Remember that auction we linked to the other day, for the old brassed Leica? Well, it sold today...and the final price was...
...$3,451.
Made me wonder...what else would I do with $3,451, other than not buy that? My son really wants us to get iPhones, and is plotting to drag his dad to the Apple store kicking and screaming. $3,451 would cover two iPhones for many months.
Speaking of the iPhone, which I unfortunately forgot to add as an option for a "Fiat camera" in that poll the other day (as many of you have reminded me), more than a few people have said they think that an iPhone is the true 2011 equivalent of an original Barnack camera. Small, easy to carry, unobtrusive. And with somewhat questionable image quality compared to the prevailing norm (35mm was not taken seriously in the early days).
When I first met my friend Nick, twenty years ago, he was agonizing over whether to get a Leica. He lucked out and found a nice M4 at an ebb in the market for that model, one that had an anti-collector "ding" in the top plate. He got it for $695 if I recall. Later, Nick got himself an M6, and he loaned me the M4 for a while. I shot with it for nearly a year in the late '90s, with my own lens, a collapsible 7-element Summicron that a wealthy collector had gotten multi-coated.
Recently Nick has decided to do some serious shooting with his iPhone 4. So, in a nod to the old days, he dressed it up a little. Funny. To me, at least.
On the way home from lunch with Nick, taking a shortcut through a nice neighborhood, I happened to see this sitting by the side of the road. I guess this economy is tough on everyone....
It's a 1969 Silver Shadow with only 33,000 miles on it, and it looked beautiful as far as I could tell.
Who knows, maybe the seller could get more money for it if it was in worse shape.
Mike
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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
Featured Comment by James B: "My great aunt Greta was—she claimed—the model for the Spirit of Ecstasy on the Rolls-Royce. Certainly, she was a model for Coco Chanel in the '20s and '30s, and later worked for Coco as her model organiser / booker. Certainly, Rolls-Royce contracted Chanel to provide a model for a sculptor to produce the Spirit of Ecstasy. The Spirit of Ecstasy was the second figurine commissioned by Rolls Royce. The first was based on the secret lover of an early Rolls-Royce customer in about 1910, and is different in that the first version has a finger raised to the mouth in a 'shush' gesture. That presumably is now worth millions.
"Greta was a very feisty lady. My wife wears an enormous diamond rock on her wedding finger that was gifted to Greta by an American gentleman in Paris in the thirties, and he no doubt had some expectations. She wasn't having any of it, but kept the ring. She was single to her death in 1983.
"It's a bit sad to see Aunt Greta for sale in a suburb of Waukesha for $12,500, or best offer."
Featured Comment by Robert Jagitsch: "Interesting, I just surfed here today (as I do every few days) only to find my brassed M2 auction featured at the top of TOP. For those interested, I picked this camera up in Dallas a couple of months ago (no, I'm not going to tell you how much I paid) then sent it to DAG for an optical and mechanical refresh. The viewfinder is as bright as any new M9, and mechanically it's smooth as butter. Winning bidder is from Japan; $3451 is a bargain in Yen.
Mike replies: Oh, c'mon! Tell us how much you paid! Pleeeease!
Featured Comment by Andrew Hughes: "I nearly bought a Silver Shadow for about the same money but, luckily for me, had a chat with a couple of independent servicing guys before splashing the cash. The buying price would not be enough for any serious work on the fabulous suspension (or probably on the equally amazing, for its day, air conditioning). A very expensive toy—but nice! —Andrew from Addis."
The Roller: hardly looks worth three Leicas.
Posted by: Paul Byrnes | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 02:00 AM
Funny I've had my iphone4 for about 2 months now and I haven't tried the camera once. My thinking is I most always have a real camera close by so why would I take pictures with my phone? I might try it out if someone can tell me where to load the film.
Posted by: MJFerron | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 09:01 AM
The price of the well worn M2 indicates that it is a camera with a "history". It probably was used by some well-known photographer which would add to its value. The battered shape reminds me of Gary Winogrand's M4 which you can see here:
http://www.cameraquest.com/LeicaM4G.htm
Somehow I'm unable to find the link to the auction you mentioned. I'm sure we'd find some interesting information on the history of this particular piece of equipment there.
Best regards
Werner
Posted by: Werner Wittersheim | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 09:07 AM
2 comments. Got the iphone a week ago. My son was right. It is an incredibly useful tool that, by the way, has a phone built in to it. I've shot 3 short videos for our newspaper website in a week. Instead of a half-day's work to get the video downloaded, edited on a pc or mac and uploaded to the site, it now takes me less than a 1/2 hour. Even the audio is decent.
