What is an old camera worth?

I sell cameras and photography equipment. Mostly on eBay these days since I closed my retail store in 2007. I occasionally have vintage and collectable cameras available. They’re usually from a client for whom I’m selling on consignment or cameras I pick up in my dealings. Once in a while, I go into my own collection and offer up one of my own cameras. I never really want to sell out of my collection but I’ll decide to see what I can get for a piece and if the price is right, I’ll part with the item.

I recently put a cool little camera on eBay. It’s a Pentax Auto 110 Super SLR camera. Pentax made this camera in 1982 and it was an interchangable lens SLR camera that was miniature and took 110 ‘Instamatic’ cartridge film. Pentax made an entire system of lenses and accessories for this camera. At the time most of us who worked in the camera business thought it was a joke but it was impressive how technically advanced the camera was for its size and price.

So it’s 2009 and I’m going through a cabinet and there it is, a pristine Pentax Auto 110 Super with its basic lens. I wonder what it’s worth? Looking at my reference books, magazines and the Internet I draw the conclusion it could be a desirable camera to a collector. Not only a camera collector but someone interested in miniatures or industrial design. OK, up it goes on eBay. I often utilize an eBay feature called ‘Make an Offer’. It lets me set a desired price and give buyers the chance to make their best offer on the item. I put the Pentax up for $249.00. Within 2 days I get this email.

Dear traderjims,

$249 ? are you out of your mind !

Don’t insult and don’t get insulted

This is hardly the first time I’ve been challenged about an asking price. And this was nicely worded compared to other comments I’ve heard. Of course, the knee jerk reacion is to fire back something like ‘mind your own business’ but for two reasons, I suppress the urge to do that. First, this is someone who took an interest in the camera and perhaps can become an ally and a future client. Second, I can answer the challenge in a manner that doesn’t express conflict. In this case, here was my answer.

“Fair question. I have always been amazed at how much someone is willing to pay for something they want. I have no urgent need to sell this item. It is a pristine example of a special piece of photographica. If someone is'nuts' enough to make me an offer on it then I can use the money. To sell it for 50.00 or 100.00? Why? It's too cool! You can ask, why pay thousands for a faceted shiny rock that has the sweat & blood of oppressed people on it that is worth half of what you bought it for after you've paid for it?
Because it means something to someone who always dreamed of wearing a diamond. It's all perception my friend. You've inspired my next blog entry.
Thank you. Jim

-traderjims”

And so he did. Please know that the line about diamond miners seems a bit self-rightious to me on re-read but, I’m sharing so forgive me.

And my new friend’s reply?

“Dear traderjims,

that was great ! and good luck to you.”

I’m not trying to rip anyone off. It’s wrong and not good for business. When I sell anything new or common, I try to have the lowest price. When I sell on consignment, I often have to bow to the demands of my client and try to get a price that isn’t realistic. I always feel though, I ask a price. I’m not demanding and certainly it is the buyer’s choice to buy, make an offer or move on.

I had been planning to write about what I feel is the proper way to ‘Make an Offer’ on eBay. I put something on eBay for say $29.00 and I receive offers of $1.00. I’ll follow up soon about how that kind of situation is handled.

Color correction. Pre vs. Post. Filters vs. Photoshop

There is an old adage in photography that if you get the exposure right when you take the shot, the image will have a quality you’ll never achieve trying to create it afterwards, in the old days in the darkroom, these days using an image editing application i.e. Photoshop.

What is a good photograph?

A good photo is first and foremost subject. How the subject is framed within the rectangle that is the photograph is the image’s composition. How the subject is lit supplies the character. The tonal and color quality completes the story by bringing the subject into the viewer’s eye in the most satisfying manner.

I think it’s fair to say that we have all become somewhat reliant on letting the camera do all the ‘thinking’ for us in regards to exposure. Cameras do a hell of a good job too. My newest camera, the Nikon D300 is phenomenal in how it reads a scene and delivers a superb exposure. However, a recent assignment showed me how much variation could occur over the course of shoot as I went back and forth between low and high ISO settings, flash and ambient light changes and the variety of skin tones of the people who were my subjects. I spent an enormous amount of time leveling out the 300 plus photos of the event. They all looked fine as individual photos but as a set of images, I couldn’t show them to my client without tightening the consistency.

