For the truly sad among you...

[h._p.]

Amateur Photographer has a report that the first ever M3 has just

been sold in Austria for around £70,000.

 

Somehow I doubt it's going to be used to take pictures...

[stephen_w.]

I wonder what the prototypes would sell for.

 

I know what Mr. Phill, or is it Pill say.

[i_am_right_you_know_i_am]

w/f

 

i say, it's not a rembrandt

[jay_.]

<<the first ever M3 has just been sold in Austria for around £70,000.

Somehow I doubt it's going to be used to take pictures>>

 

The same can be said for lots of brand-new off-the-shelf Leicas ;>)

[dan_brown4]

If it's in nice condition, it belongs in a museum. Only a fool

would use it to take pictures. A true classic of of 20th century

mechanical engineering and manufacturing. Isn't it fantastic that

we can still get it (mostly) in the form of an MP.

[michael_bender]

...amen

[bob_chong]

Maybe the new owner will pimp it out for fondlers.

[jay_.]

<<Isn't it fantastic that we can still get it (mostly) in the form of an MP>>

 

Yup.

 

<<Only a fool would use it to take pictures>>

 

Yup.

[lee_shively]

I dream, nay--have fantasies, of getting hold of someone's Leica collection and actually loading each camera with film and photographing something. Did I hear the thud of a faint-hearted collector falling into a swoon?

[jean_christophe_barnoud1]

<p>I can understand the interest of an early M3 as a "<i>true classic of of 20th century mechanical engineering and manufacturing</i>". Yet I wonder what is the difference between the first and the second (or third, or any from the first batch ...)?</p>

[kevin m.]

Lee, I had a similar automotive fantasy in my youth. I vowed that if I ever became rich, I would go to a concours car show and buy some rare, four-wheeled bauble.....then back it repeatedly into other parked cars in front of the assembled spectators. A Ferrari GTO, maybe. Or a Bugatti Royale.

 

But the good thing about collectors is that they do help subsidize those of us who still take pictures with these anachronisms.

[skip_williams]

The camera in question wasn't actually the first production M3, but a top plate that had been culled out of the production process and saved for later creation as the "first M3" for commerative purposes. It's actually missing certain "features" of very early M3's. The actual first M3 was 700,001. There was a long discussion over on the LUG or somewhere else about this camera a few weeks ago. The auction house in Austria has a picture of it too.

 

I'm sure that someone else can set me straight with the exact details if I'm in error.

 

Skip

[h._p.]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, some klutz has just shelled out £70,000 for something that isn't even what it claims to be?

 

Excuse me while I go and laugh myself silly...

[steve_barnett2]

Thats not much laughing.

[h._p.]

Oh, Steve, you wound me, only not a lot.

[skip_williams]

The origin of the camera in question was well known, I'm sure the buyer understands full-well what he/she bought. In any case, it IS the M3 with the lowest serial number; that's for certain.

 

Skip

[david j.lee]

skip. it was actually the first M3. serial # 700 000 that they

auctioned.

the camera was a present from leica to stefan kruckenhauser,a

photographer in 1954.

for a reason that is still not clear to me,i received an invitation

for the auction of that and some other toys,like a leica outfit that

was recovered from the hindenburg disaster. both this one and

the M3 # 700 000 starting bids were 40 000 euros.