Staeble was a German company founded in Munich on May 5, 1908 as Optisches Werk Dr. Staeble & Co GmbH. There were three partners: physicist and mathematician Dr. Franz Staeble (1876-1950), and engineers Alfred Neumann, and Oskar Jaeger. The company produced lenses for projectors, enlargers and prior to WW2 also produced cameras and binoculars. In 1938 Otto Friedl became a partner in the company, and the name changed to Fotop Jaeger, Friedl & Co., perhaps suggesting that both Neumann’s and Staeble’s shares in the company had been bought out.

In the pre-WW1 years, the company produced a number of lenses and cameras. From a 1911 catalog, it seems as though the cameras were rebranded (using their own lenses) from the companies such as Arndt & Löwengard (Wandsbek), Contessa-Camera-Werke, Curt Bentzin, Bülter & Stammer, G. Glunz & Sohn, and Gebrüder Herbst. Lenses included the Polyplast, Choroplast, Protoplast, Lineoplast, Monoplast, Megaplast, Tachyplast. During both wars the company produced military optics.

In the summer of 1944 the company was relocated to Schongau in Bavaria to escape Allied bombing raids. In 1954 Otto Friedl and his wife became owners of the company, renaming the company Optisches Werk Dr. Staeble, Friedl & Co.KG. The company was sold to Agfa in November 1969. Agfa initially used the sales moniker Dr. Staeble & Friedl GmbH, but in 1992 renamed it AGFA Optikzentrum Werk Altenstadt.

Staeble made lenses for a myriad of companies: Braun, Contessa-Nettel, Finetta, Kalos, King, Neidig, Potthof, Saraber, Wirgin, Genos, Ising, Kürbi & Niggeloh, Linden, Mozar, Pohlack and Seidel. Projection lenses such as the Trigon series were made for companies such as Braun. Camera lenses were mostly of the simple 3 and 4 element type. There was a close collaboration with Nuremberg based company Braun, for which they produced camera lenses such as the Kataplast 75mm f/3.5 made for the Carl Braun Paxina II. Other lenses included the: Staeble-Katagon 50mm f/2.8, Staeble-Color Ultralit 50mm f/2.9, Staeble-Lineogon 35mm f/3.5, Staeble-Telon 85mm f/5.6, and Staeble-Telexon 135mm f/3.8. Most lenses were made for cameras with M42, Leica, or Braun Paxette (39mm) mounts.

The company also produced a camera in 1936, the Staeble Tricolor. A significant product line consisted of lenses for repro cameras used in prepress, which were marketed under various names ( Staeble Ultragon , Agfa Super-Intergon , Eskofot , Helioprint , etc.).