Last week I had a personal shoot where I went back to the most basic form of photography I know. I set the camera’s ISO to 400. I set the white balance to daylight. I set the exposure mode to manual. I used color correction filters for the first time in years. I am a fan of the basic UV filter for lens protection. The polarizing filter has always stayed in my kit too, as well as a few others of the standards. What I experienced in using the correction filters though was a consistency of quality that resulted in my being able to enjoy the photos with no tweaking post shoot in Photoshop.

Color correction filters

These filters are subtle in what they do. I’m not talking about color conversion filters, the type that compensate for the lighting conditions compared to the color setting (or type of film) in the camera. A correction filter adds a quality to the exposure. It can be a slight warming up or cooling down of the color. It can be an enhancement of a part of the color spectrum such as red or green intensifiers. There are filters that help to even out skin tones and decrease the harshness of flash highlights.

What I saw was that by capturing the image with the quality optimized as it was being taken made for a better image. The benefit of not spending five to fifteen minutes with each image in Photoshop was cool too.

Some things never change

My exercise also satisfied me in that it’s nice to know that all I gleaned in school and by learning photography through hard knocks still has validity in these days of evaluative metering systems, face detection focusing and now even where the camera will tell you when someone blinked when you took the shot.

I began by saying a good photo is subject. The great thing about taking photos with highly advanced cameras these days is, you get more of ‘good results’. If what you took a picture of was interesting, chances are you’ll have a photo you and others will enjoy. However, it is when you get back to controlling what’s going to result when you make an exposure that brings you to the level where you’re master of the art and you can always anticipate how your image will look. The practice of doing this will result in your being able to give yourself over to the technology because a synergy will develop where you’ll know how to interface with the camera so that you get as close to the desired result as you can while still taking advantage of what your state of the are camera has to offer.

I have many friends and clients who turn to film cameras to experience ‘real photography’. I understand the allure. I recently ran a few rolls of film through a Nikon F5 I have and honestly, at first I forgot not only how to load the camera (and it’s auto-loading) and was perplexed for a moment when the camera stopped working…after 36 pictures! Now, there is a quality about film that is unique unto itself. I wrote of this in a previous blog entry. But whether it be film or digital…or oil painting for that matter, subject, composition, lighting and tonal quality make an image work. Playing with the light in real life is the way to go. It’ll show in your work.

What can a digital SLR do a compact camera can’t? And vice versa.

Digital SLR cameras are really affordable now. When you’re buying a camera it is again like the days when 35mm cameras were sold. You would buy a camera based on your needs. When I had my store a customer would come in looking to buy a camera and ask me to make a suggestion. One of the questions I’d ask them was what was more important to them, portability or versatility.


What you're committing to

An SLR is a bigger camera that can be easily adapted to be what you need for your particular interest. It can take lenses that can be extremely wide angle all the way through to powerful telephotos. An SLR can use accessory flashes that can give a better quality of light and can be powerful enough to light up a large room. An SLR can be built up into a system that you can put together to do the kind of photography you want to do. The SLR is a larger camera and a system can fill up a camera bag. It can be a lot to carry but as I said in my last article, for me having my camera with me is my way of enjoying what I’m doing. I don’t consider it a burden at all.

What's better about an SLR?

One thing all the manufacturers craft their SLRs to do is be very responsive to a photographer’s commands. They typically do not ‘lag’ when you take a picture as many compact digital cameras do. They allow their user to take control of how they work. Where most compacts are used completely automatically, SLRs are at their best when you control them to work with the parameters set for what your taking pictures of. An example I’ll give you is that usually a compact taking a portrait will take a picture that’s sharp throughout, both the subject and the background. With an SLR you can more easily make sure the subject is sharp and the background is thrown out of focus so it’s not distracting. Photography is a technical art. There are techniques you can learn to make your photos look really professional but you need a camera you can apply these techniques to. An SLR is such a camera.

