Kowa Six outfit - worth anything?

[dasuess]

Not sure if there's a better place for this...

A friend of mine has a Kowa Six out that he's asked me to dispose of for him. He wants no money - he just wants it out of the house. I guess it's a downsizing thing ;-)

Three bodies - Kowa Super 66 w/eyelevel finder, Kowa 66 MM w/waist level finder, Kowa Six w/waist level finder, plus two 85mm f/2.8 lenses and a 150mm f/3.5 lens. The camera and lenses appear to be in working order as far as I can tell. There are some other accessories, such as close-up filters, a flash meter and a spare waist level finder. This kit was used for wedding photography back in the day.

Is this stuff worth anything? I have searched the RFF classifieds, but not found any Kowa stuff. And eBay has prices all over the place.

Should I give this stuff away as my friend has suggested or try and get him some money?

 

[defconfunk]

It's definitely worth something. Take a look on apug.org

 

[mpaniagua]

Agree. Try Apug.org. People there use all sort of equipment and Kowa are decent cameras. Probably talk with people there to try and see if there is someone local so it would be easier.

Regards.

Marcelo

 

[KoNickon]

Very selfishly, I would say "I'll take it all!" And I mean it. But if you want to sell it, go on over to APUG, as the others suggest. I think I saw some Kowa gear there recently.

 

[Beemermark]

Why not put it on the classified here? The Kowa 66 camera and lenses were very good MF cameras.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Roger Hicks has had one for ages and as I recall he rates it fairly highly; you mainly need to treat them gently because as I understand it, they were not necessarily the most robust of designs. But the lenses are said to be very good indeed. I have consistently read positive comments about their sharpness.
Cheers,
Brett

 

[Beemermark]

The original Kowa 6 was less than robust but the bugs were worked out of the 66 and it was a very good model. Just wasn't up to the competition and dropped out of the race.

 

[Pete B]

Excellent lenses too. Really good.
Pete

 

[hap]

I agree .....APUG.org

 

[Rick Waldroup]

For a short while, I owned a Kowa 6 system. The lenses are indeed, excellent. I would certainly try and sell the gear before giving it away.

 

[Archlich]

The first two lenses occasionally show up in auctions. It's obviously quite an ambitious system.

 

[rhl-oregon]

My Super 66 kit came in trade here for a CL, and I have made some good portraits and documentary works with it. Surely there are rff members who could be tempted to trade for some or all of this kit, if not buy outright.

I was in a similar sell-for-friend situation, too, since then, and the inventory was mostly Nikon, Kowa, Linhof. The gear had been warehoused in the humid mountain south, and the Kowa lenses were most affected by fungus. I had to toss one, it was like a plague rat. The others cleaned up with no adverse optical effects. I sold them inexpensively, since there was no investment to recover. All sold (except the 250/5.6 that I kept).

 

[farlymac]

Every time I see one on the Goodwill site, they get bid up pretty rapidly, so there is at least a collectors market for them. Also someone who is wanting to get into medium format SLRs, but doesn't want to delve in to one of the high priced brands.

You can always check collectiblend classic and collectible cameras price guide. for more reasonable price ranging.

PF

 

[peterm1]

If you can lay your hands on a copy of these books I seemed to recall the author Ivor Matanle had a good opinion of them as regards their optical qualities, although I seem to recall they were not as reliable as some alternative MF cameras of the era. (I cant immediately recall which one of these books he covered off on the Kowa but as its an SLR I imagine its in the second of these books below.) Given this reputation I imagine there will usually be a market for them.

https://www.amazon.com/Collecting-Using-Classic-Cameras-Illustrations/dp/0500276560

https://www.amazon.com/Collecting-U...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8Q3WP5X67CYEDKM9A3GC

 

[kuzano]

Bought my first MF SLR.... Kowa 6 at the old church that was Columbus Camera Group in Ohio. I enjoyed it for some time and took some good pix. Then I went back to the old church and picked up a Graflex Crown Graphic and moved to LF 4X5.....

Then I went back to the old church and picked up two Bronica S2. I sent one of those to Photography on Bald Mountain for some repair work. The Bronica's were stolen from my car in Bend Oregon.

I've often thought about picking up a Kowa 6 (or maybe a Super 66) for the memories.

Lot of camera's under the bridge since that Kowa 6 in 1987 when I lived in Cincinnati and loved the drive to the "Old Church" in Columbus near campus.... Columbus Camera Group.

I might be up for that setup and even pay some money.... PM me if you like.