Canon 28mm finder for rangefinders

[jafo]

Does anyone have any idea of the worth of a mint condition 28mm Canon finder for Canon rangefinders, black finish, with original leather Canon case? All mint.

 

[nemo999]

A new Voigtländer finder is $200 (in the UK), I would think you might get $125 to $150 for your finder unless 2 fanatics get stuck into a bidding war

 

[jafo]

28mm Canon finder

Thanks, friend. I thought it might be worth a lot more. I seem to recall that baout 20 years ago I saw one in a specialist vintage camera shop near the British Museum in London and I was amazed at the time at the price beng asked. I didn't have one then and wasn't particularly interested so I didn't make a firm mental note of the price but it seems it was something like £200 plus. Is my memory playing tricks? I thought rarity value was the reason for the price. PS KNow any two fanatics I can entice into a biddng war?

 

[nemo999]

Thanks, friend. I thought it might be worth a lot more. I seem to recall that baout 20 years ago I saw one in a specialist vintage camera shop near the British Museum in London and I was amazed at the time at the price beng asked. I didn't have one then and wasn't particularly interested so I didn't make a firm mental note of the price but it seems it was something like £200 plus. Is my memory playing tricks? I thought rarity value was the reason for the price. PS KNow any two fanatics I can entice into a biddng war?

As a guide, I recently sold this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=200228479586&ssPageName=STRK:MESO:IT&ih=010
which I would have graded conservatively Exc+ (perfect except for two small scuffs on the side of the body). What I got for this was around half of what I paid two years previously. Prices of all collectors' items except for the absolute blue-chip specimens seem to have gone down, one problem with old finders is that they usually have a plain metal rim at the rear - this means that anyone old and aflluent enough to think of buying these will in fact not do so for fear of scratching their eyeglasses!

 

[jafo]

Thanks for the (depressing) advice, Nemo999. I would put my item in the MINT category or close to. For the moment I'll just hold on to it. Thanks again!

 

[Trask]

I know those shops by the British Museum you mention, and like many shops here in Paris, they post prices that simply have no relation to true market value. Of course, the value of something is whatever someone will pay for it, and maybe if they keep it on the shelf long enough someone will buy it, but that means carrying inventory.

The finder you've got is nice, if you've got the right camera to use it with. I can't see the bottom, but I imagine all you see is a little ball -- no manual parallax mechanism. If so, that's because these model finders were intended to mate with mechanisms built into the cold shoes of various late-model Canon rangefinder cameras -- like my Canon L-1. On a proper camera, it results in automatic parallax adjustment as you focus. On a not-proper camera, you can't adjust the finder. So it's valuable to some users, and not so valuable to others. Personally, I think it should sell for about $110 or so, to a motivated buyer.

 

[raid amin]

I bought a 35mm Canon viewfinder for about $40 on RFF. I use an ALPEX 28mm viewfinder. It is quite good and I think that it was inexpensive. I would not pay too much for such finders since they are readily available online.

 

[Lee L]

In the US a new all-metal Cosina Voightlander 28mm finder is $159, reputedly very nice. Their mini combination 28/35 finder is $179, and those prices are with a weak dollar. Part of the recent fall in prices of used Leica and other high end rangefinder lenses and accessories is due to Cosina's recent supply of new gear for that range of equipment at reasonable prices.

Lee

 

[davela]

About $100. The chrome ones are worth perhaps $70. (I've bought and sold a lot of Canon RF gear over the years). They are still excellent finders by the way - I prefer them to many modern brightline finders.