Finding old cameras in the wild.

TheGreatGasMaskMan · Mar 9, 2018

What these stories leave out, like all stories of treasure hunting, is the rafts of junk cameras that one runs across, point-and-shoot zooms, "focus-free" cameras, low end Polaroids, Kodak instant cameras, etc., and often for more than any knowledgeable person would pay, like $20.

I've only ever seen point and shoots exceed the $10 price on ebay. On average, I'd say 3-5 dollars, sometimes less, with the exception being a $7 Minolta freedom zoom 105i (with a roll of film inside), and some high end looking Minolta (I don't remember what it was though) for $20. And a couple days ago when I saw that $50 brownie hawkeye, there were also two ten dollar point and shoots.

campy51 · Mar 10, 2018

I just bought this Yashica Mat-124 a few days ago in mint condition for $20.

Someonenameddavid · Mar 17, 2018

I hunted down a Voigtlander Prominent with a 35 skoparon, paid more than I should, because I have a Nokton that I really want to try and my original camera is dead... It is an awkward non user friendly camera and died not gove you the tactile response that the Contax, Leica or early Pentax does

michr · Mar 23, 2018

TheGreatGasMaskMan said:
What these stories leave out, like all stories of treasure hunting, is the rafts of junk cameras that one runs across, point-and-shoot zooms, "focus-free" cameras, low end Polaroids, Kodak instant cameras, etc., and often for more than any knowledgeable person would pay, like $20.

I've only ever seen point and shoots exceed the $10 price on ebay. On average, I'd say 3-5 dollars, sometimes less, with the exception being a $7 Minolta freedom zoom 105i (with a roll of film inside), and some high end looking Minolta (I don't remember what it was though) for $20. And a couple days ago when I saw that $50 brownie hawkeye, there were also two ten dollar point and shoots.

Point and shoots maybe not, but I often see Kodak instant cameras for $10, or those "Cannon" "Olympic" slr lookalikes with a $20 tag on them in spite of being worthless.

Alan Johnson · Jun 2, 2018

A working metal bodied Voigtlander Brilliant from 1937 (no serial number) at a car boot sale for GBP 5.It is very light (550g with film and strap) and has an uncoated triplet lens
It can be set to 1/50 @ f22 so will give it a try for landscapes.

Theo Sulphate · Jun 2, 2018

campy51 said:
I just bought this Yashica Mat-124 a few days ago in mint condition for $20. ...

Alan Johnson said:
A working metal bodied Voigtlander Brilliant from 1937 (no serial number) at a car boot sale for GBP 5. ...

Amazing! Glad to see these cameras get good homes.

benjiboy · Jun 3, 2018

BAC1967 said:
I found a lot deals on Bolex movie cameras spelled “Bollex”. I think eBay started correcting it when people tried to spell it that way so the deals dried up.

Your lucky it wasn't spelt bollocks

GRHazelton · Jun 3, 2018

Not a camera, not in a thrift shop, but.... Some 30+ years ago I walked into a little gallery in Fernandina Beach, Florida and stood transfixed. There was a roughly 30" by 40" BW print by Clyde Butcher. I can't find the image now to show you, of course. IIRC the price was .... $250.00. But, we had young daughter Becky, about 6, bills to pay, yada, yada, yada. I should have tightened the belt and bought it. I'd have the pleasure of owning it and it would have appreciated nicely. Then there was the time I could have bought St Ansel's "Moonrise" for a really good price! But I was a broke grad student....
I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes its worth eating beans and rice for a few weeks or so. A friend who dealt in antiques once told me to buy what I liked, not worrying about possible appreciation. If it gains value, so much the better! and you've had the pleasure of ownership regardless of future value.

Edit note: I just found the image! I hope it comes through.

Helios 1984 · Jun 3, 2018

Yesterday, I rode my bicycle about 2 hours, it was the “Garage Sales” weekend and I was hoping to find at least one APS... :-( At least I did my cardio for the day.

saman13 · Jun 3, 2018

GRHazelton said:
Not a camera, not in a thrift shop, but.... Some 30+ years ago I walked into a little gallery in Fernandina Beach, Florida and stood transfixed. There was a roughly 30" by 40" BW print by Clyde Butcher. I can't find the image now to show you, of course. IIRC the price was .... $250.00. But, we had young daughter Becky, about 6, bills to pay, yada, yada, yada. I should have tightened the belt and bought it. I'd have the pleasure of owning it and it would have appreciated nicely. Then there was the time I could have bought St Ansel's "Moonrise" for a really good price! But I was a broke grad student....
I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes its worth eating beans and rice for a few weeks or so. A friend who dealt in antiques once told me to buy what I liked, not worrying about possible appreciation. If it gains value, so much the better! and you've had the pleasure of ownership regardless of future value.

