The serial production of the Leitz Camera, Leica for short, the world's first 35mm camera, is considered a milestone in modern photography.
Before the first devices were available, Ernst Leitz produced the 0 series in 1923 and 1924, a batch of probably 23 prototypes.
One of these rare devices - the 0-series no. 105 - was auctioned off at the 40th Leitz Photographica Auction at the Leitz Park in Wetzlar for 14.4 million euros including buyer's premium. The estimate was two to three million euros.
The 105 breaks the world record for the most expensive camera of all time.
The almost hundred-year-old camera is one of the first 35mm cameras ever made in the world and was previously owned by a prominent figure. It belonged to Oskar Barnack, who, shortly before the First World War, developed the "Liliput camera", the prototype of the Leica and thus the 35mm camera per se. had constructed.
Barnack captured motifs from his family life with the 0 series #105.
He let the experience he gained flow into the further development of the camera and its subsequent models.
Barnack's name is engraved on the top of the viewfinder of the auctioned apparatus.
It is not known who is her owner.
The most expensive camera in the world to date – also an 0 series, No. 122 – was sold at the 32nd Leitz Photographica Auction in 2018 for 2.4 million euros including a buyer’s premium1.
The auction house operates under the umbrella of Leica Camera Classics, an Austrian subsidiary of Leica Camera AG.