Back in 1925, two Leicas left the factory in Wetzlar. They were early production models and were numbered 554 and 555. No. 554 proved to be a boomerang, ending up in the Leitz Museum in Wetzlar, but its sibling, all the fives, was more elusive.
Earlier this year, London Leica dealer Ivor Cooper, of Red Dot Cameras, realised that he owned 555 and decided that this would be a good story for the current centenary celebrations.
Birthday party
Leica decided that the two elderly snappers should get together to celebrate their 100th birthday. A party would be arranged at the factory, and Ivor set off from London, clutching his precious 555.
Café Leitz, at Leitz-Park in Wetzlar, was commissioned to create a chocolate confection equal to the task of celebrating the old bodies. But, since cameras don’t eat cake, the beneficiaries were Ivor, his old friend Frank Dabba Smith, and the great and the good from the factory, including Stefan Daniel and Peter Karbe.
All sat down on 26 June 2025, exactly one hundred years later, to polish off the birthday Torte…
From the Archive
The biggest Leica lens ever built
During the visit, Ivor and his team had the unusual opportunity of using the largest Leica lens ever built — the colossal APO-Telyt-R f/5.6 1600mm.
Weighing 30kg, the APO-Telyt-R isn’t for the weak of muscle and requires a high degree of dedication in use.
This lens was commissioned by Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al-Thani, the former Minister of Culture of Qatar, and was delivered in 2006. A wildlife conservationist and photographer, he is reputed to have paid US$2 million for the lens. It measures 1.55mm long, with the hood attached, and has a barrel diameter of 42cm. Just the job for discreet street photography, then.
Choosing best of three
Three copies were made, with the customer choosing the optically best example. The remaining two lenses were retained by Leica, one for spare parts and one for display. Numbered 3973738, the lens was exhibited in the lobby of the old Solms factory, before being placed in the archive at the new Wetzlar facility.
Ivor reports that best results from such a monster lens are obtained in cooler weather. In the heat of summer, on the factory roof, the haze made it unsuitable for a test shot.
The APO-Telyt-R f/5.6 1600mm is featured in Red Dot Books’ Leica Pocket Book 9th Edition, which can be purchased here. The book, which is also available in a larger format (decidedly non-pocket) covers every Leica camera and lens ever produced, from 1925 to 2025, and includes specifications, serial numbers and full descriptions. It is the perfect Leica reference book and makes a good present for any Leica enthusiast.
| Leica 100: What Leica Means to Me | Oskar Barnack’s legacy |
| One hundred years of Leica | Ernst Leitz II: The man who defied the Gestapo |
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It was great to see Ivor and Frank and, of course, Stefan, Peter and Tim in Wetzlar last week. Some years ago, Ivor asked me to check on No 555 while I was on a trip to Wetzlar and I gave him the date 26th June 1925. Little did I know that two or three years later Leica would celebrate the 100th Birthday of the Leica Camera (not just the I Model A) on 26th June 2025. I did not pay much attention to No 554 at the time and I was not aware that it was in the Leica Archive. It is nice to celebrate birthdays and Nos 554 and 555 deserve theirs.
In my recent articles about the auction in Wetzlar, held last week, I mentioned No 225 which had actually been sent to the London agency, Ogilvy, on 29th January 1925 which was just over a month before the general commercial launch of the Leica camera at the Leipzig Spring Fair of 1925. No 225 was the first Leica delivered in Britain and it sold at the Leitz Auction last week for a world record price for a I Model A with an Anastigmat lens. Yesterday I received a card from Wetzlar Camera Auctions that No 226 would be auctioned on 11th October 2025. I haven’t checked yet where that one was delivered, but it has a meter scale, so it is unlikely to have been delivered in Britain.
I note the huge lens that went to Qatar in 2006. I went to work in Qatar in that same year and I bought my first Leica, an M8 , some years later. While I was in Qatar they ran a photo competition with a Sheikh Saud edition M6 TTL as the first prize. I was not successful, but that might have been the incentive I needed to buy a Leica of my own. I did not know Sheikh Saud personally, but I knew several members of his family.
It has been quite a year for Leica and, particularly, for cameras from 1925.
William