Pentax
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Those huge file sizes don't suit the type of photography I do very well. I often have to download my images to the corporate server and I can tell you it's not a very pleasant experience especially if you have HUGE file sizes... -
Buying and reselling just to check out and play with various camera systems has always been financially unpredictable. Sometimes if you time it on the upswing of a popular model, you'll break even or eke out a slight profit. Usually you'll take a fairly significant loss upon resale, either from eBay/broker fees or lowball offers from established dealers. We usually write off the loss as a "rental fee", but its still painful to eat a $200 loss on a camera you paid $600 for a couple months earlier. I think a lot of vintage camera "dabblers" got spoiled by the white-hot COVID-era market, where resale prices were rising so fast you could generally try out any camera for "free". That feverish era seems to be hurtling toward an end in recent weeks: for the first time in quite awhile eBay is again awash in Mamiya RB67 gear (after being nearly unobtainable from domestic sellers since 2016). Global economic woes (and the recent issues with Fuji's true intentions re ongoing film manufacturing) seem to have deflated the latest "vintage film camera" binge. Compounded by rapidly disappearing repair sources, we may soon see a massive selloff and market correction. The hipster kids and retro-boomers are beginning to realize their beautiful looking $1799 Rolleiflex or Hasselblad can be terrifying post-purchase money pits of maintenance cost, with ever-dwindling numbers of truly competent techs and wait lists of months to years. The recent unfortunate passing of David Odess was a big wakeup call to me personally: suddenly, my heavy investment in vintage Hasselblad (with its utterly absurd neverending repair costs) seems rather ill-advised. Since I have more fun with my Mamiya TLR system anyway, and the simplistic Mamiya lens shutters can be repaired by any geek wielding a screwdriver, it may finally be time to unload most of my 'blad stuff. Leica and Rollei TLR enthusiasts seem to enjoy living their lives hostage to only two or three aging specialist techs: thats not for me. A competently overhauled Leica M can run a decade or more with no issues, but you're lucky to get a few months from a 'blad overhaul before it fails again. I've been burned by generalist techs several times: truly excellent 'blad service costs dearly and has become increasingly difficult to find. Knowing my Hassy kit (esp lenses) are ticking time bombs of spite kinda sucks the joy out of the user experience. -
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