Did Leica consider medium format film?

Bill Clark said:
About the only medium format camera I would use without a tripod would be a Rolleiflex, which I did use every so often.
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I even use my Mamiya RZ67 for hand-held street photography. Its quite the brick to schlep around, but rock solid in your hands.
 
giganova said:
Imagine how much a MF Summilux would have cost! :p
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Leica makes lenses for their Digital S2 and S3 medium format SLRs. They are quite pricey.

I would bet that it takes far more resources to design and build this digital SLR than it would a film rangefinder.
 
They certainly could have done it and it would have been cool to see a medium format M3 - the MF3!

But for today folders are probably the closest thing if you want portability or slimness.
 
CameraQuest said:
Kieran_Keeton said:
Always wondered why Leica never considered joining the likes of Mamiya, Plaubel and Fuji in the medium format rangefinder market? People always boast Leica quality, so why not take the next step to larger film?
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its most likely every camera type has been considered by Leica,
but no medium format prototypes or plans have been publicly shared.
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IMHO, that's rather unlikely. There's Plaubel, and Linhof —— they both didn't enter the 35mm market, and Leitz didn't step into their realm. Then, these rather small-sized firms weren't enemies, they were even partners, to an extent.
 
Leica started out as a microscope company, like Zeiss.
When I worked at Leica Microsystems 1980-2000 we sold many large format cameras for use on microscopes. 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 for polaroid up to 4 x 5 inch for polaroid and film.
The shutter unit was like a compur and was vibration free and the film box fitted into the shutter unit. An exposure meter was built in and in the Vario Orthomat had a movable measuring spot.
The microscope objectives only have a maximum aperture to obtain highest resolution. Each objective is optimised for light controlled by the condenser.
There is a lens in the film box that fills the film area fully.
1x for 4 x 5 inch film, 0.3 x for 35mm film etc.
These cameras appear in Leitz (Leica) catalogs from the earliest days of the company.
Oscar Barnack developed the Leica because he did not want to carry a large camera on his rambles. But the company continued to make them.
 
Despite making of some tools, Leica known for photography is known for making most nice and easy to use cameras.
HCB and many others ditched MF because Leica become available.
Then I purchased collapsible Cron and printed, I ditched MF as well.
 
There was the Texas Leica.



And of course the R8/9 are mf sized. Here you see it dwarf what is arguably the greatest street mf camera ever made:



 
I used Medium Format in my studio..
The few times outside were horrible!
The Leica M (M3 mostly) fast and part of me!
Quick response, ideal to hold and view.
I used SLR (Nikon Pentax Canon) for some pro work.
But a Leica M, 50mm Summicron was really all i ever needed.
Sales of Medium format were never "awesome".
 
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