Another benefit to an SLR is since it has the architecture to house more technology, the sensor that captures the image can be larger and therefore grab more light, which means more detail in the photo. The lenses can be designed for performance as opposed to being designed to be as small as possible.

Does price matter?

Every SLR can enhance your photography. There is nothing an inexpensive SLR can’t do as far as taking a picture goes. As they get more expensive they merely get more performance and are built for more use. As an example using the Nikon line. The under $500.00 Nikon D40 takes as good a photo as a $5000.00 D3. What the D3 gives for the price is it captures the image in a bigger file and on a larger sensor. Its also built like a tank because a D3 could find itself in a war zone or traveling with its owner around the world every day. The resulting picture will be no better though because that’s still the result of the photographer’s eye.

Now…what about the compact digital?

I have to admit, if I take 100 photos, 80-90 of them I take with a compact camera. My little Canon Powershot Elph has taken THOUSANDS of photos in the two years I’ve had it. They’re mostly snapshots of my family but these are the pictures that mean the most to me. That little camera goes almost everywhere with me. It even has its place in my SLR camera bag so when I travel and there’s a day when I don’t want to haul the bag, I have the ability to still take great photos.

The same rule applies to a compact digital as it does to a low price SLR. The photographer makes a photo great. The only thing you have to deal with is to understand the limitations of the camera. The more you know what it can do, the greater the chance you can take a picture you’ll include with your best work.

Hockey mom, Soccer dad, Photographers both

Parent with a camera.

Whatever my son does, I am there with my camera capturing the moment. My kid has had more photos taken of him than Paris Hilton, and Brittany Spears combined or at least that must be how he feels. Being anywhere without my camera is so alien to me. I am one of those people who, if I don’t have a camera, I’m asked why and where is it? I took a trip to Italy many years ago and at the time I was into playing with a video camera, so I had that and my still camera. Japanese tourists pointed at me laughing. I’m joking, but I was asked ‘Why don’t you just enjoy where you are and soak it in?’ To me, taking pictures is my joy. It makes my vacation more enjoyable. Now with a four-year-old traveling is more about what I’m doing with him and being that he is now officially my favorite subject, I have my camera at the ready, continually taking pictures.

The perfect place to have a camera.

Youth sports are huge. My boy will begin his involvement in team sports next year, and I’ll join the millions of American dads whose weekends will be spent standing at the sidelines cheering my child’s team’s efforts and deriding the referees who say anything that deprives his team of that scoring opportunity. What I’ll have with me is my camera. On it will be the biggest baddest lens, I’ve got. For me that means my Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 or perhaps my seldom used but ‘I had to have it’ Nikon 300mm 2.8. I say this trying to be self-deprecating. When it comes to camera equipment, being in this business means, I get the chance to have the top of the line toys. It DOES NOT mean I get any better photos than the Mom or Dad next to me with the point and shoot with the 12x zoom lens. The great shot is there for the taking, and we’re all equal in our chance to capture the moment. I do have the advantage in regards to equipment I use allowing me, under equal circumstances, a better opportunity to control my outcome as long as my skill is in play as well. I have been taking pictures for a long time, and I am good at what I do. I’ll say, I’d rather have a simpler camera and my experience than be the guy who has the latest and greatest equipment that I’ve hardly ever used. Case in point, this photo was taken by me with a Canon Powershot Elph SD600. A tiny, consumer level point and shoot. Why did I choose this photo? Because it’s good! It’s a moment captured in my boy’s life where he is defying gravity and full of joy. I would never enter this photo in a contest nor do I think its worthy of being in my portfolio. It is, however, a photo I’m sure will bring a smile to anyone who has a four-year-old they’ve seen having this much fun.


Practice makes for great memories.

