This Battered Leica Could Be Yours for $500,000

Sep 04, 2025

Matt Growcoot

A vintage Leica camera with a worn, black and brass body and a textured grip. The lens is prominent, and the exterior shows signs of heavy use and age, revealing patches of metal beneath the original finish. — This Leica MP, which has seen a fair few rolls of film in its time, is expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An exceptionally rare 70-year-old Leica that is listed as “heavily used” is expected to fetch $500,000 at auction next month.

Wetzlar Camera Auctions has set the starting price for an original Leica MP at €200,000 ($233,000) but has estimated it will sell between €350,000 and €450,000 ($408,000 and $524,000).

“The original Leica MP was produced exclusively for professional photographers at the time and represents one of the great classics among the collector’s items within the Leica M camera range,” the listing reads.

“Only about 140 examples were produced in the black paint finished version. The camera offered here with black paint finished Summilux 50 mm f/1.4 and black paint finished Leicavit MP is preserved in an entirely original condition.”

A vintage, weathered camera with peeling paint and a protruding knife blade emerging from its base, positioned against a plain white background. — Leicavit rapid advance base unit attached.

Digital Camera World notes that the camera is so rare because it was only produced from 1956 to 1957. This particular model was delivered to an address in New York on July 22, 1957.

The auction in Wetzlar — the German city that Leica calls home — will boast a number of rare and unusual cameras, including a 1925 Leica Model A with Anastigmat, estimated to fetch $116,500; a 1956 Leica M3 black paint Leica Technik, estimated $233,000; and a 1944 GOI Pioneer, estimated to sell for $81,500.

But surely the most unusual camera that will go to auction in Wetzlar is the bizarre-looking Voigtländer Metal Daguerreotype Camera.

Made in 1840, just one year after photography was officially invented by Louis Daguerre, the Voigtländer was made by Peter Wilhelm Friedrich Voigtländer and mathematician Josef Maximilián Petzval. Together, they created the world’s first scientifically calculated photographic lens and later launched the Voigtländer metal camera, the world’s first metal camera.

A vintage brass telescope with a cylindrical body mounted on a metal stand, viewed at an angle against a white background. — The Smithsonian, which holds one of these in its collection, says that the camera was originally introduced in 1841 and took 80mm circular images on Daguerreotype plates.

“The Voigtländer metal camera is one of the absolute rarities in the history of photography,” reads the listing. “Today, the 10-15 known cameras are almost exclusively to be admired in museums.”

The upcoming auction will be held on October 11, 2025, at 12 PM in Wetzlar. For full details, head to the Wetzlar Camera Auction website.