By Heinz Richter
What if...? How often have we contemplated certain occurrences in the light of what has or hasn't happened?
That certainly is the case with Leica as well. Most cell phones these days have evolved to fairly capable cameras as well. As a matter of fact, they have all but wiped out the market for small, digital point and shoot cameras. Yet many could never imagine that Leica would be even remotely interested in this market segment.
Yet this is exactly what has happened. It is a known fact that Leica used to colaborate with the Chinese company of Huawei to develop camera and lens systems for their top level cell phones. Even Panasonic showed a cell phone of their own which was equipped with a Leica lens.
The Huawei Mate 40 Pro, a result of the Leica/Huawei cooperation
Panasonic cell phone with Leica lens
A new venture started with the Leitz Phone 1, developed initially just for the Japanese market. Designed by their own design studio in Germany, the Leitz Phone 1 follows their commitment to reducing to the essentials with clear, minimal, and intuitive handling characteristics. Crafted from the highest quality materials as signaled by the Leica logo, its aluminum case in anodized silver is elegantly combined with matt-black Gorilla-glass.
Since its introduction, it has evolved to the Leitz Phone 3. Made by Sharp, the Leitz Phone 3, like it's predecessors, is only available on the Japanese Market.
The latest cooperation of Leica with another manufacturer resulted in the XIAOMI 14 Ultra. By working with Leica, Xiaomi offers a camera system for the 14 Ultra that bridges the gap between cameras and mobile phones more than any other. It is the fisrt mobile phone camera with four Leica lenses. The lenses are a , 50 MP, f/1.6 or f/4.0, 23mm (wide), 1.0"-type, 1.6µm, multi-directional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS, a 50 MP, f/1.8, 75mm (telephoto), 1/2.51", 0.7µm, Dual-Pixel PDAF (10cm - ∞), OIS, 3.2x optical zoom, a 50 MP, f/2.5, 120mm (periscope telephoto), 1/2.51", 0.7µm, Dual-Pixel PDAF (30cm - ∞), OIS, 5x optical zoom, and a 50 MP, f/1.8, 12mm, 122˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.51", 0.7µm, Dual-Pixel PDAF. Another, new, exclusive feature is a variable aperture control, allowing for precise control of light, incorporating a state-of-the-art stepless light control system powered by a F1.63-F4.0 stepless variable aperture. The telephoto lens incorporates floating elements which allow to focus substantially closer than normal. Algorithms also allow to change the bokeh of the photographs to give photos a specific look.
For complete information on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra go here
Now Xiaomi has introduced the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. It is widely based on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and features about all of the features one would expect from a mobile phone. But with its Leica lenses, it is the camera aspect that is of interest here.
The camera features 4 lenses:
14mm f/2.2 50 MP
23mm f/1.6 50 MP
70mm f/1.8 50 MP
100mm f/2.6 200 MP
Especially the 100mm lens is interesting because it overcomes the common restrictions of regular telephoto lenses in mobile phones because of the thickness of the phone body.
Just like in the Xiaomi 14 Ultram, Leica solved the problem by using a prism that allows the lens to be placed longitudinally inside the camera body, thus eliminating the lens restriction of the phone housing.
Xiaomi also revealed that while it was developing the previous 12 S Ultra, it was working on something else that was far more ambitious: a smartphone that can accept full-size Leica M-mount lenses.
Xiaomi says that the partnership between it and Leica could have gone a lot further in the camera direction than the 12S Ultra did. This “Xiaomi 12S Ultra Concept Phone” took the basic design of the 12S Ultra and added a second Type 1 50.3-megapixel sensor in the middle of the camera bump that accepted an adapter and allowed users to mount full-size Leica M-mount lenses to it.
The company did not say if it planned to introduce this feature in a model of the 15 Ultra, only revealing that the models that exist were made during the development of the 12S Ultra, which did see mass production.
Yet there was a connection between Leica and the telephone much earlier in history. In a book by W. Erb about the Leitz (Leica) company is a short paragraph with a transcript from a newspaper article that translates as follows:
“On September 1864, the 39th meeting of the German Naturalists and Physicians took place in Giessen.(Giessen is a town very close to Wetzlar) Particular efforts were made to remain competitive during the subsequent exhibition of microscopes. For the young mechanic (Ernst Leitz) there was a special task. Phillip Reis planned to demonstrate his invention, the telephone, since his first try in Frankfurt on October 16, 1861, had failed. Ernst Leitz successfully completed the preliminary work with the help of his technical knowledge, so that on September 21, 1864, the final recognition was not denied the inventor.”
Phillip Reis
Reis' Telephone
Ernst Leitz
Photograph with the Ur-Leica by Oskar Barnack
After reading that short paragraph one has to wonder: What if Ernst Leitz had become interested in telephones? Could there have been a Leitel (Leitz Telephone)? Considering the fact that Ernst Leitz did not start his work at the Wetzlar Optical Institute until 1865, this seems to be a possibility.
It is also interesting to note that Alexander Graham Bell did not show his invention of the telephone until 1876, twelve years later, yet he is generally credited with the invention of the telephone. The above account very much proves that this is not at all the case.
Alexander Graham Bell
Besides Reis and Bell, many others claimed to have invented the telephone. The result was the Gray-Bell telephone controversy, one of the United States' longest running patent interference cases, involving Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, Elisha Gray, Emil Berliner, Amos Dolbear, J. W. McDonagh, G. B. Richmond, W. L. Voeker, J. H. Irwin, and Francis Blake Jr. The case started in 1878 and was not finalized until February 27, 1901. However, regardless of the claims by Bell and others, nobody demonstrated a working telephone prior to Phillip Reis.
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