You Rolex and your mechanical camera

[Jemspeed]

Some really nice machines here folks. Thanks

[Jemspeed]

Originally Posted by EDL7

Couple of Old cams...and new Rolex OP..

Is that the 34mm? I like your style

[Jemspeed]

Originally Posted by luvsub

The whiteface is nice!

You've got the trinity there, now where did I put my technica V?

[T. Ferguson]

I'm not much of a photographer and this thread got me wondering. Of course I have a natural appreciation for these beautiful vintage machines, but I'm curious about their collectability. From my limited exposure (pun intended) with shows like Storage Wars, these old cameras don't seem to fetch a lot of money. Just wondering if collecting vintage cameras is an expensive hobby or a relatively inexpensive way to add to one's enjoyment of photography.

[RolexguyinSF]

My trusty Horseman 45HD. I only shoot B&W, and the negatives are really beautiful. It still gets used quite often.

[OmegaJJH]

Great thread.

[Dr. Prunesquallor]

Originally Posted by T. Ferguson

I'm not much of a photographer and this thread got me wondering. Of course I have a natural appreciation for these beautiful vintage machines, but I'm curious about their collectability. From my limited exposure (pun intended) with shows like Storage Wars, these old cameras don't seem to fetch a lot of money. Just wondering if collecting vintage cameras is an expensive hobby or a relatively inexpensive way to add to one's enjoyment of photography.

As, with anything, it all depends. My passion is Nikons. The Nikon SLRs from the 60's on were so robust and sold in such high quantities, that good quality cameras are abundant. There used to be a cottage industry that would clean, repair and lubricate these cameras for reasonable fees (I had this done to all my vintage Nikons). Unfortunately, this industry seems to be dwindling. But in general, these will not have high resale values.

The rangefinders from the 50s are different story. For Nikon, this was the WWII recovery period for Japan, so there was less uniformity in production and more unique (and therefore valuable to collectors) models along with more limited production. Mint versions of these cameras can pull in five figures at Christie's. Also, this was when Nikon cameras and lenses were being discovered by the photojournalistic community as real gems. I follow rangefinderforum.com for this kind of thing. A few years ago, someone bought at auction (with excellent provenance) the Nikon S rangefinder that legendary Korean War photojournalist Carl Mydans used. I'm guessing it collected six figures.

[HogwldFLTR]

[QUOTE=HogwldFLTR;6665124]

Originally Posted by Dr. Prunesquallor

I'm well aware that many didn't require batteries and external meters were widely used if not still used by some using digitals. Just saying that film should be the modifier since mechanicals is either inaccurate or cuts too wide or narrow a swath depending on the interpretation. Like I said, all my film camera required batteries I believe including my long gone FTB and SR1. But those are long in the past and I could well have forgotten. FWIW, I just bought a new camera this past week which I'm really impressed with, a Canon PowerShot SX60 HS, a nice little point and shoot with 21 to 1365mm capability. These aren't my photos and I've got a lot to learn about using it. Studying the owner's manual pretty intently.

Took a first close up shot with the new Canon, well and...

Originally Posted by Jocke

Here we go.

Jocke, I've been wondering about Bronica; a brand I was interested in during the '70s. Do you still use yours. How do you get your film developed these days? I've been looking at them on eBay. Yours looks like new!!!

[HogwldFLTR]

duplicate post...

[Jemspeed]

Originally Posted by T. Ferguson

I'm not much of a photographer and this thread got me wondering. Of course I have a natural appreciation for these beautiful vintage machines, but I'm curious about their collectability. From my limited exposure (pun intended) with shows like Storage Wars, these old cameras don't seem to fetch a lot of money. Just wondering if collecting vintage cameras is an expensive hobby or a relatively inexpensive way to add to one's enjoyment of photography.

You can get some really nice stuff fairly cheap. Really good glass can be really expensive. Even Canon L lenses in mounts that are decades discontinued can be really expensive. Leica collecting can cost a fortune.

[EDL7]

Is that the 34mm? I like your style

Thx! And yes...its a 34mm...

[mao-chi]

Originally Posted by Dr. Prunesquallor

As, with anything, it all depends. My passion is Nikons. The Nikon SLRs from the 60's on were so robust and sold in such high quantities, that good quality cameras are abundant. There used to be a cottage industry that would clean, repair and lubricate these cameras for reasonable fees (I had this done to all my vintage Nikons). Unfortunately, this industry seems to be dwindling. But in general, these will not have high resale values.

The rangefinders from the 50s are different story. For Nikon, this was the WWII recovery period for Japan, so there was less uniformity in production and more unique (and therefore valuable to collectors) models along with more limited production. Mint versions of these cameras can pull in five figures at Christie's. Also, this was when Nikon cameras and lenses were being discovered by the photojournalistic community as real gems. I follow rangefinderforum.com for this kind of thing. A few years ago, someone bought at auction (with excellent provenance) the Nikon S rangefinder that legendary Korean War photojournalist Carl Mydans used. I'm guessing it collected six figures.

I remember my father told me (about 50 years ago): the Nikon rangefinder was a copy from Contax, Canon was a copy from Leica and Fuji TLR was copying from Rolleiflex. The time Japanese was still as a copy cat from Germany. He also told me the cost of a set of well equipped Leica's would almost same as the cost of a house! During the Korean War there were many photojournalists using the Nikon rangefinders.

[JakeW]

[EDL7]

Here's another...

[thomaspp]

Very fun thread. I can't contribute unfortunately as I let my last film camera go about 2 years ago...

An inaccurate contribution with my digital camera.




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[Timesurfer]

Ohhh! Nice idea on the thread, wish I still had my Old Canon