When did Leitz make the Leicaflex? I have heard that they were designed and sourced from Minolta??? I have some old Leica dealer literature from mid 50's IT'S amazing all the accessories that Leica made. All superbly crafted. The folks in Japan really hammered Europe in the late 50's on. I bought a NOS M6ttl recently, 0.85 finder and a used summicron 50. I had sold off my Leica stuff, even though I'm not a fan of 35mm, had to have one
A little Leica film SLR history. Mostly from memory, so dates may be a bit off, but they're close...
The first Leicaflex was sometime around the mid 60s. It had a non-ttl meter, a CdS cell on the front of the prism housing. The 1-cam in the original R lens mount told the camera the actual f-stop set on the lens.
In the late 60s or so, the Leicaflex SL moved the meter behind the lens for TTL metering. That required the second cam to tell the camera how far down from wide open the lens aperture was set. There is also an SL2. These original Leicaflex and the SL/SL2 were developed solely by Leitz. Some people say the M-5 is what nearly killed Leica, but it's really the costs of these first Leicaflex bodies that was a bigger problem. They were very expensive and features were sparse. Still reports are that Leica lost money on each body and expected to make up for that in lens sales.
In the late 70s or maybe early 80s, the R3 came out. This was developed jointly with Minolta, and the R-series bodies required the Third cam which looks like a stairstep, and I'm not sure how its information differs from the 2nd cam, but this cam moves in a circular arc while the first and second cams moved a follower much like the rangefinder coupler from the RF leicas.
At some point during the run of the R-series bodies, the collaboration with Minolta kind of fizzled out. Except the mechanical R6 and R6.2, these are electronically controlled. The R6 and later is reported to be all Leica, but of course there is some of the Minolta DNA remaining in the bodies.
At some point, Leica stopped dropped the 1/2 cams from their lenses as no recent bodies needed them, and at some even later point added the ROM contacts for the R8 and R9 bodies.
I like the Leica SLRs. I have an original Leicaflex, SL, and R6.2. They have great viewfinders, the original Flex has a super-bright non-focusing screen with only a center focusing spot. They are all well made, but rumors are that repairs are difficult, expensive, and a lot of repair shops won't touch them. Lenses mostly cost more than the bodies these days, and they are what you would expect from Leica lenses. Very well made with nice optics. I don't buy the Leica Magic religion but they're good lenses.
