings! In short, Scheider specialized in fast lenses, and this partnership allowed Leitz to offer competitive products in a niche that required complex designs, special glass, and tooling without having to develop this technology from scratch.

The 50mm f/1.5 Leitz Xenon (code name XEMOO) was in production from 1936 to 1950, and total production was about 6,190 units, all rigid, including uncoated and coated versions. It was made in 2-, 3-, and 4-ring configurations, plus the “Taylor-Hobson” marked version. It weighs in at 300g (10.6 ounces) and stops down to a blistering f/9. Users report that this lens delivers a soft “glowy” vintage rendition at f/1.5 that can be charming for portraiture, and that sharpness and contrast improve noticeably by stopping down to f/2.8 or smaller apertures. If you want to capture artistic or nostalgic images with a unique vintage look, the 50mm f/1.5 Leitz Xenon may be a good choice. If, however, you hanker for a vintage touch but with greater sharpness, contrast, and overall performance closer to that of a modern lens, check out its 100% Leitz successor, the 50mm f/1.5 Summarit.

Ultra-wide and Perspective Correction Leitz lenses by Schneider
The cooperation between Leitz and Schneider-Kreuznach continued after WWII, and this strategic partnership (essentially an OEM agreement) lasted roughly from the late 1950s through the 1970s. During this period, Leitz faced technological gaps in its wide-angle lens portfolio. Rather than designing its own (which would have diverted its limited resources from camera development and manufacture), Leitz contracted with Schneider to design, manufacture, and supply complete lens assemblies for Leica cameras, branded and sold by Leitz, retaining the Schneider lens names but without the Schneider logo.

Leitz-branded Schneider enlarging and cine lenses
While Schneider and Leitz remained competitors in the broader imaging market, Schneider also supplied specialized optical designs for enlarging and cine lenses to Leitz that were subsequently branded and sold by Leitz. For example, while some earlier versions of the high-end 50mm f/4.5 Focotar enlarging lens were made by Leitz, later high-performance Large Front Element (LFE) Focotar lenses were Schneider Xenotar-type Hybrid designs (Ref. 17581/A) manufactured by Schneider around 1970. Indeed, these lenses have Schneider serial numbers on the back, even though they were officially branded and sold by Leitz as top-of-the-line Leica products. They were and still are highly regarded for their high degree of correction and field flatness, critical specs for enlarging lenses.

Profuse thanks to acclaimed Leica historian James Lager for providing the illustrations, photos, and much of the background material for this post.

05/19/2026

Every Leica carries a story. It’s in the brassing on the body, the faint click of the shutter, the way the glass renders light. These are more than just cameras; they are instruments of vision, passed from one generation of photographers to the next.

KEH Camera is a proud Corporate Sustaining Diamond member of Leica Society International. As the original pre-owned camera company, KEH is a trusted steward of Leica’s ongoing legacy. KEH honors the craftsmanship of each piece, ensuring these iconic tools are meticulously inspected, certified, and restored.

From a workhorse Leica M6 that has witnessed history and the discreet Monochrom "Stealth Edition", to the iconic "Drifter" by Lenny Kravitz and the classic M7, alongside an array of legendary lenses—KEH provides a trusted destination for photographers to discover and acquire pre-owned Leica gear.

Explore KEH’s selection of KEH Certified™ Leica gear: https://bit.ly/3Re8erH

This post includes an affiliate link. LSI may receive a commission at no additional cost to you, and a portion of the proceeds supports the LSI Philanthropy Fund and Photography Grant.

