World’s most expensive camera sells for $3.75 million

A Leica prototype, the O-series from 1923, has recently sold at auction in Vienna for approximately A$3.75 million (€2.4 million), a figure six time higher than the opening bid. Sold at the Westlicht camera auction house, the world record hammer price was attributed to the fantastic condition of the camera. Opening bids for the camera, with serial 122, started at €400,000, with the winning bid coming from a private collector in Asia. The final price included the auctioneer’s fee of €400,000. Prior to this sale, the world’s most expensive camera was also a Leica O-Series, which sold in 2013, at the same auction house, for €2.16 million.

Made two years before Leica cameras hit the market, 25 prototypes of the O-Series were made by camera mechanic Ernst Leitz. Just three are known to exist in their original condition.