Your secret sleepers

[ic-racer]

Late model Minox prices still on the way down. They are practically giving B's and C's away.
Makes sense. A hipster can't wear it around the neck and it is a spy camera...no one is supposed to know you have it.

 

[Cholentpot]

Late model Minox prices still on the way down. They are practically giving B's and C's away.
Makes sense. A hipster can't wear it around the neck and it is a spy camera...no one is supposed to know you have it.

View attachment 275140

And where are these affordable minox cameras? When I've seen them pop up at estate sales the sellers want far too much.

Probably the Kodak Retinas - the entire series of them, including the later ones like the IIIs. Not so secret, but the prices have remained rather stable for a long time, and with a few exceptions, are extremely common and not the subject of collector fantasy.

Got one of those too. Hipster factor has not caught up with Kodak cameras.

 

[ic-racer]

And where are these affordable minox cameras?

 

[Cholentpot]

View attachment 275167

Lol. Cheap for me means cheap. $40 and under for a fully functioning camera. I've been spoiled over the last decade.

 

[abruzzi]

Probably the Kodak Retinas - the entire series of them, including the later ones like the IIIs. Not so secret, but the prices have remained rather stable for a long time, and with a few exceptions, are extremely common and not the subject of collector fantasy.

Yup, great cameras. My IIIC is almost always my B&W backup camera when I take trips. Many times it made much nicer photos than my main camera.

 

[ic-racer]

Lol. Cheap for me means cheap. $40 and under for a fully functioning camera. I've been spoiled over the last decade.

Unfortunatly you will probably never own one.

15 years ago when I got my black LX it was $500 used and almost $1000 new.
The super-rare Minox AX was almost $2000 new.

 

[Cholentpot]

Unfortunatly you will probably never own one.

15 years ago when I got my black LX it was $500 used and almost $1000 new.
The super-rare Minox AX was almost $2000 new.

View attachment 275231

I've heard that before...

There are millions of attics and closets that are waiting for my grubby fingers to rifle through.

 

[4season]

Zeiss Ikonta 521 6 x 4.5 folders aren't very trendy, maybe because they seem too far removed from what most people think of when they think of film cameras these days. Lacking in amenities compared to more modern cameras, they're equipped with folding optical finders (no focus aids), film advance and shutter-cocking are separate operations, and there's not so much as a rapid-wind lever in sight. But that also makes for a very compact camera, and compared to operating a view camera, they're models of convenience and simplicity.

 

[Helge]

Zeiss Ikonta 521 6 x 4.5 folders aren't very trendy, maybe because they seem too far removed from what most people think of when they think of film cameras these days. Lacking in amenities compared to more modern cameras, they're equipped with folding optical finders (no focus aids), film advance and shutter-cocking are separate operations, and there's not so much as a rapid-wind lever in sight. But that also makes for a very compact camera, and compared to operating a view camera, they're models of convenience and simplicity.

Shhhh! Don’t speak of those wonderful secret Goldilocks cameras!
I buy them whenever I can.
They are rigidly manual. And you have to perform five different actions for every shot, and do it right. Often without the aid of a meter. They need light to view the red window too, but not too much.
That might be what keeps most buyers away. Preferring the bigger negative of a 6x6 or 6x9 folder, “if you have to go through all that trouble per frame”. But that misses how folders really work and what they are good for.
You are never going to get as good alignment as with an TLR or SLR. So DoF is of importance.
Fiddling with an RF is anathema to fast moment to moment shooting.
For slow shots a laser RF or an external RF is far more useful.
I have three that I use as “backs” that I load with different kinds of film or ratings, and put them in separate compartments in the bag. Still takes up less space than an MF SLR with a normal lens.
You can get several for the price of a single tattered example with build in RF and still more if you compare to larger format MF RF cameras.

 

[4season]

Shhhh! Don’t speak of those wonderful secret Goldilocks cameras!

No worries, I think these will remain "hidden in plain sight" as the trendier crowd buys the Fuji GS645 with it's coupled rangefinder, parallax correction and built-in light meter. And GS645 is a fine camera with all the right features, except for reliability!