A limited edition ?solid titanium? Leica M7 has raised more than £73,000 at auction, proceeds from which will be used to replant tens of thousands of trees in the Brazilian rainforest.
The camera ? which belonged to renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado ? fetched far more than predicted. Before going under the hammer it was only expected to fetch around £47,000.
Salgado is an ambassador for the United Nations agency UNESCO and Leica gave him the camera as a tribute for his work for the organisation.
The rare model bears the special serial number 3,000,000 and was part of a series to mark last year?s 50th anniversary of the Leica M system.
Also sold at the auction was a black-paint-finished Leica MP-150 belonging to Magnum Photo president Thomas Hoepker. It went for the equivalent of around £36,000.
Meanwhile, a ?Black Paint? Leica IIIg, believed to have once been owned by photography legend Henri Cartier-Bresson fetched the equivalent of more than £16,000.
The kit was sold at the Westlicht Photographica Auction in Vienna, Austria.
