The one-off Leica digital rangefinder camera went under the hammer as part of the (RED) Auction at Sotheby’s in New York.
The camera fetched $1.8m (£1.1m), having been expected to raise $500,000-750,000.
More than 500 models of the full-frame Leica Digital Rangefinder Camera (pictured above) were made – involving the manufacture of almost 1,000 prototype parts over the 85 days it took to create.
On the British photographic history blog page, Royal Photographic Society director general Michael Pritchard writes: ‘The sale shows the importance of a designer’s name, the association with the world’s most valuable brand, Apple; and the longevity of Leica as a collectible.’
Last year, an O-Series Leica sold for a record €2,160,000 at the Westlicht auction in Vienna, Austria.
Jonathan Ive is Apple’s senior vice-president of design.
The Leica-manufactured camera was also created with help from Australian Marc Newson, who designed the look of the Pentax K-01 interchangeable-lens camera announced last year.
Before the sale, Leica chairman Dr Andreas Kaufman said that input from Ive and Newson ‘sets a new and unprecedented standard in modern photography’.
He added: ‘As the only one ever to be produced, and boasting their unrivalled aesthetic, this Leica camera will truly create its own historic category when it goes under the hammer…’
The sale aimed to raise money for an organisation that helps fight diseases such as AIDS.
