Book excerpt: Leica is a German-based Optimal Image company that started off as a producer of microscopes in 1849. It began to develop cameras in 1913, and then released the first of their signature camera series, the Leica, in 1925. During the last half of the twentieth century, the brand became extremely popular in the street photography scene and was used by many noted photographers, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Larry Burrows. Though Leica has since retired almost all of its film cameras, the antique models are now considered collectables and have sold for over two million dollars at auctions. As for their modern digital cameras, they have since gained a reputation of their own and come in both professional and compact sizes. The M in the Leica M Line stands for the German term, Messsucher, which is a combination range/viewfinder.