Dear Japan....

[AgX]

...and it's a conversation piece.

To me that is the point behind buying this body. One then still may look for a replacement back.

 

[jerrybro]

It will buff right out.

 

[BMbikerider]

I can do a fair job with a small arc welder! I would be able to fill that hole with one pass!

 

[grat]

Strangely, there are about a dozen replacement backs, all labeled "NOT FOR SHIP TO USA".

 

[AgX]

Seemingly for political reason, some sort of embargo...

 

[Huss]

Dear America, I'd take that camera if it works and is cheap. ...

So that will be a no then.

 

[tballphoto]

dont forget that there are sellers who will purchase a 100% functional camera, and break it down into each sub component and sell them individually.

But will also sell broken ones at the price the 100% would get if in 1 piece

 

[John Earley]

This was done so that the photographer could tell if the shutter was working with the back closed.

 

[tballphoto]

could have been a really bad attempt at making a home made enlarger.

or part of a more advanced optical setup

or as suggested by someone, a home brew digital camera setup.

Its really really crappy, but some tape will do wonders

 

[Kino]

My guess is it was modified for this reason:

https://www.diyphotography.net/convert-your-old-camera-to-a-backdrop-projector-in-10-easy-steps/

 

[ChristopherCoy]

My guess is it was modified for this reason:

https://www.diyphotography.net/convert-your-old-camera-to-a-backdrop-projector-in-10-easy-steps/

Well that's a dumb ass reason.

 

[Huss]

My guess is it was modified for this reason:

https://www.diyphotography.net/convert-your-old-camera-to-a-backdrop-projector-in-10-easy-steps/

I could see doing that to something broken and crappy, like an F100, but to do it to an F2? The horror.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I could see doing that to something broken and crappy, like an F100, but to do it to an F2? The horror.

To do that to ANY camera, when you can simply put a piece of cardboard in front of the flash, is horrible.

 

[grat]

Or just cut a hole in a cap for the back of the lens, and build up an adapter.

That idiot destroyed an entire camera so he could use it for a lens mount. *sigh*

 

[Kino]

I could see doing that to something broken and crappy, like an F100, but to do it to an F2? The horror.

I'm not defending what occurred, just speculating on why.
Remember, these cameras were "useless" a decade or so ago...
Don't forget the vandals who took bolt cutters to vintage typewriters to snip off the keys to make jewelry, or the Pope who dismantled the Colosseum to built the Vatican.

 

[Wallendo]

At first I thought this was modified to check lens calibration; i.e. put semi opaque film and see how well the lens focuses. But that would only be helpful with a rangefinder.

 

[AgX]

No, at a SLR the focal distance of film and screen must coincide too. However to check that there is no need to cut such hole unless one uses a bulgy foil and thus need a kind of pressure plate.
Maybe though the idea was to rather sacrifice a back instead of fixing a stiff screen otherwise. Well, if one does such checking regularly such means indeed may be to consider.

 

[gone]

!'m not at all happy w/ these Japanese eBay sellers myself. They will put these outrageous prices on stuff, try and corner the market, and their product descriptions are devilishly sneaky. Beautiful photos of lenses that are described as EX++++, then you read the fine print and it says there's fungus, haze, scratches, all manner of defects that a lens that's in Exc condition doesn't have, to put it mildly.

Don't like their shipping prices either, and when that purposefully mis-described lens gets to you and you want to send it back to the seller, if you live here in the US it will cost a fortune to post it back.

Give me the good old former Soviet Union photo gear anytime. What you buy may work, or it may not, but it will be dirt cheap and you can use the Yak twine on the package for dental floss or shoe laces.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

!'m not at all happy w/ these Japanese eBay sellers myself.

I have, thus far, refused and avoided buying anything from anyone other than North American sellers. Thankfully I’m nearly done with my kit. Just one more F2 and a few AF-D lenses and I’ll be set.

 

[MFstooges]

Yeah this is the trend now with Japanese sellers, mostly lost to translation but some could be from bad experience of being burned as seller.

 

[Horatio]

There's a new trend of low Buy It Now prices with $150 shipping charges!

 

[MFstooges]

There's a new trend of low Buy It Now prices with $150 shipping charges!

That's not new. Seller used to get around ebay's hefty charge for item price.

 

[Horatio]

That's not new. Seller used to get around ebay's hefty charge for item price.

Clever! I'm surprised ebay allows this.

 

[removedacct1]

I've noticed even domestic shipping prices are now typically over $20 USD, which is at least $5 higher than it used to be. I refuse to look at items that have a domestic shipping charge over $20 because it appears to be a way to inflate the profit for the seller, since many camera related items can be shipped in Flat Rate boxes which cost $15.50
It used to be (10 years ago) that people routinely inflated the shipping charge to make more from the sale, but buyers were turned off by this ploy, and sellers clued in to that fact, and it seemed to have fallen out of favor. Perhaps the pendulum has swung?

 

[BradS]

I don't know wtf happened to Japanese eBay sellers. It seems like there was a time, not long ago, when they were honest. Now they seem to be in a completion with each other for the most ludicrous item description. I just don't understand.