Leica copies

Once started, the Leica production volume doubled each year; in 1929, some 16.000 cameras were produced.

After 1940, with the introduction of the Leica IIIc, the upper body was die cast rather than stamped and the visual appearance of the camera changed with a more prominent shutter-crate around the lens mount -- this was not covered with leather as in the previous models.

Several of the Asian brands combined the viewfinder and rangefinder features, this was not done on the Barnack Leica cameras or Soviet copies.

Cameras introduced later would not cause patent rights infringements as far as the early Leica models are concerned.

[3] One set of specifications which may define a Leica copy, are described by Hans P. Rajner,[3] is: Some 500 individual camera models that were produced by a large number of camera manufacturers since the introduction of the Leica fall into this category.