Leica MP Original Silver finish cameras / Jay Maisel’s personal cameras with consecutive numbers, RARE !! SOLD

Description

Leica MP Original Silver finish cameras / Jay Maisel’s personal cameras with consecutive numbers, S/N 222 & 223 RARE !! Call for price.

This Nice Rare Original MP camera set belonged to the famous photographer Jay Maisel and was purchased by him when the MP cameras were made and were offered to professional photographers!!

http://studio.jaymaisel.com/collections/portfolio

Leica MP, 1956~1957

Leica MP only had a very short production duration. Considered as one of the most desirable & pricey Leica collectible camera body today. Whether from perspective of rarity or basic features embodied within, it can be still considered as an evolved form from Leica M3 rangefinder camera. The “P” in Leica MP is referred a special production series of a M3 that were catered for professionals or press photographers if you like – because most “pros” during the time were referred to press/media photographers* and/or photojournalists. Except for its announcement literature in Photokina, 1956 Leica MP, the camera had not been catalogued in general Leica product catalogues as it was not meant to be marketed by Leica as a mass-market consumer model.

Typical Leica MP models have a few points which made it a little different from regular M3 Leica camera model. Internally, it has a longer shaft in its film advance mechanism. It was delivered with a companion accessory Leicavit rapid advance base unit attached. Leica has also omitted some features such as Self Timer whereas the exposure counter has to be manually reset. Some of the changes were concealed within the body and requires experienced traders/technician to remove the chassis to determine. There were two features in this respect for authentication 1) the serial number xxx has a “P” alphabet behind. The serial number is located under the base plate and has to be removed in order to see it. Next, there was a change in mechanical structure. In order to withstand demanding rapid winding action with the Leicavit, the gear has changed to harden steel rather than brass as found on standard M3 unit. The Leica MP camera has NO self timer Although in popular belief Leica was only intended to produce a series of 500 units (MP1~MP500 serialize-numbered) but according to Dennis Laney the highest number recorded thus far is Leica MP 402 (but some seasoned collectors may only acknowledged a total of only 252 units still circulating). Next, although the initial production was started in 1956 but majority of the units were rolled out from the factory in 1957.