Free equipment

I have been given a Konica S3 for free, and a prism for the Pentax MX. Other near-free items have been consistently junk and useless and gathering dust. I bought a very cheap Tower camera that may have been thrown off some tower somewhere. I got for cheap a Kodak back for a camera that I don't have and that does not work anymore. I have to convince myself that it is a "classic". My wife is not buying my arguement.
 
Ok, this is a little awkward but worth mentioning because its related to free gear.

There is a major camera store Called Henry's outlet in Toronto. Its located right at gay area of Toronto. Anyway, if you go there get ready to be offered a free strap, or lens cap or even a filter by the ever friendly smiling camera salesman who would want you to come back and show him some of your photos.

But if you didn't then next time you go there he won't even talk to you!

:D
 
I have a Retina III my wife inherited from her Dad. It's only a problem because she won't let me shoot it...and that vexes me.

Well, I've shot two rolls through it, but now she won't let me play anymore.
 
I haven't picked up much...I got an old minolta xg1 the other day, but the light meter refuses to work, and it hung in the owner's garage for years. The lens (28mm chinon...did not seem too sharp) even had a dead centipede-like thing inside it.

With the minolta came a few flashes I'll put to good use, however. I really wish I would find an old minolta srt at a thrift store for a couple bucks...cheap on ebay, but not cheap enough. :D


I thought $15 was a pretty decent price for a near mint yashica electro gsn, though. Not any spectacular once-in-a-lifetime deal, but a lot better than ebay.
 
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I have the ideal situation with a friendly local used camera shop owner. I take it all to him and ask "do you want this?"When he says no, I throw it away. Some of the things he accepts.

But when I need something like a lens cap, hood, or strap; he always returns the favor. Last year he knew I was looking for a Canonet GIII 17 so when he got a good one in a bulk buy, he just gave it to me.

So it is a bit like having my own communal storage / trade facility.
 
I seem to get offered enlargers quite a bit, and I turn them down because I just can't use them. I don't have space to set up a darkroom, and I shoot mostly color and I don't really have the skill to print optical color prints.

I was also offered a bunch of Canon SLR stuff which I turned down. I have one SLR (Pentax K1000) which I use regularly, and I really don't need more cameras, really.

I have, however, got a few nice hand-me-downs, stuff that I would not otherwise get for myself, such as ...

1. A very nice Yashica D TLR in excellent shape. I've only shot two rolls, and it does take some getting used to. I plan to use it more, now that I have a real ...

2. A Gossen Super Pilot light meter. I'm feeling a bit more confident as to how accurate it is, but I really wish there were a way I could check this against a known standard.

3. A nondescript fixed-lens Nikon P&S 35mm camera. I ended up giving this to another RFFer.

4. A HUGE honking Sunpak 120 bare tube flash which did not work and had some broken plastic pieces. I cleaned up all of the grody battery residue and such and it actually works fine now. I used it for my Weegee experiments. I think this has to be registered as a weapon in 28 states! :)
 
I just got given an enlarger, dev tanks, trays and so forth, all the little bits and pieces. This was just fine with me....

...plus I was given a colour enlarger and every damn gizmo you need or could think or for printing cibachrome from slides in luxery, including a couple of packs of 500 sheets of paper. God knows how old they are.
The first I will use for my black and whites not sure what to do with all the cibachrome stuff....maybe I should buy some Kodachrome. Do they still make Kodachrome 64?
 
I got for free a polaroid land camera,the old folding kind, unfortunatly,it took 127 film and smelled like mold heaven, so off to ebay it went.
I will keep the Hassy 501cm,although I had to buy a lens and back for it.

Kiu
 
dazedgonebye said:
I have a Retina III my wife inherited from her Dad. It's only a problem because she won't let me shoot it...and that vexes me.

Well, I've shot two rolls through it, but now she won't let me play anymore.
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What??? But thats torture!! Claim your human rights :D
 
LOL!!!

this is a wonderful thread!

i got into photography too late so all anybody ever does is tell me what they would have given me.... sigh.

i have a nest of young vultures myself -- waiting for me to give them my gear (though they think RF focusing is archaic).
 
I think my favourite "freebie" in the last decade is a battered Nikon SP! Robert Rotoloni gave it to me as " No collector will even look at it!" I then paired it with a 35f2.5 Nikkor that a friend in Japan gave to me as the front lens element looked like a skating rink.
That beaten up SP has a perfect finder and everything works smoothly - except the 135 frame - but who uses that on a Rf anyway!
The 35f2.5 has a certain glow to it in sunlight - but it is very sharp.
 
jolefler said:
...the same league. I would tend to believe there's some disparity in income, though. The web site's a gold mine, I hear :D
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The hourly rate of return on the work spent producing each article is, I suspect, about as high as sitting cross-legged in the high street with a tin cup in front of you (and of course the obligatory dog with a piece of string for a lead). Frances suspects that the tin cup might be more lucrative...

Cheers,

Roger
 
kshapero said:
...But....... sometimes I score big...
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I make a habit of scouring flea markets, thrift shops and internet listings. The really good stuff I keep (mostly for a while only), the other gear I sell for a profit, which has gotten me a beginners Nikon DSLR set in the past. With this set I started to make some money, and since have upgraded to a professional Nikon DSLR set and my favorite camera, Leica M3 with a set of M-Hexanons.

You need to invest a lot of time, several hours a day sometimes, but you get to handle a lot of gear, allowing for a well founded choice of what you'd like to use yourself.

My best finds:
Nikon FM2n with 50mm 1.2 EUR 50 -> EUR 250 sale
Minolta CLE with all three lenses and flash for EUR 300 -> EUR 850 sale
Konica Hexar AF EUR 35 -> EUR 375 sale
Yashica 35 GSN with lenses EUR12.50 -> EUR 100

Selling is time consuming as well, since you need to read up on gears' specifics and shoot good photos of the gear you're selling.

Moral, never pass up on old gear offered to you!
 
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