[swanlefitte]

Not the company just the camera.
https://newsrnd.com/life/2022-06-11-leica-prototype-auctioned-for-14-4-milli...Jgr82Gft5.html
"At the Leitz Photographica Auction in Wetzlar on Saturday, a Leica of the 0 series was sold for 14.4 million euros, according to the organizer."

I didn't see if it said if it is in working order.

[Just1MoreDave]

That camera must take some great pictures.

[kypfer]

That camera must take some great pictures.

At that price, would you want to risk putting film in it only to find that it didn't work?

[StiffLegged]

Musta had a CLA before auctioning? Somehow I doubt it'll ever see a roll of film run through it ever again: locked away from the light and hoi polloi forever.

Perhaps this purchase actually has nothing to do with photography.

[jgnfld]

But can it do action photography? What about video?

[BigMackCam]

"It once belonged to the inventor of the 35mm camera, Oskar Barnack.

His name is engraved."

Must've been worried about it getting lost or stolen.

I've got a Zenit E with someone's name scratched into the base plate. Cost me GBP £20 with a near-mint zebra Helios-44-2 <feeling smug>...

[c.a.m]

I quote the following from one of my photo books: 500 Cameras: 170 Years of Photographic Innovation, by Todd Gustavson, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc, 2011, page 224.

"Around 1913, Barnack, by then an employee in charge of the experimental department of the microscope maker Ernst Leitz Optical Works in Wetzlar, designed and hand-built several prototypes of a small precision camera that produced 24 x 36-mm images on leftover ends of 35mm motion picture film. Three of these prototypes survive."

"Barnack used one of his cameras in 1914 to take reportage-type pictures of a local flood and of the mobilization for World War I. That same year, his boss, Ernst Leitz II, used one on a trip to the United States. However, no further development of the small camera took place until 1924, when Leitz decided to make a pilot run of twenty-five cameras, serial numbered 101 through 125. Still referred to as the Barnack camera, these prototypes were loaned to Leitz managers, distributors, and professional photographers for field testing. The evaluations were not enthusiastic, as the testers thought the format too small and the controls too fiddly, which they were. ... In spite of its reviews, Leitz authorized the camera's production, basing his decision largely on a desire to keep his workers employed during the post-World War economic depression."

This early production run of the so-called "0 Series" [or "null" series] preceded the improved Leica I Model A of 1925.

Gustavson highlights the beginning of the 35-mm format thusly: "The genesis of 35mm photography can be traced to George Eastman's Kodak camera, the first to use nitrocellulose roll film. In July 1891, W.K.L. Dickson, an employee of Thomas Edison's New Jersey laboratory, visited Eastman's Rochester manufactory and ordered four fifty-foot lengths of 1-inch wide film, a size half the width and twice the length of that used in Eastman's No. 1 Kodak. Rectangular perforations were made on each edge of the film, four per 1-3/4 inch image frame, matching those used on Edison's Kinetograph, to evenly advance the film. These dimensions became the standard for 35mm film"

The book also describes two early commercially-available cameras -- the 1914 Simplex camera as "one of the earliest" to use the 35mm film format, and a 1914 Tourist Multiple model, "one of the first still cameras designed to use 35mm film."

Although Leitz wasn't the first to offer a 35mm camera to the public, Barnack has been called the "Father of 35mm Photography," and the camera at auction -- Serial No. 105, stamped with Barnack's name -- holds a special place in the history of photography.

- Craig

---

Last edited by c.a.m; 06-12-2022 at 11:54 AM. Reason: correction

[lytrytyr]

The evaluations were not enthusiastic, as the testers thought the format too small and the controls too fiddly

And almost a century later, Pentax would hear the same about their Q system.

[Digitalis]

That's a lot of money to pay for something that is functionally useless. I once peeked at the price of an Ebony SW8X10 on Fleabay...I think I'll hold on to mine thank you.

[Lord Lucan]

What about video?

