Oskar Barnack, who was in charge of research and development at
Leitz, decided to investigate using
35 mm cine film for still cameras while attempting to build a
compact camera capable of making high-quality enlargements. He built his prototype 35 mm camera (Ur-Leica) around 1913, though further development was delayed for several years by World War I. Leitz test-marketed the design between 1923 and 1924, receiving enough positive feedback that the camera was put into production as the
Leica I (for
Leitz
camera) in 1925. The Leica's immediate popularity spawned a number of competitors, most notably the
Contax (introduced in 1932), and cemented the position of
35 mm as the format of choice for high-end compact cameras.
Kodak got into the market with the
Retina I in 1938, which introduced the
135 cartridge used in all modern 35 mm cameras. Although the Retina was comparatively inexpensive, 35 mm cameras were still out of reach for most people and rollfilm remained the format of choice for mass-market cameras. This changed in 1936 with the introduction of the inexpensive Argus A and to an even greater extent in 1939 with the arrival of the immensely popular
Argus C3. Although the cheapest cameras still used rollfilm, 35 mm film had come to dominate the market by the time the C3 was discontinued in 1966.
The fledgling Japanese camera industry began to take off in 1936 with the
Canon 35 mm rangefinder, an improved version of the 1933 Kwanon prototype. Japanese cameras would begin to become popular in the West after Korean War veterans and soldiers stationed in Japan brought them back to the United States and elsewhere.