Leica 0-Series (1923–1924)

Name: Leica 0
Brand: Leica

The Leica 0-Series sits between Oskar Barnack's 1913 prototype and the Leica I of 1925. It was the trial run that proved a compact 35mm camera was worth building. Sources disagree on whether production took place entirely in 1923 or extended into 1924. Only about 25 were made, and it's believed roughly a dozen survive today.

The camera has a fixed Leitz Anastigmat 50mm f/3.5 lens and a focal-plane shutter with speeds of 1/20, 1/80, and 1/500 second. There's no rangefinder. Focusing is done with a knob on the body, and composition relies on a sliding viewfinder attached to the top plate. Film advance is manual, done by pulling the film across by hand. The body is a plain rectangular metal box measuring 134 x 65 x 36 mm, and it exposes a 24×36mm frame on standard 35mm film.

One surviving example, serial number 105, is the second-oldest known 0-Series camera. The Leica archives record that it was originally sold in 1924 to a "Mr. Smith of Java." A 0-Series camera set an auction record at a Leitz auction in Vienna in 2018, selling for €2.4 million - a figure noted by both 35mmc and Petapixel. A reviewer who handled one called it a pleasure to use and surprisingly capable, with sharp images and impressive exposure accuracy for a camera now a century old. HiFI-Stereo (November 1961, p.74) noted the camera's recording quality as "Good enough."

Some things aren't documented. No original retail price survives, since these were trial cameras sold to selected customers rather than through normal channels. No weight figure appears in any of the available sources. The ~25 cameras built and the direct line to the Leica I are corroborated across multiple sources, though sources conflict on whether production occurred in 1923 alone or extended into 1924.