Photo Credit: Helios Photo Studio

05/14/2026

There are numerous myths surrounding the great Max Berek, who joined Leitz Wetzlar in 1912 directly after finishing his university studies in Berlin, and shortly thereafter became the chief optical designer at Leitz, an exalted position he held until he died in 1949. The first myth is that Berek served a stint at Zeiss before signing on with Leitz. This never happened! Perhaps the confusion arose because Oskar Barnack, who designed the first Leica, did work for Carl Zeiss in Jena as a master mechanic developing precision scientific instruments from 1902 to 1910 before joining Leitz in 1911. The second myth is that Berek had to reconfigure the 50mm f/3.5 Elmar to get around Zeiss patents on the Tessar, which were filed by legendary Zeiss optical designer Paul Rudolph in 1902. The third myth is that Berek and/or Leitz had to acquire patent rights to the Zeiss Planar design (a classic 6-element, 4-group double Gauss formula by Paul Redolph that was patented in 1896) to be able to manufacture and sell the 50mm f/2 Leitz Summar. All balderdash! Here’s the inside story.

Berek, a specialist in mineralogy, physics, and mathematics, started out working on optical designs for Leitz microscopes, then the company’s principal product line. But he fortuitously arrived in Wetzlar just as Oskar Barnack was intensively developing what became the first Leica camera. Berek was tasked with designing lenses fitted to the Leica prototypes, namely the collapsible 5cm f/3.5 Leitz Anastigmat, and a later version renamed “Elmax” in Max Berek’s honor. Both these lenses featured 5-element, 3-group construction with a cemented triplet bringing up the rear (to minimize reflective air-glass surfaces in the days before lens coating), and both had their iris diaphragms unconventionally placed directly behind the front element.

While the 5cm f/3.5 Leitz Anastigmat and the nearly identical Elmax were excellent performers, assembling lenses that incorporate a cemented triplet was a daunting, labor-intensive task. Berek’s answer was to use a simpler 4-element, 3-group Zeiss Tessar design. The result was legendary Elmar, which isn’t quite as sharp as the Elmax off-axis at the widest apertures, but has better contrast and is far easier to turn out in series production. Legend has it that the crafty Berek “got around the Zeiss patent” by claiming that he had “derived” his Tessar-type from his own 5-element lenses and cited the forward placement of the iris diaphragm as another point of differentiation. Whatever Berek may have said at the time, most historians agree that the Zeiss patent on the Tessar lens was filed by Paul Rudolph in 1902 and had already expired by 1920 at the very latest, and that Leitz was therefore entitled to design and market Tessar-formula lenses without paying for the privilege--so long as it didn’t call them “Tessars.” Early examples of non-licensed Tessar formula lenses include the Ross Xpress, the Berthiot Flor, and the popular Schneider Xenar.

The same exact situation prevails with respect to the 50mm f/2 Leitz Summar introduced in 1933, which is closely based on the groundbreaking Zeiss Planar, a 6-element, 4-group double Gauss design patented by Paul Rudolph in 1896 and assigned to Carl Zeiss Jena. It was named “Planar” because it was designed to achieve a perfectly flat image field, and simultaneously to correct for astigmatism. While early Planar prototypes typically featured apertures in the f/3.6 to f/4.5 range, the design had the potential of achieving much wider apertures, such as f/2 and even f/1.5 and f/1.4.

When Leitz needed a faster, better-performing lens than Max Berek’s idiosyncratic 6-element, 3-group 50mm f/2.5 Hektor of 1930, at that time the company lacked the expertise to design one from scratch, so Berek simply adapted the core design principles of the Zeiss Planar to create the 50mm f/2 Summar of 1933 to 1940. Again, any reports of a licensing agreement are, in the immortal words of Mark Twain, “highly exaggerated,” since the original Planar patent was registered on November 14, 1896, and a Deutsches Reichspatent then typically lasted for only 15 years and would have expired around 1911 to 1912.

The 50mm f/2 Summar was a landmark lens for Leica, introduced in 1933 as the company's first high-speed (f/2) normal lens. It was intended to offer greater low-light capability than the ubiquitous 50mm f/3.5 Elmar, providing a distinctive "glow" that remains popular with “vintage look” shooters today. Stopped down to f/5.6, it yields excellent overall sharpness with beautiful bokeh (especially the 10-bladed diaphragm version) and gorgeous rendition.

Heartfelt thanks to James Lager for providing information, insight, and images for this article.