No other camera has ever
been copied as much and as often as the Leica.
As a matter of fact, several well know camera manufacturers of today
started out by copying Leica cameras.
The majority of these copies originated in Japan, but Leica copies were
also made in the Soviet Union, Great Britain, China and the United States.
It is not the purpose of
this article to list and describe every Leica copy ever made, but I hope to
give a general account of how pervasive the business of copying Leicas has
been.
Probably the best known
company to get its start by making copies of the Leica is Canon. The company was founded in 1933. Their first camera was called Kwanon, a name
that later evolved to Canon. At that
time, Canon had not yet the capability to manufacture lenses. They came from a different manufacturer. The original Kwanon lens was a copy of the
Leitz Elmar 50mm f/3.5 lens. Later lenses
were supplied to Canon by Nippon Kogaku, better known as Nikon.
The original Kwanon from
1933, a copy of the Leica II
Canon IIB, a further
development, incorporating features of newer Leica cameras
Comparison of Canon IIB
with Leica IIIc
Other, lesser known
Japanese made Leica copies were, (in alphabetiocal order) the Chiyoca from 1950
and the Honor from 1954. It is ironic
that a blatant copy of a Leica would receive the Honor label. Another prewar example is the Leotax from
1938, made by the Leotax Camera Company, the second oldest Japanese company to
make copies of Leica screw mount cameras.
The Melcon, made by Meguro Kogaku Co. Ltd. Was another post war camera
which was first made in 1954.
Chiyoca 1950
Honor 1954
Leotax 1938
Melcon 1954
At this point of the
alphabetical order, the name of another well known Japanese camera
manufacturers appears on the List, Minolta.
Minolta was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as Nichi-Doku Shashinki
Shōten, ironically meaning Japanese-German camera shop. It was not until 1933 that the brand name
appeared on a camera, a copy of the Plaubel Makina, another German camera. The first Leica copy didn’t appear until 1947
as the Minolta 35. Today Minolta has
been absorbed by Sony.
Minolte 35B
The first Nikon camera
with interchangeable lenses appeared on the domestic market in March of
1948. Unlike many other manufacturers
who simply copied Leica cameras, Nikon chose to copy the Zeiss Contax. But there was more to the camera than what
met the eye. The camera body was clearly
a copy of the Zeiss Contax, including the rangefinder and the lens mount. But the shutter was definitely not a Zeiss
design. Upon closer inspection it was
obvious that it was taken entirely from the Leica. That decision apparently had been made
because it was of a much less complicated design (thanks Oskar Barnack) and
thus much more reliable than the vertically traveling, roller desk top type
shutter of the Contax. The Leica shutter
was copied in virtually all details resulting in the Nikon being one of the
very few cameras that utilized a collar type cable release.
Leica III
Nikon 1
Please note the position
of the shutter speed dial, the shutter release, the film winding knob
and the film rewind lever.
Several years later, when
it became apparent that rangefinder cameras would be replaced by single lens
reflex (SLR) cameras, Nikon simply converted the Nikon rangefinder camera to an
SLR by eliminating the rangefinder from the camera and adding a mirror housing. Thus the original Nikon F was born. It too featured the Leica shutter, virtually
unchanged. The Nikon F soon became one
of the most successful, professional SLRs on the market and Leica technology
was a definite part of that.
Leica III Nikon
F SLR
Using the Leica shutter
offered another, little known feature, mostly unknown to even Leica users. The Leica shutter used by Nikon was that of
the Leica screw mount cameras and it made those Leicas, the Nikon rangefinder
and Nikon F SLRs the only cameras to ever incorporate that feature.
It was the ability to
allow double exposure with perfect registration, but not just simple double
exposures on the last frame but with any frame that had been exposed on the
roll of film.
Users of these cameras
might have noticed that the shutter release button turns when rewinding the
film. To make a double exposure on the
last exposed frame all that is necessary is to activate the rewind release and
winding the film back for one full revolution of the shutter release button and
then go beyond that for not quite another half revolution. After that the camera has to be switched back
to the film advance mode and the film transport knob or advance lever moved to
cock the shutter. This will also advance
the film which will automatically stop with perfect registration on the last
exposed frame. At this point the second
exposure can be taken on that frame.
Repeating the above steps will allow unlimited exposures on the same
frame.
To take additional
exposures on any previous frame one needs to do the same procedure as
above. Except rather than winding the
film back just one revolution of the shutter release knob, one needs to make it
do as many revolutions as the number of frames the one is back that is to
receive the additional exposure. Don’t
forget to go about one half revolution beyond, activate the advance until it
stops and take the exposure.
