May Comment - CameraGazette.com

£76,861 for a Leica M4

leica_olive
A Leica M4 Olive sold for £71,861 (87,500 euros) at the WestLicht Photographica auction in Venna, Austria.

Westlicht's auction, on May 23, 2009, raised a total of about £965,530 (more than one million euros).

The original olive M4 made for the German army, went for more than double the high estimate.

It wasn't the only classic to beat the credit crunch. A Leica M3, presumed to be one of the earliest ever built raised a staggering 72,000 euros.

An almost mint Nikon I went for 27,000 euros and a black painted Nikon S2 cost its new owner 8,400 euros.

WestLicht link

A Classic Micro?

Talking of classics, the Micro Four-Thirds camera expected to be launched by Olympus, looks very much like the 1959 Olympus Pen, according to a report on the Amateur Photographer website.

pen

Amateur Photographer
Comment

MAY 2009

Olive Royal beats the crunch

What a fabulous camera, but was it worth it? Look at that fantastic M4 on the right. At a whopping 87,500 euros at auction, you might think it was bought on expenses by a British MP, or some banker who has spirited away the firm's toxic debt. Although this M4 olive, made for the German army, went for silly money - indeed, twice the high estimate - at the WestLicht Photographica Auction, it's nice to see that a precision instrument is so highly valued. And it proved that cameras can beat the credit crunch. It might only take film (let's not get into that debate just now), but you wouldn't want to take it out on the streets anyway... especially if the voters are watching.

Mightier than the Pen

Olympus are thought to be toying with the idea of a retro Micro Four Thirds along the lines of the 1959 Pen camera. Great to see all this interest in fine cameras again. But wouldn't it be nice if they could bring back the OM1 as a digital instead, maybe as a rival to the Panasonic G1? Now that would be mightier than the Pen.

Where is the Bessa III?

And yet more talk of new 'classics'. First it was May, then it wasn't going to be in the UK at all, then... Voigtlander had everyone saving their expenses after announcing the forthcoming Bessa III, a 6x7 folding rangefinder... and then it seemed to disappear from the radar. Even official distributor Robert White appeared to be a little confused. The website said "Expected June" at the top of the page; at the bottom it said: "First deliveries expected May 2009". There seems to be a lot of interest, even at £1,650 a pop. So come on Voigtlander, before everyone buys a lovely Leica instead, or the expenses dry up.