Société Optique et Précision de Levallois, S.A. (OPL) was founded in 1919, although its predecessor dated from 1911. It produced rangefinders, military, medical, and scientific optics, and the "Foca

Foca camera

The Foca camera was a French-built brand of rangefinder cameras made by Optique & Précision de Levallois.The camera was designed in 1938, but the Second World War prevented its release, which finally occurred in 1945. The first Foca models were named "PF" and distinguished by the number of stars...

" and other rangefinder camera

Rangefinder camera

A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus...

s, at Levallois

Levallois-Perret

Levallois-Perret is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.-Name:The name Levallois-Perret comes from two housing developments, Champerret and Village Levallois , and which resulted in the incorporation of the...

 (a Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 suburb) and Châteaudun

Châteaudun

Châteaudun is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of Eure-et-Loir.-Geography:Châteaudun is located about 45 km northwest of Orléans, and about 50 km south-southwest of Chartres, on the river Loir, a tributary of the...

 (Eure-et-Loir).

Sales fell off after 1961 and on 1 January 1964 OPL entered into an arrangement with Lumière

Lumière

-Characters:*Lumière , one of the two main characters of the 2002 anime series Kiddy Grade*Lumiere, a character in the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast-Places:*Lumière, a restaurant in Vancouver, Canada...

. In December 1964, the company merged with Société d'Optique et de Mécanique de Haute Précision (SOM), maker of SOM-Berthiot lenses, to form Société d'Optique, Précision, Electronique et Mécanique (SOPEM, later Sopelem), now at Dijon

Dijon

Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....

.

External links

• Foca–OPL (Gilles Delahaye)
• Matériels & Accessoires O.P.L.–Foca (Roland Weber)