Not sure how the new M6 affects sales of the old one, gotta say I wasn’t following them closely. Personally I’m hoping for the M2 to become uncool. Might be a while I’m afraid.
At least locally I have seen a LOT of good stuff come up recently for good prices, some of it a real score for whoever had cash ready, sadly not me. The trends I can see:
- The most obvious one first, people bailing on medium format. Two to three years ago it was extremely hot. Anything Mamiya or Pentax 6x7 sold immediately. Recently there are multiple offerings for both, plus various and assorted Hasselblads. More telling are the listings for 120 film stashes explicitly stating they’re never going to use it all. We’ve reached peak 120. Coincidentally, the peak was exactly 120mm tall despite the fact that nobody could ever figure out where the measurement should be taken. Weird.
- Decent Nikon and Canon SLRs in the $100-150 range not selling immediately anymore. I think they still sell, just not with the same rabid enthusiasm.
- Nikkor 50mm f1.2 lenses posting for under $300, sometimes closer to $200, and sticking around for a while. Wasn’t this a must-have lens a few years back?
- A general slowdown in weird/quirky/off-brand 35mm stuff. Grandpa cameras, for lack of a better term. I take that to mean less willingness to experiment with the unknown, and possibly (probably) unreliable.
- Continued dismissal of Nikkormats and FTb’s. Seriously, I still don’t understand how they sell for $50. It just never made sense. Like a black FTb with tons of real-life brassing for fifty actual American dollars. Weird how trends sometimes don’t translate from one brand to another.
My personal take is that film is cooling down a bit from the pandemic high. Part of it is the same financial concerns affecting everyone. A friend and musician who frequently sells/trades gear has seen interest wane similarly.
Maybe those early 2000’s digicams will take over after all. Makes sense, they already did it once before. They’re the perfect camera if a) you’re only chasing the latest aesthetic trend, and b) you’re broke from running overpriced ColorPlus and this month’s cleverly-named 2x$ rebranding of Fomapan 100/400 through your point-and-shoot.
Hopefully I don’t come across as too negative (ha, negative…). I’m with film as long as it lives. And I still see another film shooter or two every time I go out, so that’s good. Not everyone is going to stick with it though, but we already knew that.
We also know that M cameras, especially the M2, are over-hyped ego machines. Dump them now while you still can. Especially if you are highly suggestible and happen to live in the Salt Lake area.
That's my dream Leica.
