A c.1930 Leica 1 (A) f3.5 Elmar with rangefinder, cassettes, case and box priced £1849 from Pete Loy.
Organised by the Photographic Camera Collectors’ Club of Great Britain, this is a camerafest for collectors and dealers with 120 tables laden with wood and brass cameras to modern classics and early digital.
Peter Loy, an exhibitor, says: “There’s been a resurgence in people buying film cameras to use akin to the renewed interest in vinyl. Among both photographers and camera collectors, there’s one manufacturer whose products will always be revered and that’s Leica.
“Still being manufactured today in Wetzlar, Germany, their first camera was introduced to the market in 1925 and was an instant success. It was the first commercially successful still camera for 35mm film.”
Loy is offering a c.1930 Leica 1 (A) f3.5 Elmar with rangefinder, cassettes, case and box for £1849 at the fair.
Personal connection
Nigel Richards in 1957 aged eight with his father’s camera, a Voigtlander Brilliant first made in 1932.
Retired IT consultant Nigel Richards looks after Photographica’s promotion and has been a photographer and a collector of cameras since he was a boy.
He is pictured above in 1957 aged eight with his father’s camera, a Voigtlander Brilliant first made in 1932. Richards says: “I was talked into selling it many years ago and 15 years later met the person who bought it. I told him that it was my father’s camera and he gave it back to me.
“I think it was bought for him in 1933 when he was recovering from an illness in Switzerland. It was probably significant in my decision to collect cameras and I was printing photos from it when I was eight.”
This is an important camera in Richards’ collection and not for sale but he will have some classics at the fair including a Voigtlander Vitessa, a 35mm camera made between 1954-57 which he is selling at £185.
