Leica Standard “Snapshot Elmar”

The “snapshot” Elmar was announced under catalogue code ELROO in the June 1935 Leitz leaflet The Interchangeable Leica Lenses and described as follows: “The snapshot lens Leitz Elmar 1:4,5/3,5cm was especially designed for the Standard Leica (model E) and is not RF-coupled [...] The lens has click-stopped focus points of 1.75, 3 and 10 meters and infinity.” A red insert sheet points out that the lens cannot be delivered “at this time”. In fact, the snapshot Elmar never went into commercial production.

A complete specimen is preserved at the Leica Camera AG Factory Museum, and only a handful of other examples are known to exist worldwide.

The lens here was surely re-plated in nickel finish at a later date and shows practically no signs of use today. With clean optics, on matching Leica model E with built-in wide angle finder in black-paint finish with nickel fittings.

Literature: E James L. Lager (ed.), Leica Illustrated History, Vol. I, 1993, p. p. 45, 46 and Vol. II, 1994, p. 123/124.

Photo credit: © WestLicht Photographica Auction