Don't buy the Rolls Royce. It's British. I've had a 1972 MGB for 16 years. Fun, when it runs.
Posted by: Bill Bresler | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 12:09 PM
In 1980, my friend Jeff purchased a working M2, with much more brass showing than your example, from a local photo dealer fro $300. It was a OK deal. $3000+ for this example is a bad deal...for the buyer.
Posted by: Keith B. | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 01:25 PM
As far as I can tell, Rolls Royces and other luxury cars have generally had relatively poor 2nd-hand value for ever, essentially. Certainly I remember looking around in 2005 or so, and quite decent looking 70s cars were affordable in the UK. I was actually looking for a Bristol, they being much more interesting cars, but both were pretty affordable. What put me off, then as now, is that they're really big cars, have really awful fuel economy, and are not cheap to maintain, if you get a new enough one to be a practical driving proposition (so excluding the Bristol-engined Bristols, which are what you'd actually want, of course). I suspect those factors explain the cheap prices.
Posted by: Tim Bradshaw | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 02:13 PM
Robert, that was the non-working one that you picked up for less then 200 USD? :-)
Posted by: Martin | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 02:59 PM
Three G's buys a very nice printer. If you look there is also a black paint M3 on E Bay for seventeen big ones. Sheesh...
Posted by: mike plews | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 04:50 PM
I just spent $27 on a Russian Leica knockoff. I'm pretty sure that 125 or so of those are still not as cool as the camera above. Wouldn't pay that kind of money for either.
Posted by: Tom | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 07:41 PM
Hmmm, as compared to the $100,000 2 year old Honda Civic I bought myself here in Singapore some years ago.
Lucky,lucky Waukeshans!
Posted by: Mani Sitaraman | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 07:44 PM
I'll bet that a Leica decal for an iPhone would be a good seller!
Posted by: Gordon Buck | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 08:53 PM
I owned an old Rolls for a while: like all British cars, the key requirement was alligator clips and long lengths of wire, so you could follow the Golden Rule -- "if in doubt, bypass."
Posted by: ian | Saturday, 03 December 2011 at 09:48 PM
Did 60's Rolls Royces have electrical bits from Lucas (aka "The Prince of Darkness")?
Posted by: Paris | Sunday, 04 December 2011 at 03:23 AM
In answer to Bill, there's British and there's British Leyland.
Like any other car, a Rolls is not infallible but close and the company has always gone to great lengths to meet the expectations of its customers, even years after the original purchase. BL cars of the 70s, like MG, were off the road for more than they were on and soon disappeared into a hill of rust. We had a Daimler (a tarted-up Jaguar) and small Austin in the family during the 70s and both were unreliable and rust prone, despite the disparity in price. Few shed tears when the state-owned BL dinosaur was forced into extinction in the 80s.
PS Of course, the Rolls of today has a little German blood but so does the Royal Family ;-)
Posted by: El Inglés | Sunday, 04 December 2011 at 04:50 AM
my neighbour in mumbai/india recently bought a brand new Rolls for something approaching a million usd incl customs duty and taxes... i am told he is thinking of buying a gas station as well !!!!!
Posted by: ashok | Sunday, 04 December 2011 at 06:11 AM
EVERYTHING in Britain in the 50s & 60's had something from Joe Lucas's world of darkness -- the wonderful world of voltage regulators and generators and negative earth. And, 1978-1979 or so, I was picking up working Leica screwmounts for 35 to 50 pounds apiece, so it was a pretty good time, I have to admit.
Posted by: ian | Sunday, 04 December 2011 at 10:50 PM
Some interesting iPhone work in B&W from Beijing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57514659@N02/6237214821/in/photostream
Posted by: Darius | Monday, 05 December 2011 at 07:53 AM
The problem with a used R-R, or any other luxury car, is the 'deferred maintenance' issue. The used-car value goes down but the price of service does not, and many owners let their cars deteriorate to the point where the cost of refurbishment is far greater than the car's value. So the low entry price hides potentially huge future costs...
Luckily Leicas are less expensive to keep running, unless like me you manage to splash salt water on yours.
Posted by: Mark Sampson | Monday, 05 December 2011 at 09:23 AM
I wonder if that much brassing really is genuine and not modified for the looks?
Posted by: Raffwal | Tuesday, 06 December 2011 at 03:45 AM