Camera prices - depressing

[Parker Dean]

A rough-but-functional Pentax K1000 still commands $70 or $80. 

Huh. Who'd a thunk that a cheap mass market camera would hold its price like that.

Not that I'd sell mine, it's sorta become on of those things that are part of the story of my (boring) life. It'll probably join the accumulated junk like the Karate Kid style head band given me at a going-away party by co-workers, the security officer badges and pins from when I was an armed courier, etc.

[Paddy]

New technology depreciates rapidly, Brad.  The best strategy (for me, anyway)  is to buy just behind, or even two generations behind, the latest and greatest.  Low price + (almost) state of the art.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

The old mechanical all manual SLRS are great cameras.  They do one thing the modern automagical cameras just don't do: they make setting the aperture, shutter speed, and focal distance easy.  And since the only camera settings that affect a picture are the aperture, shutter speed and focal distance, lots of folks find the old gear to be easier to use than the new stuff.  Plus the old equipment was also made well enough that it'll never wear out.

Good tools never lose value.

[mtnbkr]

The only reason I switched from mechanical to auto-everything SLRs was because I couldn't keep up with my daughter.  Otherwise, I'm happy with mechanical cameras.  I like my Olympus OM-1 so much I had it overhauled a couple years ago.  It cost me more than buying another used one, but I should be in good shape for the next decade at least.  I mainly use it for B&W film, which I bulk load myself, but I'll sometimes put a roll of color through it as well.  I wish it had film speed settings up to 3200 because I like to play with fast film in ambient light. 

I took this picture of my daughter and godson at a childrens' "hands on" museum in Virginia Beach last year.  It was with Fuji ASA 400 print film, handheld with a very slow shutter and mostly open aperture in natural light.  The camera was the OM-1 with Zuiko 50mm F1.8 lens.  The picture isn't technically perfect, but I like how the lighting and colors turned out.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get my daughter to turn around. 



Chris

[mtnbkr]

For you users of classic cameras, this is a neat site: http://www.cameraleather.com/

I've had the "black lizard" leather on my black Olympus for nearly 7 years now and it's holding up very well.

Chris

[Manedwolf]

One of the thing I like about Olympus is that they kept the "look" of their classic 35mms with their digital SLRs. Even the bezel above the lens and the OLYMPUS font are the same as an early 80's OM series. 

[mfree]

"and then throw out channels in Photoshop"

Hrmm. Might be a bit more accurate to play with the channels just a bit to enhance green, then drop the channels.

IIRC old B&W stocks were much more sensitive to green than any other wavelength.

[Bogie]

Let's not discount the folks who think that....

1) When the fill a chip up, they need to go buy a new one
 
2) They need to take their camera to Wal-Mart or Walgreens to get the pictures "developed"

There be some true geniuses out there...

[Harold Tuttle]

double check to see if that "contact sheet"
was made by printing all the frames and developing the sheet

or is it a digital scan and an ink jet?

[mtnbkr]

I'll find out when I pick it up.  They call it a contact sheet, not thumbnails or anything like that.  Doesn't matter to me though, I mainly need it to determine which negs are worth printing.

Chris

[zahc]

The best strategy (for me, anyway)  is to buy just behind, or even two generations behind, the latest and greatest.  Low price + (almost) state of the art.

Like how you can sometimes buy a practically new vinyl turntable at a garage sale for $20 that some mid 70s audiophile spent $600 on, that still does what it was designed to do very, very well and will probably continue to for decades.

It seems like now, tech moves so fast, nobody makes really good tools. Cellphones have a 1.5 year design life. About the only thing I can think of is appliances and hobbyist stuff.

[Bogie]

Don't knock inkjets... Unless you go to a VERY specialty lab these days, you are getting inkjet.

And you generally aren't going to be able to tell the difference.
 

[mtnbkr]

I just checked Penn's site, it is a digital inkjet print.  Doesn't matter, for my needs it's perfectly adequate.  I'll use it to pick shots for traditional printing (assuming I have any ).

Chris

[wooderson]

BWC gives you the option of chemistry or inkjet, I believe. I never requested it either way, but all of mine seem to be chemistry.

mylab.com - I've used a couple of times, mentioned earlier - is all-chemistry.

[wooderson]

I was browsing for used gear last night from KEH and suddenly found myself desiring a Contax RX - mid-90s manual-focus SLR with Zeiss-designed lenses. $650 for a  body and 50/1.4 lens. So tempting, if I didn't have a $900 CMP Garand coming pretty soon.

[Brad Johnson]

I thought many of the commercial digital systems were dye sublimation with a clear laminate as a protective surface.  Not correct?

Brad

[Harold Tuttle]

the beauty of a chemistry contact sheet is you could have 3 different brackets and request they expose for each one

[wooderson]

three new toys arrived in the mail today -
a Kodak Retinette 1A - no meter, no rangefinder, no nothing but a lens that's clear and a shutter that works for $9
a pair of Polaroid SX-70s from the mid-70s - one that takes the original SX-70 film (which is currently $2 a shot, so this one's mostly going to be a decoration), one that takes current 600/779 film

last week I got a Canonet rangefinder for $30 and I have two 1950s Agfa cameras coming from the Netherlands

Digital has advantages, but every time I try to get serious with it I find that it lacks the magic of film.

[brimic]

Don't know much about 'real cameras' but I paid about $600 for my then nifty 3.2 megapixel Sony camera 5 years ago. You couldn't give one of those away now.

[mtnbkr]

the beauty of a chemistry contact sheet is you could have 3 different brackets and request they expose for each one

True, but I'm not doing that kind of work.  If I was, I'd find a different lab regardless of the contact sheet issue.

Chris