Yet, prices keep going up so I’m not sure where you are trying to sell. Look at the sold prices on eBay of a Yashica T4. All time high prices right now. And that isn’t even a premium compact film P&S. Your beloved polaroid style cameras are being sold again by various makers and sometimes at crazy prices new.
B-9
Devin Bro
The guys over at Buttergrip have made the Cameradactyl “line” with the 6x9 Homonculus, 4x5 OG Handheld, and a 4x5 view camera is coming along with a promise of something new coming at the end of October.
3D printing has made anything possible. Especially if your willing to treat prototype as product.
Also, the Fuji 690s are still pretty affordable as well as the Mamiya Press line being half the Fuji’s. Still affordable ways to shoot 6x9 that I can see.
3D printing has made anything possible. Especially if your willing to treat prototype as product.
Also, the Fuji 690s are still pretty affordable as well as the Mamiya Press line being half the Fuji’s. Still affordable ways to shoot 6x9 that I can see.
Ted Striker
Well-known
LOL! Yeah, out of touch.
About $12 USD where I'm at to buy and develop a roll of film. Even cheaper if you do it yourself. Film costs to me are trivial. I buy and shoot as much as I want, whenever I want. Your situation is obviously different, but hardly representative of most.
Ted Striker
Well-known
Fujifilm outsourced all their last batch of film cameras to Cosina. They can't build them by themselves anymore it seems.
D
Deleted member 65559
Guest
Ozmoose in N America 120 film is basically $5 a roll. I'd hardly call that horrific. If you put it in the context of the price of commodities: gas for your vehicle, a $5 coffee at Starbucks or similar.
I don't think that the price of film is the limiting factor. What do people do with their photos.... scan? show on Instagram or...?
In relation to a $2k-$8k body for a digital camera $5 film cost is inconsequential IMO. I agree with Cameraquest that there are enough medium format cameras out there to keep users going. As a printer, I'll tell you that i use far more 120 than 35 & 5x7".... because it hits a very sweet spot for enlarging prints. As far as a resurgence, as much as I am impressed with what you can 3d print, I don't think the results can match a Plaubel Makina, Rolleiflex, Hasselblad or Mamiya. Fuji GW670/80/90....
Larry Cloetta
Veteran
This is it, right here.
The law of supply and demand is one of the few that is rigidly obeyed these days, and the supply of easily repaired MF cameras far outstrips the world’s demand for newly manufactured ones at the price those would need to be sold for. And the newly made more expensive ones wouldn’t take photos any better the CLA’d old ones. And you can bet your life that newly made ones would be the most expensive way to get the same result.
css9450
Veteran
Its complicated because it varies so widely. I am looking at $23 to $26 for 120 C-41 processing + scan, regardless whether I get it done locally or mail it away to a lab. This would be on top of the purchase price of the film. Prints would be extra.
On the other hand, I can process B&W for just pennies a roll; one bottle of Rodinal does quite a few rolls. And B&W I scan myself because its so much easier than color.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
EBay, craigslist, etc. Very few offers. The numbers aren't there.
Refurbishing a Polaroid SX-70 is a tremendous amount of hand work, all of which is very costly. Refurbishing and UPGRADING an SX-70, the way MiNT has done, is an even more expensive endeavor. Consider that a new SX-70 back in the day sold for $200 ... that's about a $1500 camera new now, and MiNT sells the SLR670x, their top of the line refurbished/upgraded SX-70, for about $800 ... a bargain.
The market is healthy but tiny ... It's a niche product for goofballs like me.
There's absolutely no way the market would support the development costs of producing a NEW SX-70. The factory to do such a thing, even if you had the old tooling to work with, would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The fact that MiNT has managed to produce the RF70 in very limited volume at under $1000 retail is nothing short of amazing ... and, good as it is, it's nowhere near the sophistication and quality of an original SX-70.
Note: I'm home-brewing my own Instax SQ format camera, using a processing unit from the Instant Magny 35 kickstarter project, a Mamiya 50mm lens and lens mount from the Press 23 camera, and a custom built adapter tube. That alone is about a $500 enterprise, using existing bits. Building a new camera for production from scratch is NOT easy and NOT cheap.
G
I get it Godfrey, but premium point and shoot cameras were never cheap. My
Point is that if there is a place where lack of supply might be lesser than demand, it could be premium point and shoots. And of course it would be the goof balls like us that would buy them, not the mainstream.
Point is that if there is a place where lack of supply might be lesser than demand, it could be premium point and shoots. And of course it would be the goof balls like us that would buy them, not the mainstream.
D
Deleted member 65559
Guest
Ted, I'm glad yours works flawlessly. Besides my friends' Bessa problems, there are lots of posts about lack of parts & repair availability on a recently discontinued camera. I think the Bessa lll & the Hasselblad XPan would suit my needs to a T..... i'm sadly, not prepared to take the risk involved...since neither is inexpensive despite the known problems.
I'm thinking i'll get another Plaubel Makina 670.... love those folders
Ambro51
Collector/Photographer
Well, if we climb aboard the “youth likes film” train, why not a New “Brownie” Box Camera, styled for “today”. You’d have to simplify film and developing though. How about a prepaid mailer, send it in, film developed and scans sent back ASAP by email. Might work.
Mooshoepork
Established
If you can’t afford $10 a roll of film choose a different hobby.
Develop and scan yourself. Shoot black and white. Collect model trains.
