The Leica I turns 100 years old – here’s why it’s one of the most influential cameras of all time

The Leica I camera with 50mm f/3.5 lens attached, on a grey surface with dark background.

It's March 1, 1925, and the public is getting its first look at the Leica I on Stand 194 / 195 at the Leipzig Spring Fair in Germany. What isn't clear to anyone in attendance is that this a camera that will change photography forever.

This moment had been a long time in the making. Oskar Barnack developed a Leica I prototype just a year after designing the Ur-Leica in 1913, in his role as precision mechanic and head of the testing department at optical instrument manufacture Ernst Leitz Optische Werke, the company that today is Leica.