Cheap Is Not Good

[daveleo]

A common theme not just with this forum but other enthusiast forums (for watches, pens etc) is how cheap somebody has procured a valuable item and a lot of people say how good it that, jolly good fellow, what a hero.

Well actually it is very bad as when items have no intrinsic value they become a deposable item and nobody spends money to maintain them. And when nobody maintains them expertise in maintenance and overhaul of such items disappears. Very few people are going to spend $300 or more overhauling a $10 camera. The question you have to ask is not how cheap can I get a camera for but how much am I willing to pay.

Do you want film cameras to be available in 10-15 years time.

The ball is in your court.

What is it that you would like people to do?
The marketplace drives prices. Old mechanical camera prices are down
because there are millions of them out there (not being used) and a collapsing
buyer market. Correct, mechanical camera repair is becoming a lost craft.
That is not because old cameras are cheap.

Or possibly I don't get what you are implying ?

 

[shadowfox]

A common theme not just with this forum but other enthusiast forums (for watches, pens etc) is how cheap somebody has procured a valuable item and a lot of people say how good it that, jolly good fellow, what a hero.

Well actually it is very bad as when items have no intrinsic value they become a deposable item and nobody spends money to maintain them. And when nobody maintains them expertise in maintenance and overhaul of such items disappears. Very few people are going to spend $300 or more overhauling a $10 camera. The question you have to ask is not how cheap can I get a camera for but how much am I willing to pay.

Do you want film cameras to be available in 10-15 years time.

The ball is in your court.

Maybe, but the only reason I am still buy and sell cameras is because I can get good gears below market value. And people like myself are good customers of repair shops.

Yes, I want film cameras to be available in 10-15 years.
And I do that by using film and getting people interested in it also.

If you don't generate the interest, there will be more good cameras tossed away.

 

[tunalegs]

The edixa I bought two years ago for $1 and cleaned myself is still going strong. Best $1 I've spend on a camera.

There is no such thing as "intrinsic value" in a camera. Only perceived value. So whatever you're willing to spend on it, is what it is worth.

 

[Keith]

I don't get this ... the OP is a self confessed collector with a very large stash of quite rare OM gear. Are you interested in protecting analog photography for the future or maintaining the value of your collection?

 

[NeeZee]

a) a good friend gave me 2 nice old film cameras as a gift last year as he knows i still use them. that was really cheap - should i feel guilty now?

b) am i the only one who doesn't give a sh*t about watches, pens and vintage cars on here?

 

[Pablito]

b) am i the only one who doesn't give a sh*t about watches, pens and vintage cars on here?

How about pocket knives, guns, hand tools, tube amplifiers, bicycles, guitars? 😱

 

[Chris101]

I haven't read any of the intervening posts, so some may have already said what I am about to say (I suspect many here feel the same.)

Bargains - especially free stuff, is a treasure for me. I usually treat it better than stuff I have spent retail dollars on. That is because it is irreplaceable, while something I bought at a store can be rebought for the same price and in the same condition.

 

[djcphoto]

Cheap is always good.

 

[Pioneer]

First, I would love it if there are film cameras available, new or used, in 10 to 15 years. I believe there will be but I am certainly no seer, I would certainly not have predicted the almost total spread of digital in the last 15 years.

Second, I may be wrong but I can't believe that how much money I spend on used cameras will make any difference in how many will be available in fifteen years. What does make a difference is how I take care of those cameras that I personally own and use. So I use and take care of those that I own. I fix those that need fixing, though not all. Fixing a specific camera depends on finding a worthwhile repair technician, how much that repair will cost, and whether it is personally important for me to repair a given camera.

So cheap is neither good nor bad. But like most people I know, I do enjoy getting a bargain...and that bargain is really delicious when I can crow about it! 🙂

 

[redisburning]

the alternative way to look at this is the immense burden that cost of entry places on film photography for the young people who have yet to get on their own feet after or during college. mostly due to collectors being older; the baby boomer generation is both larger and better capitalized and keeps prices of the good stuff high.

you can argue that an OM-1 and a 50/1.8 is a perfectly good kit capable of taking wonderful pictures with even a modicum of technique. however, you should also accept that a lens like the 21/2.0 or 250/2.0 simply offers possibilities that a 50/1.8 cannot. and the prices of those lenses, despite being for a dead system, preclude the vast majority of young people from having access to a wide variety of creative possibilties.

