Does a Leica mount cost that much?

[oftheherd]

photo-arsenal-worldwide has a lens listed at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sun-Sola-for-Le...14&_trkparms=72:1205|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

which they say is a Sun Sola for Leica screw mount 3,5/7,5cm lens, which I take to be a Sun brand lens in LSM.

Does LSM make it worth that much? Or is it some kind of limited edition with collector appeal? Or maybe not a Sun brand?

Even for Arseal that seems like a lot to ask.

 

[rogue_designer]

Looks like maybe it was a very limited manufacture run. But that does seem very high.

 

[M. Valdemar]

Photo Arsenal is in their own private universe as far as pricing is concerned.

Like the Twilight Zone.

I think they just price astronomically and troll for suckers. Once in a while they get a fetishist who HAS to have something they have and they manage to sell something.

 

[Al Kaplan]

Sun made decent, but not great, lenses. A lot of post WW-II Japanese cameras and lenses were once considered as "cheap Japanese copies" and not highly valued. Often it was cheaper to replace something than to get it fixed. This was very true with Nicca cameras which was actually a well made Leica copy that came with a Nikkor lens. By the early 1960's camera stores had dozens of used Nicca bodies for about $10 each. People just wanted the Nikkor lenses. Today a decent condition Nicca body will sell for more money than the Leica model it was copied from. Nobody got them fixed. They ended up in a landfill someplace if they broke. Now they're rare and valuable. I suspect that a lot of Sun lenses with gummed up diaphragm rings or focussing mounts met the same fate. I sure wish that I'd spent my money back then buying up Nicca bodies ...

 

[payasam]

Excuse me, Al, but do not many people still consider Japanese cameras and lenses inferior to German ones? And what of the business about Wetzlar and Midland?

 

[M. Valdemar]

Leotax made Leica copies that are far better built, with more careful machining, than the Leicas they copied.

 

[zeitz]

Sun 90mm and 135mm are somewhat common. They are not bad lenses. Spiratone sold them in the '50s. The 75mm is rare. That's why it's expensive. Leave the 75 Sola for hard core collectors and look for something else that might be of interest to you.