I reposted this with a better title...maybe I'll get info quicker...

I am trying to determine the vintage, value and over all cool factor of a Leica I own. The Camera is a Leica DBP (?) with a screw mount s/n 724951. Can anyone pass along info about his camera? Thanks. -mjc

-- Matthew J. Clark (matthew-j-clark@home.com), November 26, 2001

Answers

According to the information on Steve Gandy's site, , your camera is a 1954 IIIf.

Godfrey

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), November 26, 2001.

Matt: By the serial number your camera should look something like this. It is one of the last and most advanced of the screw-mount Leicas - last screw-mount was made about 1960 - 1954 is when the M3 was introduced; Leica made both for a while

Value depends on condition, exact lens, etc. Body only IIIf with self- timer $550 (bargain condition) to $725 (excellent) to $890 (Excellent plus). Most 50s for this run about $200 unless they are rare/ collectible - then you need an appraiser!

Cool factor - well, see the link above. "Camera as art form."

In the web images the engraving reads Leica D.R.P. (Deutches something- or-other) It's not a model designation - it's corporate mumbo-jumbo (a patent registration or something like that, I think).

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), November 26, 2001.

Andy is quite right:

"D.R.P." means "Deutsches Reichspatent" and is not a model designation. Funny, that on a 1954-Camera they still were allowed to use this abbreviation...

-- werner musterer (contact@wernermusterer.de), November 27, 2001.

Actually, further research shows that M3s and M4s DO have DBP 'sted DRP engraving. This would stand for Deutsches Bundesrepublik-Patent. (Deutsches Bundesrepublik - German Peoples Republic A.K.A. West Germany). So Werner is right, too - the Reichspatent (as in Hitler's Reich) eventually was replaced by the more democratic DBP.

Also Matthew, a clarification. The 724xxx serial numbers were issued in 1954 for IIIf cameras - but Leica is notorious for issuing numbers one year and not using them until one or more years later (and occasionally for a camera other than the original model designated). So the best we can really say is that yours was made in 1954 OR LATER.

example: I have a 90mm lens that was introduced in 1980, but has a serial number 'tagged' to the year 1977, three years before it existed.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), November 27, 2001.