Leica always used six-digit numbers on its 35mm rangefinders till 1963. The fake’s serial number is a dead giveaway. These cameras would never fool an expert Leica collector, but they were good enough to take in somebody who thought they’d stumbled on a rare piece of WWII memorabilia. the models issued to the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine (the German navy), the Heer (the army), and even Hitler’s personal photographers. The mid-1990s, began forging Leica cameras from the Nazi period. There were more mercenary objectives on the minds of those who, sometime in Not surprisingly, the sale attracted controversy, but the auction house contended, “Whether good or bad history, it must be preserved”. Recently, a watch belonging to Hitler – presumably authenticated – sold at auction in the USA for US$1.1 million (around £890,000/AU$1.6 million). In fact, so prolific was his output that when experts came to authenticate the handwriting in the diaries, they compared it with letters that Kujau had forged, but which had been accepted as genuine. The forger behind the Hitler diaries – Konny Kujau – reproduced a whole range of items purported to be linked to Adolf Hitler, including paintings, letters, poems and uniforms.
This very rare item, which is fitted with a Leitz Summitar 5cm f/2 lens, has a starting price of €150,000 at the Leitz Auction and an estimated sale price of €300,000-350,000.And, if you’re familiar with the story of the Hitler diaries, you’ll know that, regardless of whether it’s in good taste or not, there’s a strong collectors market for Nazi-era memorabilia.
The same applies to all the other items in this article. I am going to emphasise once again that at top-level auctions such as this, cameras are bought primarily as collectors’ pieces, so the chances of this being used at a seaside resort near you are very slim. The photographers had to be right on it as regards frame numbering and the issue of numbered tickets to potential customers. Despite the sometimes war-related use of such cameras, many of them ended up in the 1950s being used by ‘walkies’ photographers at British seaside resorts where their large film capacity was a boon for the operators. This one still has matching numbers for the camera and drive, but it was made after the war and delivered to Amsterdam in 1948. Many were used in different aircraft over time. Typically, the motor was left in the aircraft, and the camera was taken out to change the film.
Only 92 cameras were fitted with the MOOEV electric motor drive, and these were mainly installed in Luftwaffe STUKA dive bombers to photograph various war-related ‘events’. The earlier FF model had a maximum shutter speed of 1/500s while the GG had a top speed of 1/1000s. The GG is the later model of the 250 Reporter. This set comprises a Leica III GG Reporter and a Leica Motor MOOEV.
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