Cameras & Camera Equipment

With technology changing rapidly, early cameras are increasingly taking on historic status. The 25 0-Series Leica cameras created in 1923 are among the rarest models and have previously broken records when they appear on the market.

Operating at a lower price point, there’s no shortage of collectors for vintage cameras and associated equipment. Specialist dealers operate in this field and a number of auction houses hold regular sales devoted to this category offering items including forerunners to the camera such as magic lanterns, zeotropes and praxinoscopes.


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French magic lantern and camera lens impress in Texas

03 June 2024

The French toymaker Georges Carette (1861-1954) is thought to have learned how to make magic lanterns from the Paris specialist maker August Lapierre.

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Photographica fair: market develops in different ways

29 April 2024

One of the exhibitors at this month’s Photographica says ‘point and shoot’ cameras are in demand

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Rare British camera emerges from Viennese source

15 April 2024

Austin Farahar, head of cameras and photography at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium), was recently contacted by a budding documentary photographer in Vienna who had received a collection of old cameras from his in-laws.

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Science & technology: Collectors who know their type

15 April 2024

Knowledgeable bidders generated high prices for early typewriters at German technology specialist’s latest sale

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Photographic viewing device can operate all day and night

15 April 2024

The invention of the megalethoscope by the Swiss-Italian optician and photographer Carlo Ponti greatly enhanced the experience of viewing photographs.

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Yul Brynner behind the lens at auction in Vienna

20 November 2023

Spanning two sessions at Leitz Photographica in Vienna on November 24-25 are consignments from the personal collection of the late Yul Brynner (1920-1985) via his daughter Victoria.

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Look at the big picture thanks to huge Leica dummy sales models

24 July 2023

Leica cameras of rather different dimensions to normal clicked into action at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).

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Vulcan cameras on buyers’ radar

20 February 2023

The prototype B1 Vulcan first flew in 1952 and it is a sign of the design’s longevity and durability that the last of these bombers was taken out of service only in 1984.

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Leica: 225 is the magic number

27 June 2022

The Leica I debuted at the 1925 Leipzig Spring Fair at a time when it was still common for glass plates to be used in cameras.

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Event builds on resurgence in vintage cameras

09 May 2022

Photographica is back on Sunday, May 22, at the Royal Horticultural Society in London.

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Vanity for spies

18 April 2022

The Fine Photographica sale at Flints in Thatcham, Berkshire, on April 23 includes this Ansco Photo Vanity 'spy' camera, estimated at £800-1200.

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Kemp & Co field camera comes to Yorkshire sale

18 April 2022

North Yorkshire saleroom Tennants is selling this Kemp & Co field camera with ‘tropical’ mahogany casing and brass fittings, with an estimate of £150-250.

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Two versions of the Compass

18 April 2022

It was supposedly as a result of a bet whether it was possible to make a camera that could fit into a cigarette packet that Noel Pemberton Billing (1881-1948) began work on a miniature, collapsible camera that would accept 35mm film.

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Entertainment memorabilia: Cover stories

05 April 2021

The name Abbey Road has gone far beyond its significance as a smart street in north London thanks to renowned music studios and a seminal album

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Rare spy camera disguised as pocket watch from 1905 brings bidding battle between two museums

15 June 2020

A rare ‘pocket watch’ sold by East Bristol Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) was more surveillance device than timekeeper.

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A detailed look at microscopes and much more

08 June 2020

Fine examples lead an array of scientific instruments and photographica at specialist sale

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Plea to help find photographica collection put together over 45 years but now stolen

02 May 2020

A collection of cameras, photographs and accessories put together by a private collector for more than 45 years has been stolen from a storage unit in north London.

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German daguerreotypes in the frame at Chiswick sale

20 April 2020

Trudpert Schneider (1804-99), a Freiburg carpenter whose first brush with photography was to repair a broken box camera, is today deemed one of Germany’s most important daguerreotypists. The photographic firm he founded in 1847 continued under the management of his sons Heinrich and Wilhelm until 1921.

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‘A pivotal piece of video game history’: PlayStation prototype from failed Sony-Nintendo partnership draws huge bidding in Texas auction

11 March 2020

A prototype of the PlayStation has sold for $300,000 at auction in Texas. The 28-year-old gaming console, offered by Heritage Auctions as part of a sale in Dallas this week is thought to be the sole survivor from 200 made during a failed joint-venture between Sony and Nintendo in c.1992.

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Extraordinary 'photo gun’ sets a house record by selling for £138,000 at Special Auction Services

24 July 2019

A ‘photo gun’ inspired by an African explorer has been snapped up for a hammer price of £138,000 at Special Auction Services, setting a house record for the Newbury saleroom.

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