How lucky are we to have, not one, but two Lordomats in the store at the moment?  It seems like all we need now is a medieval fight club for them.  You know, the two Lordomats enter, one Lordomat leaves sort of thing.  ⁠

⁠But what exactly is a Lordomat?  Well, it is an interchangeable lens, 35mm rangefinder made by Leidolf.  Leidolf was based in Wetzlar, Germany, which was also home to Leitz.  It seems Leidolf was a subcontractor for Leitz, until they decided to give them some competition.  Talk about gumption.  It was one thing to be based in Japan and give Leitz competition, as done by Canon and Nikon, respectively.  It was another to be in the same country and butting heads with Leitz, as Zeiss Ikon had been doing for decades.  Leidolf brought this competition back to the hometown of Leica and still made a go at out-doing them.  That takes courage, skill, creativity, money, and luck.  It seems Leidolf was missing some combination of these factors, as less than 10 years after the Lordomat was introduced, camera production was shut down and the company was taken over. They made the switch from producing cameras to surveying equipment.⁠

⁠Despite only being around for a short time, the Lordomat is a solid camera.  Unlike Leicas, the Lordomat uses a behind-the-lens leaf shutter, instead of a focal plane shutter.  It's top speed is a bit lower, at only 1/300th, but the leaf shutter could sync with flash at all speeds. It is, arguably, more age-resistant than cloth or rubber curtains.  One notable quirk of the Lordomat - its film advance lever rotates in a clockwise, rather than counter-clockwise, direction.  You wind, front-to-back, in a double-stroke fashion.  We cannot say we are sold on it, but we do appreciate its unique quality; the cameras are a bit weird, but there is a lot to like to one of these.

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Meet the Lordomat, a 35mm rangefinder with interchangeable-lenses made by the German company Leidolf.  The Lordomat has an interesting, and tragic, history to it, so indulge us in the recounting of it.⠀ ⠀

The Lordomat is known for being a "Leica on a budget" and there are many parallels between this camera and that of Leica.  For instance, the company Leidolf was based in Wetzlar, Germany, in the same small town as Leitz.  Prior to WWII, Leidolf mostly made optics for binoculars and microscopes.  After the war, Leidolf turned its attention to making cameras and produced a number of different models before eventually arriving at the Lordomat in 1953.  Remember that the Leica M3 was introduced in 1954 and would drastically change the rangefinder game. ⠀ ⠀

Being in the same small town with a competitive giant such as Leitz might seem like an uphill battle, and it probably was, but the Lordomat has a lot going for it.  First off, it is well-built AND inexpensive.  The camera is solid, light-weight, easy to use, has combined viewfinder/rangefinder, and features interchangeable lenses.   It also has an interesting winding lever; a short, stubby arm that pulled toward you in a front-to-back, double stroke fashion to advance film and reset the shutter.
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Sadly, Leidolf went out of business in 1962, after a dispute with their largest client resulted in the client dropping all its orders with Leidolf.  Shortly after, the owner of Leidolf committed suicide and the company's assets were sold off.  In a weird quirk of history, those assets were purchased by a Swiss company, Wild Heerbrugg, which continued to make specialized optics until 1987, when they merged with Ernst Leitz GmbH, completing a curious circle of life.

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