Any samples with this exorbitantly dear Leica camera will be appreciated!

[zenny]

Hi friends:

I happened to read http://www.westlicht-auction.com/index.php?lang=3 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18050363 just a while ago. Also watched the relevant video at youtube:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSFy6yebMJ4

I am just curious why this tiny little camera is so exorbitantly expensive? Is that because of features, technical merits, rarity or antiquity value?

I would love to see the outcomes of this peculiar camera if any of the forum members have any. Appreciate it if you can post!

Thanks!

/z

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[Daniel Stone]

its because some dumba$$ with too much loose money wants to put it in their safe.

think of how many starving people around the world could be fed with the money spent in this auction. To me, its sickening. But they have the money, I don't. I can't tell them what to do with it, just like they can't tell me how to spend my dough...

-Dan

[Old-N-Feeble]

Oh... c'mon, Dan. Surely the buyer intends to donate that camera to a homeless photographer.

[sully75]

well 90% of the great photojournalist pictures you've ever seen were taken with a Leica. They are pretty awesome little cameras, and somehow a bit more artful in appearance and always have been. They seem to inspire a certain method of working, similar to LF (I mean, both types of cameras force the photographer to operate in different ways). So, there is and always has been some cache attached to them.

Mike Johnsons's article "A Leica Year" is pretty interesting.

Paul - who's selling all his Leica stuff to buy LF stuff - McEvoy

[John Kasaian]

A large format Leica is kind of a contradiction, ain't it?

[Drew Wiley]

I'd call em a useful LF accessory. You see, the tripod I use for my 8x10 has a little hook
below the platform. You hang a mesh bag from this and load it up with either rocks or Leicas to help stabilize the tripod in the wind.

[Richard Wasserman]

I can't speak to the price—which seems silly to me—but this is a significant camera. It is a prototype, 1 of only 12 (about 2 dozen were made) thought to still exist which Oscar Barnack convinced the Leitz Company to produce in 1923. The design was shortly afterwards introduced as the Leica I, and the rest is history.

[Richard Wasserman]

Drew,

Do you think M9s will work OK, or should I wait for Photokina when the M10 might be announced and buy a bag of those? My tripod needs more weight......



I'd call em a useful LF accessory. You see, the tripod I use for my 8x10 has a little hook
below the platform. You hang a mesh bag from this and load it up with either rocks or Leicas to help stabilize the tripod in the wind.

[MIke Sherck]

What? No, wait! I thought he asked who had to use the bathroom!

My wife is going to kill me...

;) Mike

[Frank Petronio]

73568735697357073571

Perhaps they aren't the most practical cameras but for $500 you can get a nice 1930s vintage Leica screw mount that is only a few model generations away from this prototype. Not only can you appreciate how hard some of the early 35mm photographers had to work to get a successful shot (with ISO 18 film for example) but the images have a different sort of quality. Seems as least as valid as all the posers shooting plastic Holgas . Operating - even fondling - the old Leicas is quite pleasurable if you know what you're doing.

[Frank Petronio]

7357073571

Perhaps they aren't the most practical cameras but for $500 you can get a nice 1930s vintage Leica screw mount that is only a few model generations away from this prototype. Not only can you appreciate how hard some of the early 35mm photographers had to work to get a successful shot (with ISO 18 film for example) but the images have a different sort of quality. Seems as least as valid as all the posers shooting plastic Holgas . Operating - even fondling - the old Leicas is quite pleasurable as long as you do it alone, in a dimly lit room.... Cackling at the poor Occupy protestors helps heighten the experience.

7357273573

[gth]

That's pretty Frank, hope it is still in your possession.

I guess now, the price of gold "Luftwaffe" engraved "Leicas" just went up 100%.

Me I had to go fondle my lowly FED2

[Dan Fromm]

A large format Leica is kind of a contradiction, ain't it?

Not quite. I've always thought of the Speed Graphic as a Leica made by BLH or the PRR Altoona Works.

[Serge S]

Sometimes the collector market is illogical. I was wondering the other day why Picassos sell for $100 million at auction these days and Renaissance artists seem to have lost some lustre.

I do like M's and SM Leicas though. I use them a lot less than I used to, but still use them all today:) They are simple and don't interfere with my thinking about the subject. I like the direct vision approach too.

[zenny]

@Frank: Thanks a zillion for the samples.

Like you stated it has a different feel. And the picture with the girl running after seagulls is a masterpiece (at least for me). It gave me an impression as if the girl is also trying to mimic the seagulls in order to fly with her hands waving on both sides. An analogous feminine Mowgli (from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle book)!

The slightly darkened edges along the borders reminded me of lomography. ;-)

What a wonderful shot!

/zenny

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[ic-racer]

I didn't think there would be that much light fall off when stopped down.

[E. von Hoegh]

Drew,

Do you think M9s will work OK, or should I wait for Photokina when the M10 might be announced and buy a bag of those? My tripod needs more weight......

You should use the heaviest, of course. Probably one of the SLRs....they go begging, compared to the RF models.

[Brian C. Miller]

Seems as least as valid as all the posers shooting plastic Holgas .

Only the insecure worry about validity.


Cackling at the poor Occupy protestors helps heighten the experience.

Watch out for the violent "anarchists." (http://www.petapixel.com/2012/05/07/black-bloc-occupiers-turn-violent-against-photographers/) Of course they may not feel threatened by some bum laughing to himself with a ratty old camera.

[E. von Hoegh]

Only the insecure worry about validity.



Watch out for the violent "anarchists." (http://www.petapixel.com/2012/05/07/black-bloc-occupiers-turn-violent-against-photographers/) Of course they may not feel threatened by some bum laughing to himself with a ratty old camera.

Yes, a scruffy-looking dude with a vintage camera in his hands, chuckling with glee, will certainly stand out in a crowd of gesticulating and shouting Bluetooth zombies. It will be the smile that gives him away. (grinning smiley)

[r_a_feldman]

They were probably not taken with this particular camera, but you can see some of Oskar Barnack's early photos at http://en.leica-camera.com/culture/history/oskar_barnack/.

BTW, shouldn't this thread be in the Lounge?

Bob

[MDR]

Leica build a O-Serie replica a few years ago unfortunately with a coated lens. A Leica IC should give you the same feel and costs a few millions less. Photos made with the replica can be found on the net.

Dominik