CameraWorth.com

Leitz 105mm f/6.3 Elmar LTM

The Leitz 105mm f/6.3 Elmar is a pre-war short telephoto for the Leica screw mount (LTM/L39), widely known as the 'Mountain Elmar' and designed for distant subjects where its modest f/6.3 maximum aperture was an acceptable trade-off for a compact, lightweight barrel. It was aimed at landscape, alpine and travel photographers using Leica I, II and III bodies.

At recent UK auction, clean examples of the 105mm f/6.3 Elmar have typically fetched hammer prices between £380 and £700, with a £400 result in January 2025 sitting close to the current median and a £700 sale in 2021 marking the upper end for standard copies. Early-2000s saleroom results sometimes pushed past £900, so the lens sells for less today in real terms than it did twenty years ago, and values in 2026 remain firmly in the few-hundred-pound bracket for an average screw-mount example. One exceptional £50,000 saleroom result in 2020 reflects a rare special-finish or presentation variant rather than the standard Mountain Elmar, and should be treated as an outlier when assessing what a normal copy is worth.

I have one to sell

Sales History

Prices shown are UK auction hammer results — the wholesale level achieved in the saleroom. Neither buyer’s nor seller’s commission is included. Dealer and retail asking prices are typically higher.

Date Price Source
Nov 2025 £362 Flints Auctions
Jan 2025 £400 Flints Auctions
Nov 2024 EUR 800 Leitz Auction
Sep 2023 £312 Flints Auctions
Aug 2022 £438 Flints Auctions
Nov 2021 £769 Flints Auctions
Jun 2021 EUR 700 Leitz Auction
Nov 2020 EUR 380 Leitz Auction
Jun 2020 EUR 500 Leitz Auction
Jun 2020 EUR 50,000 Leitz Auction
Jun 2020 EUR 300 Leitz Auction
Nov 2018 EUR 1,000 Leitz Auction
Apr 2018 £312 Flints Auctions
Nov 2014 EUR 400 Leitz Auction
May 2013 EUR 800 Leitz Auction
May 2013 EUR 420 Leitz Auction
Jun 2008 EUR 440 Leitz Auction
Nov 2005 £480 Christie's
Nov 2004 EUR 917 Leitz Auction
Jun 2003 £446 Christie's
Oct 2000 £646 Christie's
Aug 2000 £881 Christie's
Jun 1999 £276 Christie's
Jan 1999 £1,035 Christie's

Other Leitz lenses