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When was the golden age of film camera buying?

I would say the middle 1960s. Lots and lots of different models and types!


Kent in SD
 
With respect to really low prices, the "golden" ages varied a bit with the type of equipment.
2006 was probably the zenith with respect to availability of used medium format equipment - the sort of stuff that used to be used by wedding photographers. Part of the reason for that was the improvements in 35mm film.
 
If you ignore Ebay and the internet sales it's still going strong. People still give away their film setups, thrift and secondhand stores still have amazing deals. Even online mid-level and lesser known cameras still are cheap and plentiful. Might not be at the levels I was seeing 5 years ago but with a bit of effort you can still get amazing deals.
 

I brought my Hasselblad 503 CX and 250mm lens in 2007.
 

Back, just before the U.S. entered WW2, I took money saved, went to a drug store and bought a Baby Brownie camera. It came with 1 roll of 127 Verichrome (there was no Verichrome Pan film at that time). The camera with film was on sale for 75 cents. That is correct, less than a dollar. Our depression in the U.S. did not officially end until 1943 and this was before that. Later I bought a "Tri-chem" tube containing MQ developer and sodium thiosulfate fixer (which developed both film and paper,we used vinegar for stop bath) and a 15 watt red safelight. Even later I bought a package of 25 sheets of 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 Kodak Velox paper. I do not remember the prices of the darkroom supplies. All I know is that it got me hooked of something that I've not gotten over yet.......Regards!
 
Concerning lowest prices for used film cameras, I'd say from about 2004 to 2010, when many photographers were ditching their film gear and going all digital. Since then, prices have been slowly rising, especially for popular models.
 
Lenses started to get more expensive before bodies. If you where a Nikon user there was a quick and steep increase in prices of Nikkor lenses when the D200 came out in 2007. Suddenly it was easy to use manual lenses and digital photographers quickly did. Later on the price of bodies have gone up mostly because of increased interest among young photographers (last week I was visited by a friends daughter, age 17, who has been shooting digital for some years and now wanted to try film) but also because there are no new cameras and some break down. Increased demand and a smaller supply.
 
Lens prices have risen since the advent of mirrorless cameras to accommodate them. Before then, Canon FD, Minolta MD, Pentax M42 and others were seen as museum pieces.
 
With few exceptions, plastic autofocus SLRs remain cheap (but for some reason, prices for the Pentax *Ist still seem to be in the $150 range) .
 
Two23 said:
I would say the middle 1960s. Lots and lots of different models and types!


Kent in SD
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Right! Maybe mid 1970's when you could pick up a brand new Spotmatic, put in a No. 400 battery and shoot for a couple years without anything going wrong with it.
 
2006-2010 for me, mostly Hasselblad, Nikon and large format glass. Leica has always held the line and started going up a fair bit in 2009.

It depends on what it is too, all the Rodenstock S lenses for LF have gone up and up and are now getting hard to find. Hasselblad film bodies and A12 film backs have gone up and stayed up. Nikon film bodies and AIS lenses are still super cheap, CF lenses for Hasselblad have dropped a little more and CFi as well, hence my upgrading to a lot of them for the improved main spring and smoother focus.

I still think it is at least the "warm silver" age of buying good used film gear.
 
probably between 1995+2005 for me
i was buying stuff no one wanted ( brass barrel lenses ) for very little $$
 
Bill Burk said:
Right! Maybe mid 1970's when you could pick up a brand new Spotmatic, put in a No. 400 battery and shoot for a couple years without anything going wrong with it.
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I'd say mid 1960's to mid 1970's particularly for 35mm equipment. I think it's the simplicity and functionality of cameras like the Spotmatics, I've always felt that most later cameras became over complicated with the various metering/auto options. Also this was still a time when cameras and lenses were over engineered, plastics weren't being used.

