MP-126?

[dickgrafixstop]

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At the recent Tamarkin auction a Leica MP-126 (black enamel) sold for

$158,000. What is it and what makes this camera so collectable?

[sdk]

I’m not sure if this was the camera of a famous professional but this is an MP of the original model, not the current production type. The original MP was marketed from 1956 to photojournalists as an upgraded version of the Leica M3 with steel gearing (instead of brass), originally sold with a matching Leicavit rapid winder with the same serial number. The number 126 is the serial number of this camera and its Leicavit. Often the camera and winder will have got split up during their history, but these match.

[philipus]

Rarity and in this case complete set. The Wiki reports a total of just over 500 MP1s and MP2s.

 

On the MP1 page there's a link to the Fontenelle collection with pictures of a very nice black enamel MP. Very beautiful.

[adan]

Expanding on sdk's summary:

 

When the M3 (and the M line as a whole) was introduced, it did not originally have the capability of the screw-mount cameras to work with a bottom-mounted "Leicavit" trigger film advance. In 1956, two LIFE magazine photographers, David Douglas Duncan and Alfred Eisenstadt, who had worked for years with screw-mount Leicas and the Leicavit, asked Leica for specially-modified M3s with Leicavit capability.

 

Leica produced four M3D and three M3E cameras personally for those two photographers, which looked like standard M3s, except for using an external manual-reset frame counter, required by the modification for the trigger film advance connection, and later also used for the M2. And the elimination of the self-timers as excess baggage for professionals.

 

While the machining was set up, Leica then produced a run of a few hundred "MP" (M-Professional) cameras of the same design, with special 3-digit serial numbers. They were not sold to the general public, but provided only to established professional photojournalists employed by the dominant publications and agencies (LIFE, LOOK, Paris-Match, Stern, Magnum, the AP, UPI, Reuters, etc.).

 

Thus the MPs are not only numerically rare, but the odds are high that the original owner of an MP was a prominent professional.

[SJP]

Wow, thanks for the complete story. Interesting place this forum.

[philipus]

Indeed, very interesting. Thanks Andy. The Wiki should be updated with this thread.

 

So the "P" in the original MP was not for "Perfection", then (something which Leica alludes to for the modern MPs).

[kokoshawnuff]

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In 1956, two LIFE magazine photographers, David Douglas Duncan and Alfred Eisenstadt, who had worked for years with screw-mount Leicas and the Leicavit, asked Leica for specially-modified M3s with Leicavit capability.

 

Ironically, Eisenstead later said that though Leica had made him a couple cameras with personal specifications in mind, and he used them quite a bit, he still always preferred his standard chrome M3s.

 

Also if OP is interested (or anyone else) you should look back through the last few Tamarkin auction catalogs to see quite a few MPs--they always seem to come up with a couple for their bi-annual auctions, of course bringing more and more every year like a modest version of the Series 0s that pop up at Westicht.