Someone might know the answer to this instantly. It occurred to me that the Leica must have been in continuous production longer than any other camera in history, except possibly Kodak. I'm not talking about companies or individual models, just the basic camera nameplate. Quite an achievement I think. Or can it be matched? I'm not sure what to make of "Voigtlaender since 1759", or whenever it is.

-- David Killick (Dalex@inet.net.nz), November 18, 2001

Answers

How about Rollei? Haven't they been making their TLR since the 1920's?

feli

-- Feli di Giorgio (feli@d2.com), November 18, 2001.

Well...Kodak came out with the folding rollfilm camera in 1897, and the Brownie came out in 1900. Of course, neither of those are still made by Kodak. Oscar Barnack came out with the Ur-Leica in 1913, but the Leica wasn't produced in series until 1925. The Rolleiflex TLR wasn't produced until 1929.

-- john costo (mahler@lvcm.com), November 18, 2001.

The first Rollei TLR came on the market in 1928, three years after Leica.......

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), November 18, 2001.

It also depends on how you define continuous production. Anyone know what Rollei's TLR production has been since 1980? Seems like they only produce a batch of 1000 cameras every three years or so - if that.

"1759" is when the original V'lander optical company was founded - they didn't start building cameras that early - and they folded into Zeiss before 1960, and disappeared altogether when Zeiss got out of cameras about 1970. As good as Cosina's Voigtlander line is, I don't think they qualify as an extension of the original.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), November 19, 2001.

And the winner is.....not Kodak! A Google search reveals that Voightlander, founded as a lensmaker in Austria in 1759, produced the first metal camera and a lens calculated for it in 1840! that's 48 years before the first Kodak camera. The famous Heliar lens was calculated in 1900 and the Bergheil light field camera , the one used by Brassai to shoot "Paris de Nuit" (with a 105mm f4.5 Heliar) was introduced in 1911. I think most were 6x7 and 6x9 cm. Zeiss bought the company in 1970 and later passed it on to Rolleiflex. But the brand didn't vanish completely from the german industry until Zeiss closed the last Voightlander repair facility in 1994..

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), November 19, 2001.

I remember reading that the trade name Voigtlander is now owned by a group of 2000 german photo retailers called Ringfoto (or Profoto?). Cosina made their rangefinders, and cast about for a more stylish brand name. Ringfoto (I think), the group, leased out the name to them. Apparently the Voigtlander name has also been rented to some generic film and accessory manufacturers, so expect to see Voigtlander film and cleaning cloths and the like. I'll just stick to Scala, the most unique and nicest German branded film today, thank you v. much. Oh ok, APX 100 too.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), November 19, 2001.

Footnote to my V'lander post above: Zeiss and Viogtlander merged distribution in 1966, but Zeiss did not acquire all the company's assets for another 4 years. Among them was the design of the first zoom lerns for 35mm cameras (the Zoomar, 1959) and the first fully-automatic camera (1960). Ironically, Zeiss bought one of the most innovative companies in the history of photography just as they decided to get out of the camera business....

-- david kelly (dmkedit@aol.com), November 19, 2001.

Gandolfi (http://www.gandolficorfield.co.uk/) has been continuously producing cameras, relatively unchanged, without selling their name to another company, since 1885

-- Micah (MicahMarty@aol.com), November 19, 2001.

So hats off to Gandolphi and Voigtlaender too. We shouldn't forget that umlaut, but I can't do it on this keyboard! I just wonder, if you simpy stick a label on a product, is it the real thing? I suppose a Jaguar is still a Jaguar, even if it's made by Ford. Anyhow, I guess Leica is still the oldest continuously produced 35mm camera. Thanks for your input.

-- David Killick (Dalex@inet.net.nz), November 21, 2001.