0-Series No. 105 Sets World Auction Record

In June 2022 a Leica 0-Series camera, serial number 105, sold at the Leitz Photographica Auction (the Vienna-based house formerly known as WestLicht), held at Leitz Park in Wetzlar, for €14.4 million including fees. It is the highest price ever paid for a camera at auction.

The 0-Series were pre-production prototypes made in small numbers around 1923–1924 to test the market before the commercial Leica I launched in 1925. Fewer than 25 are believed to survive. No. 105 has particular provenance: it was one of the cameras used by Barnack himself and was given by the Leitz family to a recipient whose descendants consigned it to auction.

For context: the previous record for a camera at auction was also held by a Leica 0-Series. The auction result reflects both the rarity of these pre-production instruments and the depth of the collector market for Leica's earliest history. No. 105 is not a practical camera — it is a primary artefact of the invention of modern photography.