$2.19 million camera proves Leica makes expensive stuff

A recently auctioned Leica from 1955 became the world's most expensive camera, however, it isn't the only Leica model to command a high price.

This past holiday weekend, while most of us stateside were recovering from turkey overload and Black Friday battle wounds, the WestLicht photographic auction house in Austria announced that it has sold what may be the world’s most expensive production camera. At 1.68 million euros ($2.19 million), it’s no surprise that the camera, an M3D rangefinder from 1955, was made by Leica, a company renowned for its lenses and craftsmanship that still makes some of the most expensive shooters today.

The M3D fetched the price thanks in part to the history surrounding it. It was one of only four ever made, and was owned by famed LIFE magazine photographer David Douglas Duncan. According to WestLicht, Duncan used the camera from 1955 until recently in 2007, documenting everything from the Vietnam War to his friendship with artist Pablo Picasso.

Leica Luxus

The M3D wasn’t the only Leica at the auction to ring up a huge payday. There was a gold-plated 1929 Leica Luxus that sold for nearly 1.02 million euros; the first serially produced Leica M3 from 1953 (owned by Willi Stein, the chief design engineer of Leica predecessor, Leitz) for 900,000 euros; and three Leica MP models owned by photographer Paul Fusco for 858,000 USD.

None of these Leicas topped the amount of the most expensive camera, however. That honor still goes to a 1923 prototype made by, you guessed it, Leica, which commanded 2.16 million euros (nearly $2.8 million) at a WestLicht auction earlier this year. That camera, a Leica 0-series, was one of 12 surviving models and a prototype to the Leica A. The company can also lay claim to having made the most expensive lens, a one-off custom jumbo telephoto made for a Qatari prince who paid more than $2 million.

If you are wondering why Leica cameras are such luxury items, think of the products as finely crafted goods rather than mass-produced commodities, like a Montblanc fountain pen versus a BIC disposable. They have tank-like construction with high-grade components, and feel solid in the hands. (You can watch the lengths Leica went to in creating a special edition Leica M9-P in collaboration with fashion house Hermès.) There is a long history that is associated with the brand, and there’s a certain cache that comes with using one, too. Considering that photographer Duncan used his for more than 50 years, they will probably outlast the plastic camera in the superstore bargain bin easily. They don’t necessarily make the best cameras nor will using one make you a better photographer, but Leica obviously has a following that will gladly pay a good sum for one; whether you should become one of the following depends on how you view electronics, either as heirlooms or replaceable.

These rare, million-dollar Leica products probably cost slightly more than what your holiday budget allows, but Leica offers several models in its current digital camera lineup that are slightly more accessible and less pricey, but by no means cheap. If you desire the Leica technology without paying the price, look into Panasonic’s Lumix digital cameras, many of which utilize optics that conform to Leica’s standards.

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Car thieves apparently uninterested in fuel economy, Toyota Prius proves one of the least-stolen cars in the US

The Toyota Prius has proven unpopular with thieves, possibly because the parts of the popular hybrid are not interchangeable with other models.

Another in a list of very sobering reasons to buy a Prius, the National Insurance Crime Bureau has issued a report explaining that the popular hybrid model is highly unlikely to be stolen. It is specifically the model years 2008 through 2010 which are stolen the least, with 1 in 606 reported stolen, versus the average of 1 in 78 stolen for all vehicles made during those years. That’s quite a difference, all the more surprising considering the car’s popularity. Toyota has sold 1.2 million of them in the US, and half of all hybrids on US roads have Prius badges.

So why is the Prius stolen so infrequently? The obvious answer would be that the car is too slow for an effective getaway. But perhaps car thieves just don’t shop at Whole Foods, or maybe the thrill of stealing a car is diminished somewhat when it’s something so dorky. That is, until you consider that the 1991 Camry and the 2000 Dodge Caravan are two of the most-stolen cars in America, and neither of them are likely to be labeled as “badass”. No, the actual reason is a question of practicality. Quite a lot of stolen cars are hacked apart for parts, and so it makes the most sense to steal cars which sell in big numbers, as these are the ones with parts that are in demand and easy to unload quickly. As popular as the Prius is for a hybrid, it’s not Camry popular.

There are still enough Prii (Toyota’s word, not mine) on the road that there is a demand for parts, but Prius owners tend to use the dealership for service more than independent shops, and dealerships are less likely to buy their parts from chop shops. The parts on the Prius are more or less entirely unique too, so they couldn’t be sold in order to be fitted to a different car. Then there is the complexity of the hybrid system, and the fact that disassembling the Prius is much more complicated than it is with a regular car. Having now gone into what is possibly a suspicious amount of detail on this subject, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from here. The report, after all, doesn’t speculate much on why this phenomenon is happening, they simply reported that it’s happening. They did go on to say in which states the Prius is stolen the most, but these are also those where it sells the best, and unsurprisingly, California is at the top of the list.

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