Leica becomes world’s most expensive compact camera

General news

30 November 2007 14:21

An 84-year-old Leica camera has become the world's most expensive compact camera after being auctioned for a record-breaking price of £241,022 (€336,000).

An anonymous European collector bought the tiny portable black camera, dating from 1923, for over 100 times the cost of a modern-day digital camera. The Leica camera was the seventh of a series made in Germany to test the market for portable cameras, and was intended for export to New York.

The world's most expensive camera sold at auction was an early Daguerreotype camera made by the Susse brothers dating from 1839 and sold in May for €580,000 ($951,598).

Leica launched the world’s first 35mm compact camera, Leica 1, in 1925, based on Oscar Barnak’s prototype ‘Ur-Leica’. The Leica soon became the favoured tool of many reportage photographers, having a lasting influence on the history of photojournalism.