Ian
 
  • I think for me it was between 2008-2012itwaslike beinga kid in the candy store with a charge card. I must have bought 20 Nikon bodies and 20 nikkor lenses. I always had my own F-100 that I bought new in 1999 and still own.I sold off all of the newly acquired gear. Then after the experience of all those Nikons I rebought the ones I really liked. An N80, F-80, FG-20 and an EM( there is something about this basic camera that I love). I would like to purchase a Pristine Nikon FM2n in the future if I find one for less than $300.
 
Really, I think you can still find good deals if you're willing to be patient. As I mentioned in my first post, I began acquiring used gear with something of a vengeance in 2009, but I haven't really stopped, and I still manage to find what I consider to be good deals. Like for example a very clean Zeiss Super Ikonta BX with the late coated lens and Synchro Compur shutter for $100, including a minty case and instruction manual -- found on eBay about a year ago, and that was a Buy It Now price. A couple years ago, I put together a nice Pentax 67 outfit, including three lenses and the TTL prism for less than $600, with the individual pieces bought from KEH and Robert's Camera in Indianapolis. Various other deals for much less money I've picked up as well. I've become more selective just because I have so much gear now, but there's always some elusive tidbit out there I'd like to add to my collection.
 
blockend said:
Lens prices have risen since the advent of mirrorless cameras to accommodate them. Before then, Canon FD, Minolta MD, Pentax M42 and others were seen as museum pieces.
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Very true. I'm glad I bought all the FD lenses I'll ever need before the surge of digital mirrorless cameras. A few years ago, those FD lenses were incredibly cheap on eBay - there was very little demand for them.
 
chip j said:
Late 1960s if you were a US serviceman in Germany. You went to the Canadian PX and new Nikon Photomic FTs were $95, and new M4s $165. And Hasselblads et al cheap.
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That was a lot of money for an enlisted guy, I first paycheck as a AF E1 in 1970 was $36.00
 
You know in those days you tended to have few cameras, and if you invested in it, an SLR was your one good camera.
 
Yeah, but in those days there weren't any exotic wide-angles. When I was getting out of the service, Nikon was just coming out w/their first 24mm. So I chose Leica RF instead, not least because of the build quality in those days!! Glorious!!
 
Definitely starting in the mid-60s with the heights in the mid to late 70's - easy to measure by the huge bubble of camera retailers in many cities - especially NYC. All you need to do is look in the back half of major magazines like Popular Photography in those years compared to others earlier and later when they were thinner. Google some of those magazines from various parts of the decades (Google Books has many digitized). At one point some of these mags were thick and the retailers dominated most of the pages and the entire back half of them by the mid-70's. I remember taking short train rides into Manhattan in my early to mid teens - the photography stores were as big as department stores stocked to the gills with cameras, throngs of buyers and folks trading up (very long lines all the time at B&H, 42nd St Photo, Cambridge, Adorama, and dozens more), and every kind of chemistry, paper, and darkroom gear that was made right on the floor.

Regards,
Mike
 
When the prices of used film cameras dropped during the digital revolution the prices of 35mm lenses was kept up because the digital slr users were buying the film camera lenses.
 

Very similar with me, as well. Those cameras I could only dream about, were in my reach when I woke up to analogue again. The satisfaction and settlnes that I now have the best film cameras ever and there will be no temptation to upgrade, only the temptation to buy that one and this one and more.... How funny to start again, but now knowing that every klick of the shutter will cost me money , and the automatic reaction of looking at the back of the camera " to the screen " after the picture.
I will never give up film again , for no amount of gigapixels , or whatever else may come.
 
Sirius Glass said:
When the prices of used film cameras dropped during the digital revolution the prices of 35mm lenses was kept up because the digital slr users were buying the film camera lenses.
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For many lens mounts not continued on digital cameras, the prices did drop considerably at first. M42 and Canon FD, for example - camera shops were practically giving those lenses away to empty out their used item inventory. There was very little demand for them. On eBay, they often sold for less than the shipping charges! When the various adapters for use on MIL cameras became available years later, then the demand for those lenses went up, and so did the prices.
 
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