The Fochtländer company manufactured cameras that were very popular because of their high-aperture optics — the Petzval portrait lens. It was designed in 1840 by Professor Josef Petzwal with the support of the Austrian artillery team of mechanics. It was the first lens in the history made on the basis of precise mathematical calculations, and even with lenses with high transparency.

The lens allowed shooting with a shutter speed of 2-3 minutes instead of the usual 20-30 minutes for that time. Popularity of such cameras grew rapidly, thus, the company kept improving the model of the camera itself.

In 1845, the company moved production from Austria to Braunschweig (Germany) and from 1850 it stopped producing various mechanical instruments, focusing all its efforts on optical devices: lenses, cameras and binoculars.

In 1866, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph presented the head of the company, Peter Wilhelm Friedrich Feuchtländer, to the order of chivalryof the third degree ‘Orden die Eiseme Krone III Klasse’ with the right of hereditary transfer of the title.