Cameras you regret selling or not buying?

[Vince Lupo]

Just thought of one more:


FL3 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Luftwaffe Leica IIIc with a black MOOLY-C. Was a nice-working set.

 

[Hari]

M3 and 50mm/2.8 Elmar

 

[maigo]

Cameras you regret selling

Cameras you regret selling

Koni-Omega and lenses.
Not because of the camera or lenses specifically but because gave up on the kit after only a few rolls and before I had explored 6x7.
TBH, the gear was in need of overhaul and it is just too damn big for me.
I think a repaired Makina 67 or 67W would better suit my needs.

 

[narsuitus]

I owned two titanium Nikon F2 bodies that I regret selling. One I used and one was a brand new body in an unopened box that I kept as a backup. I sold them because their price rose so high and so fast that I feared using them for fear of devaluing them. I sold them for a profit and bought two Nikon F4 bodies that I could use with no fear.

 

[Evergreen States]

Was in an out of town camera store and had the opportunity to buy a Leica CL in a kit with the 40mm Summicron and 90mm Elmar and original case and lens caps a couple years ago for $700. I could have had them put in on hold, sent them the money and had it shipped to me but didn't.

 

[PRJ]

I regret selling the Contax II I had back in the 90s. I replaced it with a few IIas and IIIas but that first one was really special to me. I'll buy another one of these days but they are hard to find in great shape.

I regretted selling a Canon 7 and it kept bothering me. Now I have three... Lol.

Wish I still had my first camera too, but I don't really miss it that much.

The only cameras I regret not buying are Leicas. Wish I would have stocked up back in the day. Also the Zeiss Ikon used to be around $1200 brand new. I was going to get one then never got around to it. They just aren't worth what they sell for now.

And I wish I would have bought a Noctilux back when they were like a grand...

 

[KoNickon]

Had an M4-2 and Nikon FM3a, neither of which I used at all. I think they were just too pretty to use so I sold them to dealers. (And I have several FM/FEs anyway, and an M4, all in much more user condition so I felt much better about just continuing to use them.)

 

[chris91387]

Rolleiflex 2.8F

 

[DownUnder]

Indeed, we all have our regrets at having sold (or having to sell) those "significant other" cameras in our past lives.

One consolation is nowadays most film cameras are so cheap, with of course all the notable exceptions that need not be named, that often as not we can buy back a similar camera to what we flogged off decades back - with the added advantages for most of us, that they are not only more affordable now than they were then, and at this late tie in our lives (speaking for myself here) we have more disposable income.

In the 1980s, I saved up for a few years to buy two Leicas, an M2 and an M3, both impeccable condition and working order. Also several lenses and a small but most satisfying to me, collection of branded accessories. Alas, a little time passed, by then new architectural practice ran into a crisis, and I had to sell those beaut Leicas to fund my ongoing office commitments. Which I've always regretted.

A few weeks ago an opportunity came my way and I acquired, not dirt-cheaply but at a reasonable price for me, given the superb condition of the equipment, a Leica iif (LTM) kit. Which I am now very happily using, and enjoying a return to film for the first time since the Covid crisis landed in our laps.

So there is hope.

 

[Bingley]

I don’t think I have any regrets about a camera I’ve sold. There are times when I wish I’d kept the Canon L1 - it was a beautiful sample of that camera - but I now have a Canon VI-L which is better.

The one camera I regret never having purchased is the Leica CL, or its Minolta variants. I love small, high quality cameras, and I thought about getting a CL for years but never did. Now, I have a Bessa R2A which, although a bit larger than the CL, is a wonderful compact camera.

 

[JeffS7444]

You want to talk about regrets, consider that in the late 1990s my boss and several friends were real Macheads urging me to buy shares of AAPL. Even if I had dragged my feet until the early aughties and sacrificed the cost of just one more Leica M3 (~$1000), by late 2019, that investment would have been worth closer to $130,000!

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/021316/if-you-had-purchased-100-apple-2002-aapl.asp

That is like 1 Leica M3 from 2002 multiplying into 80+ of the things by 2019, if calculated by 2021 eBay selling prices.

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

What are your camera regrets?? And why??

Not many to be honest, I've been pretty lucky with my camera purchases...

A few that spring to mind:

- Black-paint Nikon F 'Apollo' with matching Nikkor-S Auto 50/f1.4 - popped up in the local classifieds for a price I could afford, and while I tried to get shipping included someone else snapped it up.

- Leica 35/f2.8 Summaron and Minolta 40/f2 Rokkor - I came very close to buying both of these on a number of occasions when prices where about half what they are today...

On the other side of the coin, a few years ago I put out a request for an 80mm Planar on a local film shooters FB group, and a retired pro got in touch to offer me his full Hasselblad kit (500C/M, 500EL/M, SWC/M, 80mm Planar, 150mm Sonnar and a bunch of backs). He was asking much less than they were worth, but much more than I was planning to spend. After umming and ahhing for a while, I eventually committed and bought the lot. I've since sold off much of the excess kit, keeping the bits I use. End of the day I've spent about $450 for the SWC/M, Planar and a couple of A12's...