Ironic that in the case of 35mm photography, video came before stills.

[MarkJerling]

Not the company just the camera.
https://newsrnd.com/life/2022-06-11-leica-prototype-auctioned-for-14-4-milli...Jgr82Gft5.html
"At the Leitz Photographica Auction in Wetzlar on Saturday, a Leica of the 0 series was sold for 14.4 million euros, according to the organizer."

I didn't see if it said if it is in working order.

Wow!
That would make your day, if you're the previous owner.

[Digitalis]

That would make your day, if you're the previous owner.

Well minus the percentage the auction house gets of course, which can be upwards of 20%....people often forget that.

Well minus the percentage the auction house gets of course, which can be upwards of 20%....people often forget that.

It's usually nearer 25 -30% these days but with something like this they would make a deal with the vendor.

[gaweidert]

Well, brassing always does make a camera look better.


The machine used by Kodak to punch the sprocket holes in 35mm film is now about 110 years old. My brother had to work on it once and they were pulling engineering drawings dating from 1912 so they could make some replacement parts. 35mm was a primary movie film back then and making a small camera that could what was already available made a lot of sense.

[AgentL]

I quote the following from one of my photo books: 500 Cameras: 170 Years of Photographic Innovation, by Todd Gustavson, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc, 2011, page 224.

"Around 1913, Barnack, by then an employee in charge of the experimental department of the microscope maker Ernst Leitz Optical Works in Wetzlar, designed and hand-built several prototypes of a small precision camera that produced 24 x 36-mm images on leftover ends of 35mm motion picture film. Three of these prototypes survive."

"Barnack used one of his cameras in 1914 to take reportage-type pictures of a local flood and of the mobilization for World War I. That same year, his boss, Ernst Leitz II, used one on a trip to the United States. However, no further development of the small camera took place until 1924, when Leitz decided to make a pilot run of twenty-five cameras, serial numbered 101 through 125. Still referred to as the Barnack camera, these prototypes were loaned to Leitz managers, distributors, and professional photographers for field testing. The evaluations were not enthusiastic, as the testers thought the format too small and the controls too fiddly, which they were. ... In spite of its reviews, Leitz authorized the camera's production, basing his decision largely on a desire to keep his workers employed during the post-World War economic depression."

This early production run of the so-called "0 Series" [or "null" series] preceded the improved Leica I Model A of 1925.

Gustavson highlights the beginning of the 35-mm format thusly: "The genesis of 35mm photography can be traced to George Eastman's Kodak camera, the first to use nitrocellulose roll film. In July 1891, W.K.L. Dickson, an employee of Thomas Edison's New Jersey laboratory, visited Eastman's Rochester manufactory and ordered four fifty-foot lengths of 1-inch wide film, a size half the width and twice the length of that used in Eastman's No. 1 Kodak. Rectangular perforations were made on each edge of the film, four per 1-3/4 inch image frame, matching those used on Edison's Kinetograph, to evenly advance the film. These dimensions became the standard for 35mm film"

The book also describes two early commercially-available cameras -- the 1914 Simplex camera as "one of the earliest" to use the 35mm film format, and a 1914 Tourist Multiple model, "one of the first still cameras designed to use 35mm film."

Although Leitz wasn't the first to offer a 35mm camera to the public, Barnack has been called the "Father of 35mm Photography," and the camera at auction -- Serial No. 105, stamped with Barnack's name -- holds a special place in the history of photography.

- Craig

Great rundown of this camera's importance. Anyone who might be motivated a little bit by snark regarding Leica's air of superiority and "status" ought to stop and think about that fact that this camera is probably the most meaningful first step in 35mm photography, that which we all enjoy (either with 35mm film, or the digital derivations which have all been so deeply informed by 35mm photography), and owe to this prototype, the few others like it, and the man behind it - who built it with his own hands. To quote Indiana Jones, "this belongs in a museum!" but hopefully the new owner will allow it to be exhibited somewhere for us normies to see, at some point.