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By Sandy Vongries · Posted
One nice thing about all the grand old cameras is that they are such wonderful artifacts. Mine still work, or did the last time I used them, but I have often envisioned a glass fronted case with all of them on display. Usable or not, many memories reside. -
Some are consistently lucky with their second hand camera purchases, others are not. The arc of such luck can also change over the years as the market changes. The amount of risk I'll take on with a potential purchase is based on summing several factors: asking price, apparent condition, my intuition on how the seller presents themselves, and how much personal experience I have with that brand and/or model. Mostly the last: once you've developed enough knowledge of quirks, common defects, hidden defects, what can be easily DIY repaired or reset, and what typically needs expensive repairs. At that point you'll usually end up with an item that meets or exceeds your expectations. OTOH, sometimes market trends throw everything out of whack and even expert shoppers can get burned. The overall market is in such a state right now, if you're totally new to a camera system, it is a bad time to be taking risks. Niels advice to make sure of a return/refund policy is appropriate during such periods, esp with items specifically presented as "untested" (because "untested" almost always means "broken" except for very VERY rare cases of a seller so naive they don't realize something just needs to be wound or reset or have a new battery installed). If it seems too good to be true, it usually is. Photo.net is not a good window into what's really going on in the world of vintage camera buyers/sellers in 2024. Sadly, most gear discussions have moved from traditional organized forum archives to transitory social media sites like Reddit. Those uncurated sites are useless for any sort of traditional cumulative research, but they give an accurate picture of the current vintage camera market - and it isn't a pretty one right now. Masses and masses of transactions being driven solely by youTube and TikTok trends: the less sophisticated the buyer, the more likely they are to damage a camera in frustration before selling it on to the next trend victim. You cannot believe the sheer quantity of unhinged newbies asking the most simple-minded questions countless times, questions they should know the answers to before even thinking of picking up a film camera. They're often overwhelmed and get sulky. The fact that almost any worthwhile vintage camera or lens you want today will almost certainly have been passed thru a couple of such doltish trendy owners should be enough to give any of us pause to really think things thru before committing to buy. We need to be more careful than ever to vet our purchases, esp if no solid return policy is in place. Making matters worse, all this vintage gear is getting older by the minute: once-distinct reliability, durability and quirk reputations of individual brands/models have become blurred and lost as advanced age levels everything out. I.E., once upon a time, you had a much better chance of finding a fully functional Mamiya RB67 outfit than a similar Hasselblad: the Mamiya body mechanics were simpler and the lens leaf shutters did not break down as often. But enough years have passed that everything on the market is in failure mode: loads of worn out Mamiya, with techs skilled in their idiosyncrasies dwindling in availability as quickly as for Hasselblad. Not to mention, the blown Pentax 67 focal plane shutters, shorted out Bronica SQs, Mamiya 645s with trashed mirror boxes, worn out TLR film advances, and the 90% chance any lens with a leaf shutter will be barely operational. 35mm gear isn't as immune as it used to be, either: problematic Canon "A" shutters aren't getting any more reliable or repairable, the "indestructible" Nikon F3 is starting to fail right and left, classic Olympus OM is crapping out everywhere you look, and so on down the line. Headwinds are forming in the film supply chain that may alsohave major impact. The trendsters driving the current compulsive vintage film camera renaissance are getting seized with panic that supplies of film will soon dry up, particularly their favorite Fuji stocks. Signs are brewing that a vintage film camera selloff may occur in the next couple years as film prices increase and availability drops: if enough trendsters sour on vintage medium format pro cameras at the same time, we could see a much less constricted market than we have today. Of course that still leaves the vexxing issue of experienced repair techs retiring en masse with no trained replacements... -
The Outlets, Cannery Row. Formerly The American Tin Cannery, soon to be replaced by a hotel after years of debate. Most of the stores left long ago. Panasonic GF1. -
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