Vinyl and film photography (and beards…?) have become popular again, and throwaway culture is at least beginning to show signs of waning.īut unlike the weird and wonderful world of Hi-Fi that held on to many of its greatest manufacturers of turntables, the photography industry lost the huge majority of its film camera manufacturers. We had the economic crash, people have started reminiscing about old times when the world was happier, before social media, when the things we owned were real things things that you could touch and interact with physically. Of course 10-15 years on, times have changed. I was shocked when I searched eBay and found out he was right! He put me in my place when he proudly told me his camera was still worth a couple of hundred quid. A fairly elderly gentleman brought in his Contax T3 to show me after I’d told him with some authority that there was little-to-zero value in point & shoot cameras. I do remember, my first introduction to Contax compact cameras though. I don’t remember even being aware of the Yashica T series, but I can’t imagine even the T4/T5 went for as much as the mju-ii did.
Looking back, it now seems crazy to think that even the likes of the now very popular Olympus mju-ii sold for £15-20. Film was tired, digital was booming, and new was better. This was when the value of film cameras was at its lowest, and I’d argue, it was also the peak of throwaway culture.
CONTAX G2 EBAY MANUAL
The ones that did come into the shop either went in the bin, or at best went in the junk box with the second hand camera straps, random power winders, and the 3rd party manual focus zoom lenses. I’m almost ashamed to say that my view of almost all 35mm compact film cameras back then was that they were little more than clutter. Back then, there were a lot of film cameras that had dropped in value so much that we couldn’t have given them away. I’ve been into photography to some degree since I was a kid, but I really fell into the deep end when I started working in camera retail in the mid-2000s. 6 Just be certain it’s the right choice!.4.8 Just because it’s used by some famous person doesn’t mean it’s right for you!.4.7 Just because some camera review website said its good, it doesn’t mean it is!.4.6 It’s better to learn than to spend money!.4.5 Do you really need all those features?.4.4 Just because it’s a lot of money doesn’t mean it’s right for you!.4.3 Are you buying the camera for the right reasons?.4.2.2 Servicing a camera doesn’t mean it will last!.4.2.1 Not all repair companies are good!.In short, if you’re thinking about spending what feels like a lot of money on a film camera, then read this first! The trough
Instead, I just want to shine a bit of light on the reality of the used film camera marketplace, perhaps give readers the opportunity to reflect on whether or not they are making the right purchasing choice, or if instead they might be falling foul of a touch of gear acquisition syndrome.
The goal of this post is not to discourage people from buying film cameras. Unfortunately, in an increasing amount of cases, it feels to me that the increase in value has spiralled out of control, and maybe that the buyers of some of these more popular cameras are beginning to lose a little bit of perspective. In a world that’s more often so keen to dispose and buy new, all this old kit being given new lease of life can’t be all bad. It’s encouraging with regard to the health of the film photography community, but it’s also quite satisfying to see some value being reattributed to a lot of very viable photographic tools. To be fair, in some ways, the increase in the value of film cameras feels like a good thing. But for every day that passes, all these cameras are getting older, less reliable and harder, if not impossible, to service – a fact that sometimes seems a little lost in all the excitement! Demand has increased, supply hasn’t, and the price you need to pay for a lot of popular film cameras is now reflecting that. In the last 5 years the value of used film cameras has gone through the roof.
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