To go back to taking a new
picture, block any light from entering the lens and take as many ‘blind’
exposures as the number of frames you wound back.
This might require some
practice. To do that with any accuracy,
take an old, unexposed or undeveloped roll of film and load it into the
camera. With the camera set on ‘B’ and with
the lens removed, take several frames and mark the outline with a pen and
number the frames consecutively. This
will allow you to practice the above procedure with any number of frames.
A fact only known to few
is the fact that Nikon also considered to use the Leica screw mount on their
early cameras instead of the Contax mount.
However, this did not proceed beyond the prototype stages and all of the
Nikon rangefinder camera that reached the market did feature the Contax mount.
Leica Screw Mount
Prototype #1
Very closely based on the
Contax, but definitely shows the use
of the Leica shutter
Leica Screw Mount
Prototype #2
Very closely based on the
Contax, including the self timer lever,
featuring the Leica
shutter
Leica Screw Mount
Prototype #3
Close to the later Nikon
rangefinder lay-out, Leica shutter
Leica Screw Mount
Prototype #4
Very close to the marketed
Nikon rangefinder with Leica shutter
The Nicca Camera Co. Ltd.
started as the optical workshop Kōgaku Seiki Co. in 1940, founded by former employees
of Canon. Its first camera, the Nippon, a close copy of the Leica rangefinder
camera, was produced in 1942. Nicca also
made cameras under the Peerless name and for Sears under the Tower name.
+-+Japan.jpg)
Peerless Nicca
Tower
Tanaka Kōgaku K.K. was
based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa (a distant suburb of Tokyo). The company started to
work on a Leica copy called Tanack 35 in 1952, and released the camera in 1953.
It was designed by a former employee of Kōgaku Seiki (predecessor of Nicca),
who worked under Kumagai Genji on the Nippon Leica copy.
Tanack 35
The last example of
Japanese Leica copies was made by another well known manufacturer,
Yashica. In 1958 Yashica bought Nicca
and the YE is Yashica's first 35mm rangefinder copy of the Leica IIIF but with
only a top shutter speed of 1/500th of a second.
Yashica YE-1
Especially in Russia, the
Leica was at the very front of an industrial venture that was to span a period
of over 50 years. The Leica II with its
built-in rangefinder was studied, analyzed and finally reproduced in functional
prototypes starting as early as 1933.
Leica II
Prewar FED, the first
Russian Leica copy to be mass produced
The first Soviet rangefinder camera, mass produced from
1934 until around 1990 was the FED.
Similar to another Russian Leica copy, the Zorki, the FED started out
copying Leica cameras with later models being somewhat redesigned, but still
being widely based on the Leica.
The Leningrad mechanical
works were the most advanced in Russia at the time. They built prototype copies of the Leica
under the VOOMP name, while the FAG company in Moscow built a few examples
under the FAG name. Both models were
exact copies of the Leica with the exception of not having an accessory
shoe. In 1934 the Leningrad and Moscow
prototypes were abandoned and the construction of Russian Leicas began at the
FED works in the Ukraine.
While both, the FED and
the Zori copies do look very much like a genuine Leica, a bit closer inspection
will quickly reveal that these cameras do not approach the overall quality of a
Leica. They usually operate a lot
rougher, without the legendary smoothness of a Leica. But there is one other, sure way to tell if
it is a Russian copy or the genuine Leica product. All one needs to do is to remove the
lens. This will reveal the rangefinder
lever of the camera. While all Leicas
have a roller at the end for smooth operation, the Russian copies have only a
simple cam.
Leica rangefinder lever
with roller
FED with simple cam at the
end of the rangefinder lever
From top to bottom:
Export Zorki, Standard
Zorki, Synchronized Zorki
The prewar production of
FED cameras was over 150,000. That
included a number of experimental cameras with a top shutter speed of 1/1000
sec. and some had a slow shutter speed dial like the Leica III. It is thought that some even had a large film
capacity of 250 frames, like the famous Leica Reporter.
Leica Reporter with
attached electric motor
Some of the prewar FEDs
were even engraved with the Leica logo on the top plate. These were meant to be exported to Western
Europe. While the standard FED cameras
all were equipped with a 50mm f/3.5 lens, a copy of the Leitz Elmar, labelled
as Industar, the lenses for the Leica engraved cameras even used the Elmar
designation on the lens.
Fake Leica Engraving on
FED
Fake Leica engraving on
Industar lens
The beginning of WWII
resulted in the suspension of the manufacture of FED cameras for the civilian
market in 1941. Production started again
in 1946 and went on without any major changes until 1955.
