Where is All the Film Camera Gear?

splitimageview said:
Another camera that has skyrocketed is the Xpan. $1200 or so with the 45mm lens, circa 2010, is now about $4500.
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This pains me. It was never a camera that I thought much about, until a photog friend let me play around with his a bit. After that I was like "I gotta get me one of these!" Then I went shopping, no way that's happening on my budget. Shame.

Best,
-Tim
 
Timmyjoe said:
This pains me. It was never a camera that I thought much about, until a photog friend let me play around with his a bit. After that I was like "I gotta get me one of these!" Then I went shopping, no way that's happening on my budget. Shame.

Best,
-Tim
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Igor Camera has got one now with the 45 for $3k
 
Put in want-to-buy ads in forums like this one.

Also- once things loosen up, the Photorama camera show is a great place to pick up modestly priced working equipment and "needs some minor repair" dirt cheap. I've worked on more film cameras "before Covid" than shot with lately. My "former camera work area" is an electronics lab.

I've given away a number of film cameras, Canon AE-1, Retina Auto III, Konica TC-X, Nikon N6006, etc. They follow me home, if someone wants to try film- they get a camera. I've had a number of people give gear to me, picked up three Nikon F's, two with Celestron mirror-up mods.
 
Just remembered someone gave me a Nikon 6006 with 35-80 zoom. Tested it with a pair of 123 batteries, all working. Remember when these actually cost money?

It's not worth selling many of the 1980s and 1990s "Plastic Fantastics". Easiest to give away.

The older cameras- often need a CLA, which is cost-prohibitive for all but the top of the line cameras. A CLA for a Nikon F runs ~$150 and up. You can learn to do a CLA yourself, but that requires time and effort. Well worth it.

What boggles my mind- cameras like the Minolta HiMatic 7Sii going upwards of $200, and a HiMatic 9 and Minolta AL-E, easily $100.
 
re: original post

I've whittled down my film camera collection to the ones I want some time ago. Haven't offered any for sale for several years, although I have a couple of Leica R lenses I may put up for sale soon.

I think it's just the periodic ups and downs of the used equipment market.

G
 
A big worry of mine is that of cameras being pitched into the garbage because repairs are "too expensive" or because they can no longer be repaired.

In either of the above cases, I would send the old cameras to a camera repair technician to use for parts. I would be willing to pay for mailing to avoid these old cameras being lost forever in a landfill.

I'm willing to pay more for an older camera that has been serviced, as the value to me is what I will get out of it, not just its market value.

It distresses me to see statements online about it being cheaper to buy another used camera than to get one repaired, as this suggests the old one will be thrown out. By getting an old camera serviced or repaired, I know that I will have a fully functional tool. Buying another used one, I don't know that.

- Murray
 
Where are they? The Good ones are on a strap, The rare ones on a shelf and the broken ones in a drawer
 
This makes me want to drop in to Schiller's to see if there is any used gear. But I won't. Not for a while. I don't go anywhere but the office (it's my own office, no on else is there). I do all the therapy over the phone. I see no one but my wife. Hoping to get some vaccine in my arm some day. What a luxury, to get to go to the camera store. Remember when there were boxes of $1 filters and hoods on the counter? Maybe a Nikon or Leica for a nice price? Maybe a Widelux on a shelf. A used studio light. When was that, anyhow?
 
That would be Precision Camera in Austin. They regularly have desirable gear. Have to drop by to see, as they don’t get much of it listed on the web.
 
james.liam said:
Well summarized above ^^.
Living in NYC, I would regularly walk into Adorama and B&H to see what was on hand. Film stuff of good quality has indeed dwindled (Adorama no longer deals in M2/3/4 cameras) and am loathe to buy anything from flEaBay anymore because you haven't a clue what condition it's in when it arrives. Everything from East Asia is listed in Mint ++++ condition, whatever that really means.