 

[Spanik]

Very few people are going to spend $300 or more overhauling a $10 camera

This is a fallacy. While I would care to spend 300 on a 10 camera if that camera is only worth 10 I would without blinking spend 300 to mend a camera I spend 10 on but is worth 300 to me.

I bought a Bronica RF645 cheap and spend about as much on it to overhaul it. Likewise I have no trouble spending money to overhaul other camera's.

But spending 300 to overhaul an Instamatic would be idiotic. There are millions of those around, they aren't worth repairing. They were trowaway items when new are that hasn't changed.

That is where it comes apart. Some things are valuable because they are rare, irrespectively of what you paid for them. Some things are valuable for other reasons, like your first camera or the one you got from your dad. Some are without value just because they weren't worth much when new and they aren't worth much now.

And sometimes people ask silly money to repair something and that is also without relation to what the repair is worth.

 

[Brian Legge]

Purely anecdotal, but the first working Minolta 7sII I found was really cheap. The owner had been using it as a decoration for a decade. She viewed it only as a prop/antique, took care of it, etc.

 

[msbarnes]

A common theme not just with this forum but other enthusiast forums (for watches, pens etc) is how cheap somebody has procured a valuable item and a lot of people say how good it that, jolly good fellow, what a hero.

Well actually it is very bad as when items have no intrinsic value they become a deposable item and nobody spends money to maintain them. And when nobody maintains them expertise in maintenance and overhaul of such items disappears. Very few people are going to spend $300 or more overhauling a $10 camera. The question you have to ask is not how cheap can I get a camera for but how much am I willing to pay.

Do you want film cameras to be available in 10-15 years time.

The ball is in your court.

I'm sorry but I don't quite get what you are getting at.

Are you suggesting that people don't snatch bargain cameras like say canonets or that people shouldn't pay canonet money for expensive cameras like say, Leica M's?

I don't mean this as a snide but are you disgruntled that OM's aren't valued as highly as you think they should? Like how people would rather wait pay little to nothing for these cameras on say ebay whereas pristine cla'd well-cared for samples don't sell?

 

[S.H.]

On the contrary... getting a camera for well below market value makes getting it serviced more attractive. You buy at full value then have to spend that much or more to get service makes most think twice about it..

Exactly. I don't mind spending more to repair something I bought cheaply if it is something I like or need.

 

[tunalegs]

the alternative way to look at this is the immense burden that cost of entry places on film photography for the young people who have yet to get on their own feet after or during college. mostly due to collectors being older; the baby boomer generation is both larger and better capitalized and keeps prices of the good stuff high.

This is a good point.

Prices for old SLRs are low - because there are a lot of old SLRs and not very many people to use them currently. Supply and demand - it's not as though some committee decided that everybody was going to pay less for old cameras, and lowered the prices. There just isn't a whole lot of demand for basic film SLRs currently.

When you move away from the basic common stuff, getting into the more specialized lenses and bodies, demand is a higher, and supply harder to find, so those items hold their price better.

Lower prices though means that people who couldn't have afforded to get this equipment 10 years ago can easily do so now. That's a tremendously good thing - unless of course you think the SLR you bought 30 years ago should be worth as much today as it was when it was new.

 

[BenJT]

A common theme not just with this forum but other enthusiast forums (for watches, pens etc) is how cheap somebody has procured a valuable item and a lot of people say how good it that, jolly good fellow, what a hero.

Well actually it is very bad as when items have no intrinsic value they become a deposable item and nobody spends money to maintain them. And when nobody maintains them expertise in maintenance and overhaul of such items disappears. Very few people are going to spend $300 or more overhauling a $10 camera. The question you have to ask is not how cheap can I get a camera for but how much am I willing to pay.

Do you want film cameras to be available in 10-15 years time.

The ball is in your court.

Cheap can be good or bad, mostly good, expensive is mostly bad for those of us who don't have thousands to spend and/or aren't collectors.

 

[wblynch]

Expensive or cheap, it is better to use a film camera than let it sit on a shelf...

I think