Last week, Leica held an event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their Leica 1 film camera, where they made some exciting announcements such as the introduction of their first film camera, the MONOPAN 50 and the 100 Years of Leica editions of the Leica D-Lux 8 and Sofort 2 cameras.
In addition, they also held an auction of Leica cameras and accessories, where the most awaited auction was for the Leica 0 No.112 camera, which is the prototype of the Leica 1 camera introduced in 1925.
Before the Leica 1 was introduced, Ernst Leitz, the founder of Leica, and Oskar Barnack, the “father” of the Leica 1, introduced 25 prototype models of the Leica 0 film camera, which came with the serial numbers Leica 0 No.101 to 125, of which today, only half of these cameras still exist, making it one of the most desirable cameras by aristocratic collectors.
Last year, the Leica 0 No.105 camera was auctioned for 14.4 million Euros (~RM71.4 million), making it the most expensive camera auction in the world. It was auctioned at a particularly high price because the camera belonged to Oskar Barnack himself, making its ownership very exclusive.
However, the Leica 0 No.112 was still auctioned for 7.2 million Euros (~RM35 million), making it the second most expensive camera auction in the world.