Take pictures of your kids. Lots of pictures. These days there’s no excuse not to since film and processing cost is no longer a factor. Take photos of your kid’s friends too because there’s a good chance their parents aren’t and there’s no way to better bond with your neighbors than to share pictures with them. Heck, you might even find yourself headed towards a side business as the team photographer. Take a look at an article I wrote for Shutterbug magazine. You’d be surprised how many pros started out being the defacto official photographer at an activity. You get a name and doors open for you. I’ll close with this shot taken a few months ago at a qualifying session for the U.S. Tennis Open at UCLA of Marat Safin.


A shot taken with skills learned at simpler venues. It’s easier to capture the decisive moment when you practice on smaller and slower moving targets (like children) before getting into the big leagues.

The coolest cameras I own.

Owning a camera store for 20 plus years put a lot of cameras into my hands. I always bought and allowed trade ins of used equipment. That resulted in my acquiring some really incredible cameras from throughout the history of photography. People would come in to my store with stuff from their grandparents’ house. One instance there was a former photographer for the movie studios that were near my store whose son brought in an old wooden 8x10 camera from the turn of the 20th century. I’ve been offered Leicas, Nikons, Hasselblads, Rolleis and more. The one thing I was never able to get over was my desire to keep these classics as they came to me. In the 6-10 years before I closed my store, I never passed on an opportunity to buy a Leica rangefinder and I would pay up to retail market value if I had to. I felt these were going to become so hard to come by and I didn’t want to miss a chance at one. I have no plans to sell any. I have no idea why. I can’t use them all. For years most of them have been locked away. In 2005 I happened to buy a really cool showcase that I could lock and I put most of the 35mm cameras I collected in there with a big sign saying “Not for Sale, owner’s personal collection.” Drove some people nuts. There are people from Japan that are voracious camera collectors. My store was well known for carrying used stuff and located near LAX so I got a lot of collectors in. “how much…how much?” they’d ask. Sorry, I’d say. Oh I loved it! To name the coolest cameras I have I’d start with three. I’ll tell you a bit about each of them.

Leica M3. Production began in 1954.

There’s no shortage of this camera in the world but it is what every hopeful photojournalist wanted for as long as I have loved photography. Holding one in your hands was feeling a machine that you knew was the same as what was used by every major influential photographer from the 1960s. Its design was instantly recognizable as the camera you'd see at every major news event of the time. The camera is compact but hefty. You can feel the precision in these cameras. The tight tolerances they were built to. And shooting one that happens to have a good lens on it…sharp! Amazingly Leica has kept their standards high and even today you cannot find a more finely crafted piece of camera gear.

Nikon SP. Production began in 1957.

More, better camera. The Japanese camera manufacturers were the first of their country’s companies that really made the effort to raise the quality of their product. As a child I understood items made in Japan were not very good. Cheap junk was what was said. The best cameras were made in Germany and the good everyman’s camera was American made. In the late 1930s Japan began making knock offs of the German Leica and Contax cameras. I’ve heard that with the onset of WWII, Germany shared manufacturing data with the Japanese so camera production could be curtailed in Germany to allow those plants to make precision optics for the war machine. The cameras Japan made were duplicates of the German cameras. Canon and Minolta copied Leica. Nikon copied the Contax. By the time of the Korean War the Japanese were making really fine cameras but weren’t recognized for their progress in quality. It was journalists and U.S. soldiers that began buying and using these cameras. The Nikon rangefinders had some unique features added to them that made them favorites. The SP was the most feature-laden camera of its time. It had two viewfinders that covered lenses from 28mm to 135mm. It took a motor drive. Most importantly it directly led to the development of the Nikon F SLR camera, arguably the most important 35mm camera to ever come out of Japan. Many of its features came directly from the SP.

Kodak Bantam Special.

