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Zeiss 21mm madness at Ffordes

Well, as rare items disappear into collections, other wealthy collectors get desperate.

Wish I still had mine.

But keeping all this stuff in a closet makes me crazy. Use it or lose it.
 
I suppose it will go even higher after a few years. Collectors are willing to pay in large amount for something which is rare. The same happens for various editions of Leica M cameras and lenses. The sums involved are just astronomical.

Marc, how much did you pay for the Leica MP3 ? Do you shoot with it ?
 
Joseph is correct about Leica collectables. Once, during the "fat '80s", I had a small collection of about 10 older Leica cameras, a few of which became increasingly in demand from wealthy Japanese collectors.

Buyers use to trail me at camera shows with wads of cash making higher and higher offers to buy. Since I was much more interested in using cameras rather than collecting them, I finally gave in when the feeding frenzy reached a level approaching insanity.

For ex&le, one camera/lens/leicavit combo provided enough cash to fund an entire Leica M system including a 2 M cameras, and an array of lenses including a 75/1.4 and Noctilux. I made about a 600% profit from my original purchase.

A few years later the bottom dropped out (relatively speaking), and I just smiled as I went about shooting with my complete M kit.

Joseph, the MP3 is the current LHSA limited issue with the matching Retro design 50/1.4 ASPH. It is a camera I use for personal work and enjoyment (like travel). I no longer will own a camera that I do not use. I also have a M7 and array of black M glass from 28 to 135mm for commercial and wedding applications.

The MP3 is the last film camera I will buy, and when the M digital arrives the M7 will be sold.

The MP3 is a thing of beauty and grace...

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I know it is very rare, but this went for $7,707 !!

That's collectors for you.

I recently sold mine (mint, boxed and with all original accessories) to a collector in Japan for £5,000 or around US$9,000, and he didn't flinch. I understand he now has one (maybe the same one) for sale within Japan at US$15,000! Maybe I sold too low?

Although an amazing lens, for me it didn't offer good value for money, I'm not a collector and it just wasn't as nice as the 85mm f1.2. And I suppose having paid £79 for my 50mm f1.7, I didn't see a £4,921 increase in performance
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That's a beautiful picture of a camera Marc and as you say, a thing of beauty and grace- I think, very well put.
 
Marc Williams > The MP3 is the last film camera I will buy, and when the M digital arrives the M7 will be sold.

Marc!
I am just curious. Will you sell M7 also if the M digital will be crop camera? To begin with, will you buy M digital if it is a crop camera?
 
I think so Didzis. I have a crop frame Leica DMR-9 that is the same 10.3 meg, 1.37X crop factor specs that the Digital M will be. I have no problem with that. It will increase the effective focal length of my current lenses, but Leica is also suppose to bring out some wider "digital" lenses.

Besides, I am keeping the MP3 for rangefinder film use.
 
As promised, my Epson V750-M Pro arrived. Now let's get back to the original topic about 21mm madness. Here is a shot taken on Contax 645 with CZ 3.5/35 attached and focused at the minimum distance of 0.5m. The price of the setup (the camera, the lens and even the scanner included) is about the same as the single 21mm lens. You know, IMHO if you are already have it, then keep it forever. Otherwise, you can get a slightly better tiff file for less (well, to be precise, I'm still fighting with focusing, so the scan might be not optimal - I'm sure that the transparency keeps more details than shown here). I do not compare 35mm with MF. I compare TIFF files, and they are not apples vs. oranges. They are what is supposed to be printed and your customer probably doesn't care about how those files were generated. This particular one is about 140 megapixel and more than 800MB size.
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And here is the 100% crop marked as the white rectangle above:

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Cheers.
 
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