In June, an anonymous bidder paid $8.5 million for a 100-year-old camera that's essentially a light-tight box with a shutter. Five months later, another dropped £7.6 million on a current-production mechanical film camera you can buy new for just over six thousand dollars. Welcome to the world of collectable Leicas, where the gulf between function and value has become so vast it makes your head spin.
The cameras in question – a 1923 Leica 0-Series prototype and a Leica M-A gifted to Pope Francis – headlined what Leitz Photographica Auction is calling an "outstanding year" for the official auction house of Leica Camera AG. Together they accounted for over $16 million of sales during Leica's centenary celebration of the Leica I; the camera that revolutionized photography in 1925 by proving you didn't need a suitcase-sized contraption to take decent pictures.