The number of cameras designed to also be works of art (or fashion accessories) are few and far between. The trend is present today with colored cameras with slick designs but really they’re pretty at best but not very good cameras. Going back in time, many cameras were dolled up with fancy leather and special finishes and sold as special editions. The Kodak Bantam Special was a true jewel. Beautiful Deco design and precision construction. The only sad thing about this camera is they used a film format that was short lived, roll film size 828. An early attempt to make a camera as thin as possible. This camera came to market in 1936. It featured a remarkably sharp and fast 45mm f2.0 lens. Was extremely compact. Had a true rangefinder for accurate focusing. The lens folded into the camera making it truly pocketable. Look at the design. It’s more beautiful in person.

From time to time I’ll go into the cupboards and show you some other interesting items I’ve collected. If you have a question about an old camera you have, please ask me. If you have any camera equipment, modern or vintage, you want to sell please send me a list and I’ll make my best offer. So you know, pretty much any Kodak, Polaroid and old movie cameras will likely have no value but there are exceptions there too. If your Dad or Mom was a photography nut and spent your inheritance on their toys, there may be something in the attic that will pay you back. Go take a look. Till next time.

What about film?

Does film have any life left in it?

My first impulse is to say no. Digital is not only on par but absolutely amazing in the detail it can capture. I take my hat off to the thousands of code writers who brought digital imaging to where it is today. So quickly too. I am currently shooting with a Nikon D300 which replaced my top of the line Nikon D1x. The difference is astonishing. My D1x was troublesome, inconsistent and constantly disappointed me. Since I sell cameras, I get a chance to check them out and I liked the D2x, D200 and D80. I tried buying a used D2x online and was the victim of fraud. $2300.00 down the drain and my desire for a new body was on hold while I recovered from that hit. The Nikon D3 and D300 came out and I got a chance to play with them both. Man I wanted a D3 bad! Could not swallow the price tag and for me, having the top of the line has always been so important to me. Just because! I decided to go with the D300 and I am so happy with it. It's actually a better camera for where I'm at now because of its size and I have to admit having that little built in flash is really handy. OK enough for now about my camera. Film. What does it offer? I have heard so much about how film has more tonal quality and detail. That it's still unmatched in resolution. There is an advantage film has in that it can record from pure black to pure white without points along the curve that drop out. Digital sensors often have failure points. However this is unimportant a huge amount of the time.

What remains important about film?

The look! Images captured on film look different from those on digital. What film brings to the table these days is it is another media artists can express themselves on. In wanting to communicate in a way that sets you apart from the crowd, those who embrace film are like portrait painters who continued to work after photographers started taking over their business. There were subjects who wanted their likeness rendered in a different way. There still are. Then there is the classic experience of photography. In Woody Allen's last movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the story includes a part where Cristina takes up photography using a digital camera. The artists she has hooked up with tell her to ditch the digital. Get a 'real' camera. Use film. Get into a darkroom. I have spent many hours in a darkroom. I'm glad for the experience. I felt akin to a long line of photographers from the famous to the friends in college I worked beside. It's a special place to be. Standing there in the smell of chemistry and a softly glowing orange light. Taking away the nostalgia though, Photoshop has provided me with more pleasure, fine tuning my images than anything I've ever gotten done in a darkroom.

I hope film doesn't go away or become so expensive it will become scarce. It is still the only media where what was seen was truly captured and is there for anyone to see, just by holding that negative and slide up to the sun. For the few days after the 'big one' (I live in L.A.) until the electricity comes back on, I'll be able to look at my pictures to pass the time. Oh yeah…I better make prints of my favorite digital pix too.

why blog, why now?

I have had an interest in cameras and photography for 37 years. I've been a photographer. I've sold cameras and taught photography to hundreds, perhaps thousands of people. I own cameras...a LOT of cameras. Too many! I love how they're made, the better ones I mean. I owned a camera store for 23 years. I closed it in 2007.
I'm attending a meeting to improve my skills in selling on the internet and on eBay. What impresses me are the people selling on the net who like talking to those with like interests and use blogs to do so. I'm told it helps with sales and creates relationships. This is what I did in my camera store for years. I know much about photography and camera equipment. Not everything but it is my forte. I have spoken to people who've said I communicate how much I enjoy photography in a special way. If I do, I'll try expressing it here. I'm gonna blog my way through it.