Selling an IIIf with light leaks - service first or sell as-is?

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Toni Nikkanen

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Hi,

I've got an otherwise pretty nice condition IIIf body that has been having light leak problems and for this reason I haven't used it much for the last 1,5 years. I've got a lot on my hands right now and would just like to get rid of the camera so that it doesn't bother me anymore - and I could use the money anyway. Being a honest person I will not dump it on eBay to some unsuspecting fool, so the remaining options are - get it serviced and then sell it fully functional, or mention the problem and sell it with a discount to someone who has the time and energy to get it serviced.

Which one would make more sense? If the camera was fully functional I would want a bit over 300 Euro for it. It looks pretty nice though with several signs of use, all the mechanics work really nice and smooth, and the viewfinder and rangefinder look just great. I don't know if the light leak is coming from the shutter or somewhere else, it comes and goes. And like I said above, I don't have much energy to figure this out anymore.
 
Problem is that IIIf camera prices are all over the map, and in my opinion, 300 Euro is high, even if functioning perfectly.

Check ebay for completed sales, to mentally prepare yourself for what you could get.

....Vick
 
Well, if even a perfect one fetches less than 300, then paying for a service and then selling it doesn't leave me with much for my efforts... might as well keep it as a decoration and wait a few years if I suddenly feel I must have a functional IIIf again.. 🙂
 
Well I'm guessing a thorough job will be at least 100 euro, these things are not trivial to fix - and to give a good estimate I'd have to send the camera in and then I might just as well decide right here and now that I'm going to have it serviced and then sell it, and then I wouldn't be asking here in the first place 🙂

..and then it might be that my whole question indeed is silly..
 
Sorry to hear Toni about your light leaks...know the Feeling

I now am having my M2 serviced for light leaks...$250.00 OUCH .... New Curtains from Don/DAG

I believe Youxin Ye charges for a Barnack $180.00
OR
for just $20.00 plus shipping Youxin can do the QUICK FIX plan...not sure if that's glue or Tape.
Some people say it can last for Years
 
Not a silly question at all.
The prices for Barnacks are low and most of them need servicing.
But even after servicing, they don't fetch much more...
So paperweight is an option, or find a tech that can solve the issue at low cost (maybe Youxin can?). or maybe you can sell it "as is" to a tech?
 
Why not sell it here on RFF? An honest description and some photos and I bet there will be interested people here. Hanging on to it is a waste of a good camera (highly personal opinion!). 🙂
 
Toni, why not show us a couple of pictures shot with the camera so we can try to think of where the leak is...
is it a hole in the curtain or something else?
 
doesn't look like a hole in the shutter.
do you see the leak on the film outside the frame?
If so, it rules out light bouncing in the camera while taking the picture (I had such an issue with one of my lenses)
talking about lenses...is it happening with different lenses?
 
Here's an interesting one. I've stiched 3 consecutive frames together. See how the cyan cast appear on the right side of frame #1, continues on the left side of frame #2, and then there's the bright red spot on the third one. This was color neg film by the way.

http://www.tuug.fi/~toni/rff/iiifleak_triptych.jpg

I've had problems with 2 different lenses that I've used regularly on this camera - Summitar 50/2 and the Canon 28/3.5 which I no longer have.
 
The red spot is a light leak top side of the camera, to the take-up side of the frame, and from behind the film. The red colour is produced by the film's orangey base. On the first frame, it looks like the second curtain is dragging a wee bit at the very end of its travel.

Derk
 
I have a Leica IIIc with the same problems; shutter bounce, and light leaks that two techs didn't or couldn't fix. The second tech even said "these IIIcs don't have seals. He couldn't explain how to fix it, but tried something. It fixed one of the leaks, but I still get horizontal ones on 1 out of 10 shots.

After getting it for a very good price, but spending a couple hundred on it so far, I'm in the red if I ever sell it. Not a good experience for my first Leica. And like you say, they're getting cheaper every time I look on Ebay. So I would just sell it for what you can get. Try a Canon, I've had no trouble with 5 of them....
 
Light leaks

Light leaks

Toni Nikkanen said:
Hi,

I've got an otherwise pretty nice condition IIIf body that has been having light leak problems and for this reason I haven't used it much for the last 1,5 years. I've got a lot on my hands right now and would just like to get rid of the camera so that it doesn't bother me anymore - and I could use the money anyway. Being a honest person I will not dump it on eBay to some unsuspecting fool, so the remaining options are - get it serviced and then sell it fully functional, or mention the problem and sell it with a discount to someone who has the time and energy to get it serviced.

Which one would make more sense? If the camera was fully functional I would want a bit over 300 Euro for it. It looks pretty nice though with several signs of use, all the mechanics work really nice and smooth, and the viewfinder and rangefinder look just great. I don't know if the light leak is coming from the shutter or somewhere else, it comes and goes. And like I said above, I don't have much energy to figure this out anymore.
Click to expand...

Tony,

To fix your light leaks just manage to put a strong light inside the camera and go in a drak room, check it out.
 
Toni,
another thought:
it's very easy to remove the body of the camera.
You could then have a better look with a led lamp in the dark...
 
In my experience having a camera serviced before sale always leaves one with the impression that somehow you didn't get what you wanted for it, unless it is something special.

On the other hand, cameras and lenses described as requiring work or 'spares or repair' seem to fetch much higher prices than I would have expected.

...and having a camera serviced and then putting it in a box for years and years is a waste of money!

I don't mean to put the experts out of business by the way, love 'em dearly!

Michael
 
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