Edit note: I just found the image! I hope it comes through.

First time I walked into my girlfriend’s house, I saw this 20x24 print hanging on their kitchen wall:

They live in Tampa and many (many) years ago were at an art festival and Clyde had a booth set up and was selling some darkroom prints. They said they don’t remember how much they paid, but it wasn’t much. Around $200.

removed account4 · Jun 7, 2018

was just at my neighborhood salvation army
saw a polaroid spectra, minolta 16mm
revere + kodak 8mm movie camera and a noname slr
nothing more than about 20 bucks, and when the sales kick in like 99cents or something crazy cheap like that.

Ian Grant · Jun 7, 2018

I've actually done rather well buying from Ebay in the last few years, so not in the wild. It's items that are either listed badly or far to honest a description of faults/

A very early Gandolfi whole plate camera with a lens and tripod for £30 ($42 approx), people asked the woman to split the ietems up she was aware of faults and said no. The tripod had wood missing (easy to fix), the lens was toast, no shutter blades, the camera has a brass strut missing (easy to make) and the bellows were falling to bits, with no makers name.

Then there's the 12"x10" camera too honestly listed, showing rotten bellows a part missing, 10 minutes to make the simple part and a bit longer remove mould then clean and re-glue the bellows which had just come apart due to damp, A bargain at £50 (approx $65).

Flea markets are good as well, the £20 8" Petztval now worth about 15x more.

Ian

Ian Grant · Jun 7, 2018

campy51 said:
I just bought this Yashica Mat-124 a few days ago in mint condition for $20.View attachment 196714

Have fun, what a great find. I use a 124 that I bought here for a lot more about 10 years ago, needed a shutter CLA and the focus mechanism has a twist so will suffer excessive wear.

Who cares these are great cameras and fun to use, I get excellent results with mine, you've found a real gem.

Ian

Shoom · Jun 7, 2018

A few months ago I picked up a Leica Summarit 5cm 1.5, Elmar 5cm 3.5 collapsible and a Sola Optics 9cm f4 for $10 at an auction because they were shoved in an Olympus P&S box. Too bad I had to sell them because of life expenses (and not having an LTM body, or the money to buy one)
At least the lot also came with a box of 40s Kodachromes!

Also found a Rollei Prego 90 with the Schneider lens for $5 at a thrift store. Surprisingly competent P&S.

campy51 said:
I just bought this Yashica Mat-124 a few days ago in mint condition for $20.View attachment 196714

I love my Mat 124, but you might want to look into flocking the inside because the black paint Yashica used can be a little too reflective...

lobitar · Jul 17, 2018

ced said:
Here is another find sometime last year at a fleamarket. The seller knew it was a camera but had no idea how to open it.
While trying to get a price I opened it and saw that the camera was as good as new & a metal one at that (mostly find that they are covered wood).
He told me €40 I offered €30 and after a lot of humming and hahhing he eventually gave in, luckily I saw a few feet away the case with a ground glass but no film cassettes (later found some elsewhere).
View attachment 190357

Nice find - real pretty camera. And it's even got a Trioplan lens to boot?

choiliefan · Jul 18, 2018

Last really great thrift store find was a Nikon F100 with 24-120 nikkor and SB-28 flash in a Domke bag. All works well but the F100 is missing the outer eyepiece lens and rubber surround. I have a new favorite 35mm camera which cost less than 40 for the whole shebang.

lobitar · Jul 19, 2018

I rarely find anything at all in fleamarkets and almost never in thrift stores. But recently in a camera store's ods-and-ends box I found a Agfa Silette camera (from the nineteen-fifties) for (equal to) 8 dollars. There are hundreds of Silette models but only one with Schneider lenses like this one. It has a Radionar 3,5 45mm lens in a 5-speed Pronto shutter. Everything works ok, except the distance scale has to be recalibrated. Of course a plain Silette is worth almost nothing, but still a curious find for the small purse.

AgX · Jul 20, 2018

I could carry away cameras from fleamarkets by the dozen. Of course by time models repeat. Including Silettes. With these so far I went for the general appearance, often not good, but yet have to search for certain versions. Thank you for that hint.

But I hardly ever found something professional at a fleamarket/garage-sale. Once a stack of darkslides and once a Manfrotto backdrop kit with holders and poles and these days a Gitzo lateral cranking-collumn.

Finding old cameras in the wild.

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