leica mp (original 1950s version)

cameosis

cameosis

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just out of curiosity, how much would a leica mp with a leicavit accessory be worth (and why)?

i have seen one on ebay for a buy-it-now price of some € 20,000 and wonder what the deal is -- if i got it correctly, it is a modified m2? fine, it had a limited run, but so ...?

thanks.
 
I'm sure Stan Tamarkin or Stepen Gandy can help you out on it's value. Very few were made and most were heavily used by the pro shooters (famous and otherwise) in the day as the cameras were not marketed to the general public for sale but the working pros. It's scarcety and strengthened internal parts is the reason for the high price tag.
 
cameosis said:
just out of curiosity, how much would a leica mp with a leicavit accessory be worth (and why)? ...i have seen one on ebay for a buy-it-now price of some € 20,000 and wonder what the deal is -- if i got it correctly, it is a modified m2? fine, it had a limited run, but so ...?
Click to expand...

In a word - 'Scarcity'

There are more fakes out there than the genuine. So when a 'real' one comes along, they're worth whatever someone is willing to pay to get it.
 
There was supposedly 418 MP's made. Initially it was a M3 type chassi with the M2 "long" take up shaft for the Leicavit MP (which was derived from the Leicavit for the screw-mount camera). The MP had case hardened steel gear instead of the brass gears of the "regular" M3's and M2's.
Many of the MP's were converted to M2 type finders to make the use of 35mm lenses more palatable.
It was a "special order" item and only sold to bona fide photographers initially, later they were more freely available. Majority of them were chrome and about 150 were black paint.
There was also a small series of M3's made, double stroke, black paint with MP gear train as a special order to the Swedish Press. Some of these were outfitted with the M2 shaft so that it could take the Leicavit MP.
The high prices is partly due to the scarcity and partly due to the fact that at the time it was a product aimed at pro market and a lot of the famous shooters of the time got them.
As a user it had certain advantages - the Leicavit allowed you to shoot a quick sequence without having to drop the camera. This was particularly important if you were a "left eyed" shooter. The interior gear train was sturdy though quite rough (the casehardened gears had the smoothness of a gravel crusher for the first couple of 1000 rolls and then they smoothed out).
It is reasonably easy to fake MP's and the Leica Guru Jim Lager once said that of the 418 made - at least a 1000 are fakes! You have to take the base cover plate off to check the interior numbers and also the geartrain and even then it is not a 100% guarantee!
Some ten years ago we found a new, in the box MP here in Vancouver and it could be verified as it had all the paperwork, box and the interior numbers matched! I suspect that that one was the last of these. The owner sold it for $12000 and at the time that was probably fair value. Today the market would most likely be in the $30 000+ for it.
 
and now all leica freaks are trying to get a job in the watse management business...

I followed the story on the LUF, she found it + two lens while a neighbour was putting it in the bin... and didn't know at all what it was...

the guy spotted that it was a leica and asked if it was a real leica ? and how it worked...

The perfect fairytale... but it sounded genuine...
 
hi guys, may be a little OT here.

But what is this camera ? Its labeled MP ( M3 ) yet it doesn't look like an MP

2801898891_ff4debe06d_o.jpg
 
It looks like an MP3, a special edition of 1000 MPs made two or three years ago. The body styling is a mix of M3 and M2 and it has solitary framelines for 35/50/90. It came with an engraved Leicavit and an E43 Summilux 50 ASPH that looks identical to the v1 Summilux.
 
It's not an MP3, which is a special LHSA edition indeed limited to 1000 pieces.

I have a black paint version, and it has no selftimer (the camera in the picture does) and it has its number out of the thousand engraved in the hotshoe (can't see this on the picture).

kr
d
 
it has no number on the hotshoe. There's just a MP-676 engraved on the top plate. And 2 contacts behind when a regular MP has only 1.
2803244606_ac43d9bf02_o.jpg
 
Yes its definitely not an MP3 now I see the back. I wondered about the Leicavit which has that slot in the near edge in the first photo. My bad but I actually didn't notice the self-timer (and I use an MP3 too 😱) and my Leicavit doesn't have that slot. So presumably this camera is much older. Tom A could probably identify it...
 
pfoto said:
(and I use an MP3 too 😱)
Click to expand...

good
you should ;-)
I like how everything, from speed dial to advance lever to strap, gets more and more flexible with use, it really molds into your hands.

my guess this is either an original MP, possibly repainted, or it is a fake made out from a regular M3. In that case the serial number has had to be 'doctored'. I dont know if thats possible without showing through the paint.

I think we need an expert here.

kr,
d
 
I read this story with great amusement. Did it turn out to be a hoax?


photovdz said:
and now all leica freaks are trying to get a job in the watse management business...

I followed the story on the LUF, she found it + two lens while a neighbour was putting it in the bin... and didn't know at all what it was...

the guy spotted that it was a leica and asked if it was a real leica ? and how it worked...

The perfect fairytale... but it sounded genuine...
Click to expand...
 
fortynine said:
it has no number on the hotshoe. There's just a MP-676 engraved on the top plate. And 2 contacts behind when a regular MP has only 1.
2803244606_ac43d9bf02_o.jpg
Click to expand...

This is obviously a fake! There was only about 150 black paint MP's made and MP 676 is not in that number sequence (it was 005 to 150 or something like that).
To fake a MP is actually quite easy, you need a donor M3 and a filmcounter from a M2 with the long drive shaft. As black paint is easier to apply than rechroming - most of the fakes (or replicas in this case as the #is outside any original MP). The most expensive item is the Leicavit MP as they can easily set you back $2000+ for one in working order.
The straplugs on the original MP was the M3 double stroke style (triangular) and the speeds was the old style (10/25/50/100). These things are not cast in stone though as many MP's had modifactions dome to them, straplugs were replaced as they wore through, M2 finders reolaced the M3 for 35 users and occasionally speed sequences were changed to the modern speeds.
MP's were working cameras and usually shows signs of heavy use and very few, particularly of the black ones have survived the ensuing decades unmolested or "mint" condition.
 
bob338 said:
looks like that lucky person has decided to sell their find...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Leica-MP-253-35...ryZ15234QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


bob
Click to expand...

Yes, this one`s the REAL DEAL, I bought the Summarit hood from the lens LOL!!!!!!! Too bad the Leicavit M is gone though.....

I`ve been close to real MP`s before, I once held a black one in my hands (from a EX Magnum Photographer) and slept in a living room in Germany, with three of them in a glass case next to me, (2 in the original boxes and 1 not) - that was exciting! 😀

Tom
 
Last edited:
David Murphy said:
I read this story with great amusement. Did it turn out to be a hoax?
Click to expand...
No I think it's genuine. Somebody asked at the end of the thread on the LUF what he was going to do for the woman who was originally dumping the cam and I don't think he responded. Can't blame him I suppose. At the beginning he had absolutely no clue about what had fallen into his lap but very quickly cottoned on to the fact that he had a goldmine. I'm amazed he's turned it round so quickly, CLA & all. Good luck to him - he's probably going to buy a nice dSLR outfit with the proceeds. 🙂
 
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