pico Posted November 4, 2010 Share #1 Posted November 4, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) There is a well-known, and pricey dealer in Nuernberg who always has Leica prototype lenses to auction. I know what a prototype is, but in my experience they are rarely released to the public. This is a mystery to me. So is it that Leica regularly sells real prototypes, or is that the dealer uses the term rather loosely? Oh, a facetious article of the $40000USD Leica M3 prototype. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted November 4, 2010 Posted November 4, 2010 Hi pico, Take a look here Prototypes?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
luigi bertolotti Posted November 4, 2010 Share #2 Posted November 4, 2010 In the years, Leitz made lot of prototypes, and usually they were kept at home - factory museum: but I think they have really many of them, and probably have found convenience to enter in business with the dealer you quote, putting them for sale with a "controlled" flow to the market, which helps keeping high the interest of collectors,and prices in consequence... nothing bad, they are very interesting. The price for the M3 prototype is astonishing... but for healthy collectors is a landmark item... in my opinion, the fact there are several M3 prototypes helps to keep its price very high: absolute uniqueness (as is for some lenses, like the chrome Noctilux 1,2 ...) is not always equal to stellar prices... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubice Posted November 4, 2010 Share #3 Posted November 4, 2010 US$40,000 is peanuts compared to this M3 prototype: WestLicht Photographica Auction 156,000 Euro hammer price! Best, Jan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted November 4, 2010 Author Share #4 Posted November 4, 2010 US$40,000 is peanuts compared to this M3 prototype: WestLicht Photographica Auction 156,000 Euro hammer price! Ah, thanks. That's the one I'll get. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted November 4, 2010 Share #5 Posted November 4, 2010 Lower number ---> higher price... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
diser Posted November 5, 2010 Share #6 Posted November 5, 2010 Lower number ---> higher price... That's right, "Leica 0" prototype from the very first batch of 31 cameras was sold for 336000€ in 2007 on the WestLicht auction. Here is the auction This was the third prohibitively expensive camera ever sold, loosing first two places to Daguerreotypes by Alphonse Giroux and Susse Frères. At the same time I can't imagine what would a price be for the original Ur-Leica! It should easily beat the $1M ceiling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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