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- Minolta autocord value with broken focus lever serial#
- Minolta autocord value with broken focus lever trial#
IIRC I think the ad said the shutter was stuck. Status: Works! Even came with batteries that were still good. Status: Works! (With the 55 - haven't tried zoom or flash.)ĭec '20: Pentax P30t body only w/box. Advertised as "good operational condition." $14.99 (auction) + $15 shipping. (I have a thing for cheap and oddball cameras, so maybe I'm less prone to getting duds since there's no need to misrepresent them.) All but the last listing bought from EBay.įeb '21: Ricoh KR-5 + 55/2.2, Tamron 80-205, flash. That's a lousy track record! I thought it'd be fun to go back through what I bought and see how I've done. Fortunately for buyers, eBay's return policies are strongly tilted towards the buyer, so even a miss doesn't end up costing you much money. I think it's possible to buy good old cameras on eBay, but it's definitely a buyer-beware market. I usually know if the camera is a late model or early model and what year it was produced.
Minolta autocord value with broken focus lever serial#
Most cameras can be dated by their serial numbers. I'll buy an imperfect camera, but I want to have a good idea of its imperfections so I can judge a fair price. I look for signs of excessive wear, dents, or scratches. The cameras I buy have excellent photos that clearly show all sides in good light and detail. The two good ones immediately went for a good CLA because even nice ones from that era need lubrication from simply sitting so long.įor any model camera I'm searching for, I look for the best example I can find that's not clearly overpriced. One was a parts camera, but the other two were quite nice. I bought a few Kodak Medalist cameras from the 1960's. Not perfect cameras, but I have been rarely surprised by what arrived. Almost all of them have been very close to what I expected when they arrived. Everything from 1/2 frame 35mm to 8x10 cameras. They've ranged in age from 10 years old to well over 100 years old. I've probably bought 25 film cameras from eBay over the last 15 years. I don't know if I really have a point with 's just food for thought. Or, in the case of one repair shop I e-mailed this week, literally dying. And the people who can fix it are retiring. All of this stuff is only getting more expensive and more worn-down. So that's a $150-200 theoretical premium on pretty much everything.ī) As a sort of appendix to the recent discussions about possible new film cameras and the state of the used market. Stick with reputable sellers (even though they're far from infallible) and always have in the back of your mind that what you buy may need to be CLA'd in the very least. Why do I post this? Two reasons: a) as a warning for others to be very wary of buying old photo gear. So that's 9 out of 13 cameras I've bought that have turned out to have serious problems.
Minolta autocord value with broken focus lever trial#
I might have been able to put it back on correctly with some trial and error, but there was also a substantial scratch on the lens that came with it that had been described as a "cleaning mark." So, back it goes!
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Broken. The cap on the ISO/EV dial had fallen off. Broken. Cheap because of a bad bellows that I planned to replace, but unfortunately the lens standard was all out of alignment.
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This cost $15 because the grip is a bit sticky.ġ1.
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The leather is totally shot and the touch-sense meter activation doesn't work, but the camera was dirt cheap.ġ0. Very sticky shutter and overexposing meter despite the seller putting in a Schottky diode to compensate for the modern battery.ĩ. Focus badly misaligned (including infinity).Ĩ. This one had no promise of functionality, and I decided to keep it and get it repaired since there was a weird bit of hardened material on the lens (which turned out to be 'liquid plastic') that wasn't in the description, and after the refund I wound up paying $50 for it. Here is every camera I've bought since deciding to get back into film late last year:ġ. I didn't even have to cock the shutter to realize that this would be my ninth malfunctioning camera purchase of the last six months. I wasn't hugely excited for it, but I was looking forward to it. Today, I received an Olympus OMG that I'd bought on eBay.
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