Subsequently, Perscheid earned his living as an itinerant photographer; he worked, amongst other places, in Saarbrücken, Trier, and Colmar, but also in Nice, Vienna, or Budapest.

In Klagenfurt in Austria he finally found a permanent position and on 1 March 1887, he became a member of the Photographic Society of Vienna (Wiener Photographische Gesellschaft).

Perscheid had his first publication of an image of his in a renowned photography magazine in 1897, and subsequently participated in many exhibitions and also had contacts with artist Max Klinger.

His portraits, however, won him several important prizes, but apparently were not an economic success: he sold his studio on 24 June 1912.

In October 1913, he held a course at the Swedish society of professional photographers, the Svenska Fotografernas Förbund,[1] which must have been a success as it was praised even ten years later.

Benda left Perscheid in 1907; together with Dora Kallmus he went to Vienna and worked in her studio Atelier d'Ora, which he eventually took over and that continued to exist under the name d'Ora-Benda until 1965.

It is a soft-focus lens with a wide depth of field, produced by Emil Busch AG after the specifications of Perscheid.