 

[Pál_K]

You want to talk about regrets, consider that in the late 1990s my boss and several friends were real Macheads urging me to buy shares of AAPL. Even if I had dragged my feet until the early aughties and sacrificed the cost of just one more Leica M3 (~$1000), by late 2019, that investment would have been worth closer to $130,000!
…

But how could anyone have known the future of Apple back then? They were almost bankrupt.

 

[iphoenix]

In the early 1960s I was mates with "the kid over the back fence". We were in his back yard, when his parents brought out a metal trunk and said we could have anything in it, then whatever was left would be taken to the tip.

He made his selection, then it was my turn. I chose old radio tubes, coils etc. There was also a camera.

It was small, metal, had a tiny viewfinder, a lens and a funny looking "L" shaped bit of metal on the front, next to the lens. "Anastigmat" was written on the front of the lens.

It seemed a bit too complicated to use (bearing in mind my then camera was a Kodak Brownie Flash 2).

Around 20 years later I knew what Leica was. 10 years further on and I remembered this camera. Now, I try not to remember this Leitz 1A Anastigmat too often.

 

[raydm6]

Regret not buying a Palm Press 6x9 Camera w/Mamiya back and Schneider lens. Met with Gus Kayafas and he let me shoot a roll of 120 to test the camera. Not sure why I didn't pull the trigger. These pop up once and awhile on the bay.

 

[lcpr]

Funny that the SWC is mentioned a lot, as that was one of my regrets. About 10 years ago I found the 'perfect' SWC/M in chrome, it was one of the transitional models before the 903SWC so it had a CF lens, a body level and the later viewfinder. I didn't have the money at the time so I let it go. In December 2019 I picked up a 903SWC for a really good price so that regret is gone now.

There are two cameras I kinda regret selling, the first was a black gloss 4x5 Tachihara but I have a Linhof and the Tachi doesn't accept Graflok backs. The second was a Epson RD-1s but 6mp wasn't enough and the rangefinder would steadily drift out after a while.

I regret not picking up a Mamiya 7 or XPan, but I still regularly use the cameras I picked over them (a Pentax 67 and Deardorff V8).

 

[Dogman]

No regrets on any of my camera sales, what few there have been. If I have any regrets it's because I didn't buy a Hasselblad 500C/M when so many of them hit the second hand market as studio and commercial pros moved to digital. Prices were great and affordable but I failed to respond. A few years later, I had moved to digital myself and all my film gear was either sold or mothballed. I guess it all worked out for the best but I still wish I had picked up a 'blad when I could have.

 

[emraphoto]

Regret selling: Epson R-D1. A rare camera (less than 3000 exist of all variants) meant as a technical showpiece for the company rather than use, ingeniously cobbled together using Bessa film camera and Seiko watch parts, and a Nikon sensor! As an exercise is in industrial design on a budget, it's a tour de force, as a practical camera ... let's say it had quirks! If Epson ever make a 24MP version (never happening!), I'd buy it in a heartbeat! (I used to run the unofficial R-D1 website, long ago donated to Cameraquest (unfortunately, the pages have technical problems so they don't display as they should - ask Stephen at Cameraquest to fix it: he has all the images and files, and the pages I originally provided worked as a stand-alone website).

Regret buying: Leica M8. A hideous, steaming pile of crap from a lying company! It was simply not fit for purpose. As well as the known flaws like having to use infrared filters, it turned out to be utterly unreliable and poorly designed, with problems such as failing shutters and sensors. Its software crashed if you took multiple shots, with the camera locking up and frozen - and like a dodgy PC, the fix was to reboot it by turning it off and then on, in this case by taking the battery out and putting it in again!

To add insult to injury, Leica took months fixing my broken shutter. Then lied to me: a major reason I bought the M8 was Leica's official policy that the camera would be upgradeable. New, better sensor? No problem, send us your M8 and for a fee we'll replace your old one. A few months after I bought the camera - after saving hard for it - Leica reneged on this promise. If Leica hadn't been so niche, it's possible that someone may have been able to sue them: we in Europe take a very dim view of companies pulling such stunts, and have extremely robust consumer protection laws. Leica left such a bad taste and treated its customers so poorly, that I'm boycotting the company for the rest of my life!

a big DITTO on the M8 experience. i bought two and had such a terrible experience with Leica USA that i sold everything with a red dot on it and never used one again. cost me a relationship with an important editor as well

 

[emraphoto]

Ricoh GR III… that’s about it. It’s just too expensive in Chile to rebuy after paying nyc prices.

the GR III is one of the best cameras i have ever used. i've been using it more regularly for assignments and the images are often the best of what i transmit

if you ever break and want one, let me know as they are fairly plentiful up here in Canada. not sure about duty and such on your end though...

 

[j.scooter]

When I got into film for the second time after shooting film in my teens, I bought and sold lots of cameras. With the surge in digital at the time, cameras that I had long wanted but could never afford were suddenly within reach. I was giddy and wanted to try them all.

There were two that I regret letting go of, namely the Fuji TX1 (xpan) and Mamiya 6. Now with the resurgence of film, and certain cameras have sky rocketed in price, these two have gone back to the out of reach status for me.