Film and film services in Aus are incredibly cheap
Jamie123
Veteran
Unfortunately I don't think a new high quality mf camera is all that feasible these days. Yes, prices for some cameras have gone up but they're still lower than what they cost new.
Premium P&S cameras (or even low end high quality) are a different matter altogether. The prices for some models have gone up so much that it seems like they cost just as much as they did new. Also, much as one might think it's just a bubble, the fact still remains that the supply is getting more and more limited. Unlike with mechanical cameras, fewer people bother having an electronic p&s serviced (and sometimes it's just not possible). So many people would probably be happy to pay $1k for a new Klasse W/S type camera instead of the same price for a used Contax T2
Premium P&S cameras (or even low end high quality) are a different matter altogether. The prices for some models have gone up so much that it seems like they cost just as much as they did new. Also, much as one might think it's just a bubble, the fact still remains that the supply is getting more and more limited. Unlike with mechanical cameras, fewer people bother having an electronic p&s serviced (and sometimes it's just not possible). So many people would probably be happy to pay $1k for a new Klasse W/S type camera instead of the same price for a used Contax T2
Jeremy Z
Well-known
One thing's for sure: being a camera technician would be a good business to go into.
Watchmaking is coming back too, to support mechanical watches coming back.
Watchmaking is coming back too, to support mechanical watches coming back.
They are more expensive now then when new...
Bob Michaels
nobody special
I have a friend who went to Washington state to camera repair school, interned with Frank Marshman in VA, then returned to Orlando. Ten years ago he started by riding his bicycle carrying his tools to several camera shops to do repairs. Now he has his own building, has an assistant to help with minor jobs, and a half time admin person to answer the phone. But he still has an unlisted phone number and no sign in front of his shop saying the pro customers he wants to deal with know where he is and he is busy enough.
Archlich
Well-known
The last one of them, the GF670W, was $2999 and many complained that it's expensive. It didn't sell well, but more likely wasn't made in large number to begin with. The demand was extremely tiny. That was 2011. Imagine the cost for anyone to build a line and make these now.
Even if we did get a new one, people would still complain - and mourn even louder when it's gone. Such is the renaissance - cameras better be dead than being new, alive and expensive.
Even if we did get a new one, people would still complain - and mourn even louder when it's gone. Such is the renaissance - cameras better be dead than being new, alive and expensive.
honozooloo
Established
A nice sentiment, but not likely to happen.
Fuji, Cosina, etc discontinued these cameras due to declining sales. In Fuji's case, what is the likelihood they would consider remanufacturing a MF camera system when they can't even sell enough 120 film to keep certain stocks in production, and they have to hike prices 30% to keep what they ARE still selling financially viable?
Just my theory. Well that and the fact that MF cameras weren't used and abused the way Nikon or Canon SLRs were in their day, for the most part...meaning a robust market full of MF cameras that are still going relatively strong compared to their 35mm brethren....
Fuji, Cosina, etc discontinued these cameras due to declining sales. In Fuji's case, what is the likelihood they would consider remanufacturing a MF camera system when they can't even sell enough 120 film to keep certain stocks in production, and they have to hike prices 30% to keep what they ARE still selling financially viable?
Just my theory. Well that and the fact that MF cameras weren't used and abused the way Nikon or Canon SLRs were in their day, for the most part...meaning a robust market full of MF cameras that are still going relatively strong compared to their 35mm brethren....
Huss
Veteran
You curmudgeons do know that Lomography makes the fantastic LC-A 120, right? You can buy it brand spankin' new. So instead of griping about what it was like back in the day when film was $5 a roll (which it still is), buy an LC-A 120.
It's one of my favourite cameras, and I also have Hasselblad, Rolleiflexes, Veriwides etc etc.
Which cost waaaaaay more.
So perhaps instead of wishing and wanting, buy one and other mfgs may wake up and pay attention and see that people are buying new medium format cameras. For those who say they never would buy a new expensive MF camera (which the Lomo is not), they are the same types who would never buy a new Leica film camera. And yet Leica still makes those because there is still demand for them.
It's one of my favourite cameras, and I also have Hasselblad, Rolleiflexes, Veriwides etc etc.
Which cost waaaaaay more.
So perhaps instead of wishing and wanting, buy one and other mfgs may wake up and pay attention and see that people are buying new medium format cameras. For those who say they never would buy a new expensive MF camera (which the Lomo is not), they are the same types who would never buy a new Leica film camera. And yet Leica still makes those because there is still demand for them.
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
I think a lot of this is to do with the discovery that CDs die eventually. I was never aware of that when I started buying them all those years ago but I have many in my collection that will no longer play. Meanwhile my collection of vinyl sits there looking at me wondering when I might get a record player to play them again some day. It's an interesting world.
Yes, Keith. But vinyl takes up so much space... My shelves were sagging until I disposed of about two-thirds of my vinyl a few years go. Kept the jazz and blues, so all is well.
Add the cost of a new turntable of a quality and standard I consider worth buying, costing not much less than the price of a new Nikon D610 at my camera seller in Melbourne.
Then add the replacement stylus, and a service (of turntable) every couple of years, essential if you use it regularly.
Vinyl is 1950s tech, CDs are 1980s tech. Two years ago albums cost $1 each in every op shop in Australia. Now $5-$10 or more. Hipster market.
Now I'll start playing every CD in my collection (about 3,000), and hope and pray none have "passed away" on me...
A most instructive post. Many thanks!
PS Were you referring to top brand CDs, or the cheaper 'generic' CD pressings? Is there a difference?