Photo Tech, a Nikon repair shop in Manhattan has one repairman for film cameras who's retired but drops by every few weeks to work on what's accumulated. The paucity of parts and skilled people to work on these things makes all the buying a bubble-in-the-making. Bought a user R9 from LeicaStore SoHo 3 years ago and the mode/On/Off dial failed after 2 weeks. Two years ago picked up an unused R8 from KEH. It's a potential brick but I understood this going in.
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If I quit my job and specialized in repairing film cameras, I probably could make a mint in a decade.:D
 
CMur12 said:
A big worry of mine is that of cameras being pitched into the garbage because repairs are "too expensive" or because they can no longer be repaired.

In either of the above cases, I would send the old cameras to a camera repair technician to use for parts. I would be willing to pay for mailing to avoid these old cameras being lost forever in a landfill.

I'm willing to pay more for an older camera that has been serviced, as the value to me is what I will get out of it, not just its market value.

It distresses me to see statements online about it being cheaper to buy another used camera than to get one repaired, as this suggests the old one will be thrown out. By getting an old camera serviced or repaired, I know that I will have a fully functional tool. Buying another used one, I don't know that.

- Murray
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This is a big fear of mine too. The thing you may be tossing out of cost might just be the incredibly rare part someone else has been searching for ages for.

This is definitely true for some of my hobbies, all of which seem to involve repairing old things (fountain pens, bicycles, Japanese watches—well, I don't do my own work on that last one). In my usual browsing antique and thrift shops for old pens, I can't tell you how many times I've heard from shopkeepers that when they get them in from estates, unless they're a prestige brand like Montblanc, they pull the nibs to sell for scrap gold and toss the bodies. (meanwhile, they'll have old Kodak Brownies on the shelf going for $100)

They have no idea that some collectors will pay hundreds just to get them fixed up.

Another anecdote: there's a shop around here that I really adore that can best be described as a junk broker—they take in whatever you don't want and resell it for tinkerers, artists, kids craft projects, etc. A while back they put a call on social media looking for old optical gear to take apart for science kits or somesuch. Someone responded that they had their grandfather's old camera kit—and it was a very, very nice Olympus setup with quite a few fast primes.

I nearly had a heart attack and had to sit down for a second and remember there's plenty out there left.

It's like enlargers and darkroom equipment. You hardly find them new, but people getting rid of them can't give them away.
 
Here on RFF, we all have affinity with cameras. But that won't hold for the majority of households that had a camera in the film days. The camera was just there to take holiday snaps. Coupled with stores not willing to trade in analog gear when digital really took of, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of cameras ended up as landfill.
 
Takkun said:
It's like enlargers and darkroom equipment. You hardly find them new, but people getting rid of them can't give them away.
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Fortunately there is no lack of darkroom equipment at all, because all what we need is produced new by lots of established manufacturers. There is even more variety and better quality in some areas compared to former times.
Enlargers are made e.g. by Kaiser, Kienzle, Dunco, outstanding enlarging lenses by Rodenstock and Schneider-Kreuznach, other darkroom equipment by JOBO, Kaiser and Heiland (JOBO and Heiland are for example permanently bringing new products to the market), and there are lots of other manufacturers, too.
 
I pulled 4 working P+S cameras from the scrap bin at the local transfer station (on way to landfill). I know many nice cameras escape my attention and are lost forever....once found a bay1 rollei viewing lens next to the scrap bin dumpster. I searched around for the rest, but I think I was too late.
 
I truly think Covid has affected the buying and selling of used gear. Shipping has been affected.
 
jsrockit said:
I truly think Covid has affected the buying and selling of used gear. Shipping has been affected.
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Doubt this is the cause. There's a finite number of 30+ year-old gear that's in top shape that a reseller would be interested in picking up. No sense buying a camera for $150 that sells for $250 retail, only to require a $150 CLA.

I would suspect that the best examples already exchanged hands and while there's a demand, there's no new supply. B&H, Adorama barely have 20 camera bodies (35mm film) listed between them.
 
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