Between 1949 and 1950,
about 1000 FED cameras were modified with the Contax type bayonet mount to be
able to use the original Zeiss lenses for the Zeiss Contax. In place of the usual FED inscription, the
top plate of these cameras was engraved with a five point star, surrounded by
the Cyrillic letters TCBCB.
In 1948 the Krasnogorsk
optical works near Moscow started to produce FED cameras. Initially their cameras were engraved with a
combination of the FED and Zorki label, Zorki meaning ”sharp sighted” in
Russian. But after just a few examples,
these cameras switched to just the Zorki label.
These cameras were absolutely identical to the FED and they too were
produced without any changes until 1955.
In 1954 a variation of the
Zorky 2 cameras was made with a short production run of approximately 1000
cameras. They had an identical camera
body as the Leica they were copied after, but were equipped with a long prewar
Zeiss Contax style self-timer lever.
During the military
occupation of the cities of Dresden and Jena, the Soviet troops removed the
entire Contax works and took all machinery back to Kiev. That led to experiments of combining elements
of the Leica and the Contax. This led to
the design of the Zorki 3 which differed from the original Leica copy in many
respects. The Zorki 3 was equipped with
a large viewfinder/rangefinder very much like the one in the Contax. The camera also had a slow shutter speed
selector.
Standard Zorki (bottom) and
Zorki 3C
with Zeiss Contax style
rangefinder/Viewfinder
In 1955 the FED too was
equipped with a large viewfinder as the FED 2 model. This remained in production without any
significant changes until 1970. In 1956
the FED 2 was equipped with a flash synch outlet but was left otherwise
unchanged. The Zorki C, Zorki 2C and
Zorki 3C also changed to offer flash synch, but not without a redesigned camera
body.
FED 2, Leica body with
Zeiss Contax style viewfinder
Zorki 5
With later Zorki and FED
models, the Russian camera industry finally moved away from the Leica
style. But they maintained the Leica
screw mount for another 30 years.
Between 1958 and 1963 the
Chinese state owned the ‘Shanghai Camera Company’. They started out by producing copies of the
Leica III rangefinder, called the Shanghai 58.
In 1964 the Shanghai Camera Company changed its name to the Seagull
company and made cameras for the mass market.
Shanghai 58
Leica III
A much more rare copy is
what appears to be a follow up model, the little known Shanghai 582. The camera was made for less than two years,
from 1958 to 1959, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution when the Chinese
government decided to do everything better than the Russians, the Americans and
the Germans. The seven digit serial
number was quite misleading since very few of the cameras were made, most of
them for government use.
It really wasn’t a bad
copy. It showed an extraordinary amount
of hand work. The f/3.5 collapsible lens
was of acceptable quality, and the cloth focal plane shutter still worked
smoothly and was reasonably accurate, even years later.
The pictures of the camera
were obtained from a member of the Leica Historical Society of America (LHSA)
who had the good fortune to see and inspect the camera and to photograph it on
a trip to China.
Another interesting fact,
as far as I know, is that the Chinese are the only country that also copied
much later models of Leica cameras, namely the Leica M5, which was called
"Red Flag."
"Red Flag" Leica
M5 Copy
Leica M5
Reid and Sigrist was a
British engineering company based at Desford, Leicestershire, England. They were
an instrument manufacturer but later became a Camera manufacturer. After the Second World War the company was
requested by the British government to produce the Reid camera based on Leica
patents and drawings. The first camera went on general sale in 1951 and the
company produced cameras until 1964.
The Reid III is based on
the Leica III series and was first introduced in 1951. In 1958 they introduced a simpler version,
the Reid I, also based on Leica patents and drawings.
Reid Cameras
Even the US was not above
copying Leica cameras. They were made
by the Premier Instrument Corporation under the direction of its
Russian-immigrant president, Peter Kardon.
Based on the Leica IIIa, the camera entered the market in 1941 as the
Kardon to fulfill the Army’s need for an American version of the Leica.
Kardon, equipped with a
Kodak 47mm f/2 Ektar lens
Thus our excursion into
the world of Leica copies ends. I am
sure there are other examples out there, but, as I said at the beginning, this
wasn’t meant as a complete account of all the Leica copies ever made. However, I hope that I succeeded in giving a
broad overlook of this intriguing segment of the history of the Leica.
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Very interesting!! I may consider Leica if we were in the film era, however, we live in digital age and it is too impractical to update digital Leicas even every three years. As consumers, we are always on the losing side.
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