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Which film cameras can you buy brand new?

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Thomas King

Member
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Oct 17, 2017
Messages
176
Location
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Format
35mm
Hi All,

I've been trying to search around to see if any film cameras are available to purchase brand new... it seems as if there is a big gap in the market!

So far i've found a rather naff looking kickstarter project called 'Reflex' and the lomography cameras (which look like toys... not in a good way!)

Can anyone help me out and suggest some film cameras which are available to buy brand new? On a completely unrelated note I can't believe that camera companies have not started reproducing older models given the current hype of film photography. For example, the point and shoot/compact market has exploded in recent years so it would only seem natural that a reproduction of classics like the Mju II and Contax T2 would happen somewhere down the line.

Thanks
 
The only one I know of is a Nikon F6. Some still on dealers shelves.
 
Leica M-A, MP, and M7, the Nikon F6, Cambo and Linhoff for larger formats. Yeah not much left these days.
 
Phillip Nondorf said:
Leica M-A, MP, and M7, the Nikon F6, Cambo and Linhoff for larger formats. Yeah not much left these days.
Click to expand...

It's such a shame, I wish the powers that be would realise that there is money to be made by reintroducing some older and well loved 35mm cameras!
 
Nikon still sells the F6. Leica still sell their M series film cameras. Hasselblad H series can be used with a film back. I believe Linhof still sell their view cameras for film use.
 
Thomas Keidan said:
It's such a shame, I wish the powers that be would realise that there is money to be made by reintroducing some older and well loved 35mm cameras!
Click to expand...
When you consider how much it would cost to retool, build up stock, market and distribute, I doubt there would be much money at all in the prospect. Especially since it is such a niche market, and they'd be competing with such a robust used market. Nikon and Leica are impressive in their commitment to still making 35mm cameras, but I seriously doubt they are selling those things in any serious volume.
 
Intrepid is a new company who makes a large format cameras. Shinhoa (sp?), as well. Occasionally, I see new Pentax 645nII for sale on Ebay.
 
Phillip Nondorf said:
robust used market.
Click to expand...

A market with declining robustness. The used market is the goto place for cameras, but it ain't all roses out there. While I've bought beautiful old cameras, I've also bought dudes for sure. Any camera that uses electrons is suspect. I would love to see someone remanufacture electronic boards for old cameras. In my naiveté, I think that this would be readily doable.
 
wyofilm said:
A market with declining robustness. The used market is the goto place for cameras, but it ain't all roses out there. While I've bought beautiful old cameras, I've also bought dudes for sure. Any camera that uses electrons is suspect. I would love to see someone remanufacture electronic boards for old cameras. In my naiveté, I think that this would be readily doable.
Click to expand...
That would be easy, but not cheap. It would be a lot cheaper to just replace the few bad parts on existing boards. Most modern electronic components have life spans in the hundreds of years if taken proper care of. The exceptions are potentiometers, switches, motors, or anything else with moving parts. Also, electrolytic capacitors and battery compartments tend to fail either due to fluid leakage or fluid drying out. Building whole new boards on a non-industrial scale would be very time consuming and expensive. So there's little motivation to make a whole bunch of drop-in replacements.

I've repaired hundreds, if not thousands of electronic boards in my life (many inside cameras). The stuff made around the turn of the last century (late '90's early 2000's) can be more difficult to work with due to their use of SMD parts. But even those aren't too bad if you have the proper tools, patience, know how, some steady hands, and a schematic. Most electronic components used in cameras can easily be replaced for pennies. Even the extinct components will most likely have a modern day equivalent that's readily available on the internet (Though some will have proprietary IC's that can't be sourced except from the OEM. But IC's rarely ever go bad unless there was a catastrophic failure elsewhere in the circuit). The boards themselves can be remade on the cheap (you literally expose and develop them like a photograph).

The only thing that keeps people from routinely repairing these old boards is they take a fair bit of knowledge to understand, and most people who know enough about them to work on them, don't want to waste their time working on them. There's not much money in camera repair, so there's not much incentive for an electrical engineer to go into that field when they can make multiples more money working for a large company. And most non electrical engineers don't want to invest the years it takes to learn this stuff. So you have the people with the knowledge but no motivation, and the people with the motivation and no knowledge.
 
Besides the players already mentioned, there's Fujifilm's Instax and Impossible / Polaroid and Holga of course. Plus makers of pinhole and large format cameras. Ilford still offers disposable cameras as well.

It might also be possible to buy new old stock Zenit and Horizon. Ditto Cosina Voigtlander camera bodies.

Although interest in film is up, it's still a small market compared to the 1990s.
 
Thomas Keidan said:
Hi All,

I've been trying to search around to see if any film cameras are available to purchase brand new... it seems as if there is a big gap in the market!

So far i've found a rather naff looking kickstarter project called 'Reflex' and the lomography cameras (which look like toys... not in a good way!)

Can anyone help me out and suggest some film cameras which are available to buy brand new? On a completely unrelated note I can't believe that camera companies have not started reproducing older models given the current hype of film photography. For example, the point and shoot/compact market has exploded in recent years so it would only seem natural that a reproduction of classics like the Mju II and Contax T2 would happen somewhere down the line.

Thanks
Click to expand...
b&h still has a few new (old stock) of the discontinued voigtlander Bessa R2M/R4M. Other than that, leica, intrepid, linhof, Nikon f6 are still listed for sale on b&h along with lomography's cameras.
 
A few more in medium format:

Some ALPA cameras are compatible with film backs (which they also offer): https://www.alpa.ch/en/section/products/

DHW Fototechnik, successor to some of Rollei's business, still makes the Hy6: Dead Link Removed (production is not constant -- I can't say whether the factory is currently pumping out product, but the Hy6 should still be considered new in my opinion)

Seagull still makes TLRs: https://microsites.lomography.com/seagull/

Not sure if this counts, but Arax offers "upgraded" refurbished new old stock Kiev cameras: http://araxfoto.com/cameras/
 
I found a Nikon F3HP new, old stock on ebay about a year ago and bought it. Perfect condition.

There are still some Voightlander Bessa 35mm cameras new in stock, though I don't think any are currently in production. It would be the bargain rangefinder compared to Leica.
 
Thomas Keidan said:
Hi All,

I've been trying to search around to see if any film cameras are available to purchase brand new... it seems as if there is a big gap in the market!

So far i've found a rather naff looking kickstarter project called 'Reflex' and the lomography cameras (which look like toys... not in a good way!)

Can anyone help me out and suggest some film cameras which are available to buy brand new? On a completely unrelated note I can't believe that camera companies have not started reproducing older models given the current hype of film photography. For example, the point and shoot/compact market has exploded in recent years so it would only seem natural that a reproduction of classics like the Mju II and Contax T2 would happen somewhere down the line.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Shen Hao still makes many different model of large format cameras.
 
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