Need help for valuation

[Jens Thomsen]

Hi guys,

I am sorry to bother you, but I could really need some help here. Back 5-6 years ago I got this Leica camera among some others from my then father-in-law. My girlfriend and I used them for a couple of years as decoration on our shelves. I just found the Leica again in a box, and was wondering whether I should sell it off or not.

It appears to be a Leica MD-2. However, I have looked a bit around on the internet, and the serial number, which is 1469601, does not seem to match with the model according to the lists available. I did find a post on photo.net, though, from a guy with a similar camera which had a serial number that also did not match any lists. Do any of you have an idea of why this might be?

The MD-2 I have also comes with a Visoflex unit and a Wolf (?) 32mm (?) 5200/95 lens. The story I was told by my ex-father-in-law was that it was used for a short time back in the 80's for pathological studies, especially in connection with autopsies, in a hospital in Saudi Arabia, which he helped starting up. When the hospital project was scrapped he brought the camera back with him to Denmark, where it did lie around in a drawer for 15-20 years until I got it.

I have been thinking about selling it, because, well, it might make someone more happy than it does me. Frankly, it has just been lying around in a box the last 4 years, and I am more into collection classic movie posters than cameras anyway. But do you think anyone at all would be interested in a camera like this? It appears to be in very good condition. If yes, how much could I expect someone to pay for it? What would be a good venue to sell it? eBay? Some dealer?

Any help would be appreciated. I have included a few shots of the camera (sorry, I am no big photographer and the digital camera I own is not the best).

Thanks,
Jens, Denmark

[luigi bertolotti]

It is an interesting and not so common item, MD2 was the last of a series of Leicas for specialty use (typically in the medical environment), derived from standard cameras : in this case MD2 was based on M4-2 (before, there were MD and MDa). The question of the "strange" number is real (I have red that the first MD2 ought to be around s/n 1.545.xxx), but these were, I think, made-on-order cameras... some oddity in numbering can occur : for instance, the M4 2 was built in Canada, but seems that some MD2 were built in Wetzlar... s/n 1.469.xxx officially belongs to a batch of R3 (a completely different model, single lens reflex) that in turn were built in Portugal... some expanation may exist. The Visoflex is the so called "Micro Visoflex" based on the standard Visoflex III reflex housing; the lens isn't from Leitz, surely a specialty Micro lens fit for the specific usage.
As you probably know, Leica collector market is significant and alive: your item is not a chased "classic" but surely interesting for collectors who look for special models, and has a not negligible value ... to give you an idea, an important dealer like Leicashop of Wien (Willkommen im LeicaShop - Startseite de) has a pair of MD2 bodies for sale around 1000 Euros... Micro Visoflex adds surely a pair of hundred, and any special lens can find its amateur...: probably, if you are accustomed to ebay, the best thing is to try an auction there and see what can come in. The important european Leica collectibles shops (the above, Schouten and Beimeister in Germany, Ffordes in Britain, others in Holland, Sweden, Italy...) are always interested in having such gear to sell, even I think that for such a special item probably they prefer to work on a commission-based sale... months and months can pass before you find the right customer.

[Jens Thomsen]

Thank you very much, Luigi. That was quite informative. The camera made on order would maybe explain the weird serial number.

Do you know anything about the lens manufacturer? I have looked around and I can't seem to find any with the name 'Wolf' (their logo is a stylized wolfshead holding something long in it's mouth)?

The commission-based sale sounds like a good solution for me. I do use eBay regularly, but mostly for buying Italian film posters from the 1960-1970's. If this is a speciality item and it might take months for an interested buyer to turn up, I would rather have someone who knows more about the camera deal with it.

Again, thank you for your help.

[luigi bertolotti]

FOUND ! the logo seems the one you quote... Wolf bietet alles zur Endoskopie, Instrumente, Geräte und medizinischen Anwendungen*-*Home*-*Richard-Wolf.com a German medical devices firm.

I sent you a PM about selling the camera.

[jc_braconi]

Luigi is right about his research, now please have a look here, where you can find picts and posts aboutr the same subject :
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-...oflex-iii.html
post # 18 & 24.

[luigi bertolotti]

Originally Posted by Jens Thomsen

Thank you very much, Luigi. That was quite informative. The camera made on order would maybe explain the weird serial number.

Do you know anything about the lens manufacturer? I have looked around and I can't seem to find any with the name 'Wolf' (their logo is a stylized wolfshead holding something long in it's mouth)?

The commission-based sale sounds like a good solution for me. I do use eBay regularly, but mostly for buying Italian film posters from the 1960-1970's. If this is a speciality item and it might take months for an interested buyer to turn up, I would rather have someone who knows more about the camera deal with it.

Again, thank you for your help.

Funny...what's the origin of this passion for films from my country ? I am curios... can you write me some titles you have in your collection ?

[Jens Thomsen]

Sorry, have been away for some days.

jc_braconi -> Thanks for the link. Very interesting reading.

Luigi Bertolotti ->

Funny...what's the origin of this passion for films from my country ? I am curios... can you write me some titles you have in your collection ?

I think it started back in the 1980's when I was a kid. I grew up near the Danish-German border and would watch a lot of German television. German television at that time had some very good late night shows like Das Gruselkabinett and Der phantastische Film which would show old horror movies like the American Edgar Allan Poe films from AIP and some Italian stuff. Also when I went to highschool around 1990 there was a small Danish magazine that had a lot of focus on the Italian murder mysteries (gialli) of the 1970's.

For a lot of years I have watched mainly what was new and exciting in the cinemas or classics from around the world (the films of Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini and Antonioni from Italy and several others). But I only recently took up the wonderful world of the Italian B-movie again. In the 1960's and 70's Italy was probably the largest supplier of low budget genre films with the peplum, the westerns, the horror and crime movies etc., and I find there are a lot of interesting stories and stylistic innovation to be found in these films. Right now I am mainly watching 1960's (gothic) horror films like Riccardo Freda's I VAMPIRI, or the films of Mario Bava, and Italian police films of the 1970's. They often have great entertainment value and very groovy soundtracks. I especially like the films from Fernando Di Leo, like MILANO CALIBRE 9, IL BOSS, and LA MALA ORDINA and the films with Tomas Milian.

As for posters I have so far mainly been collecting old Danish posters of art house classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, the films of Akira Kurosawa and so on. But I got really interested in Italian posters last year when I won a few on eBay. Right now I have some posters from Dario Argento films like the duo-foglio from TENEBRE and L'UCCELLO DALLE PIUME DI CRISTALE, and I am looking for a duo-foglio from PROFONDO ROSSO. I also have a couple of Italian posters from non-Italian films, like the American film VANISHING POINT. That is nothing compared to people I know, however. One of my friends has several albums full of fantastic locandini from Italian crime films.

The thing about Italian posters is that the Italian artwork very often surpasses what is found on posters from other countries. The artists doing the posters back in the 1950-70's were very talented and often made pictures of amazing quality. Another thing might be the size of the large duo-foglio (100x140cm) and quatro-foglio (140x200cm). Here size *does* matter. A big Italian duo-foglio can look incredible on your wall.

The poster of my dreams would probably be either a large quatro-foglio of Mario Bava's LA FRUSTA E IL CORPO (The Whip and the Body) or a quatro-foglio of LE FORZE DEL MALE (= the American film noir Force of Evil). I hope I will find them someday