My new collecting philosophy

[PeterW]

Hi all,

As I mentioned in the “I caught a bug” thread I’ve been thinking quite a lot over the past couple of days about my camera collecting philosophy.

Now my fingers are no longer capable of dealing with tiny mechanisms and even more tiny (tinier?) screws, I’ve come to the conclusion that It doesn’t matter whether the cameras I collect are working or not. I can still manage cosmetic work quite comfortably.

OK they’ll be shelf queens, but then I’ve never put a film through many of the cameras I restored to working order years ago, and I doubt if I ever will. As for my older plate cameras, I haven’t used them, even with a bromide paper “plate” for years and years.

My photography is now completely digital, and I find the desk-top darkroom so much easier and more convenient than my old wet darkroom – and I don’t spend hours inhaling fumes from developers, stop baths and fixers. Also, the cost per picture is much, much less.

With this in mind I got up bright and early this morning at some ungodly hour like 6 am, and went through several boxes of cameras waiting to be restored because they’re jammed or the shutter doesn’t work properly. Restoring them cosmetically isn’t going to be all that difficult, and within an hour I’d added half a dozen cameras to my collection.

Oh yes, I can now state on first-hand authority that there aren’t any ghosties or ghoulies or long-legged beasties about in the small hours, and the things that go Bump in the night are our dog doing her regular prowls round the house to check that everything is OK.

My next step will be to buy some timber and get John to put up some shelves in my downstairs den so I can display them and look at them instead of trying to remember in which box they’re packed away.

I’m getting quite enthusiastic about it. And I can use the non-working condition as a lever to get prices down when the weather gets warmer and I can get out to car boot sales and flea markets.

I don’t buy anything on ebay now, though I do have an occasional look through the photography sections, because the postage has risen to the point where it’s just a bad joke. I’m sure that’s why a lot of quite nice non-working cameras that sellers start at something like 99p don’t attract any bids. It’s not much fun to win a camera at 99p to find you’ve got to pay £5.99 postage.

I really feel for people who live out in the sticks, beautiful though the area may be to live in, and have no means of collecting except through the mail.

I’ll post some pictures when I’ve finished some of the cosmetic work.

PeterW

[casualcollector]

Very good Peter. Improvise, adapt, overcome!

[vintageslrs]

PeterW--I love your philosophy!
It makes perfect sense to me. One does not have to actually use their cameras to enjoy their beauty, precision and history. That's not to say we shouldn't....but if we don't, we still can enjoy them immensely and enjoy collecting and displaying them!
Good for you Peter---looking forward to the photos of your restoration work!

all the best
Bob

[Deleted]

Peter. I'm with you. Digital photography is a lot more convenient and a lot less expensive which is why that's pretty much all I do. Speaking of inhaling chemical fumes, when I was a newspaper photographer I once spent about a week flat on my back when any movement caused nausea. My doctor said the chemicals had played a role in a middle ear problem.


I'm fortunate in that most of my Soviet cameras and all my Nikons are operational--I think there maybe five out of 60 that don't work. Not that it really matters because most of the cameras aren't worth enough now to worry about. And like you I'm pretty much done with the auctions because of postage. If I can find something local in the classifieds or on Craig's List I may pick it up, however.

[daveh]

Peter,

Excellent thinking.


As regards ebay and postage it has always seemed to me that some charge somewhat over the top, so they can gain a few pounds on the sale price. I have found a few ebay sellers who post for an honest price.

Dave.

[Doug T.]

Peter,
That's a great outlook on things.
Most of the cameras I find end up unused on the shelf, working or not. I love them no matter what shape they're in.
Lately I've taken to collecting old digital cameras. Most folks put no value on the older ones, so they don't cost me very much, but some are very nice.
Everyone with an older film camera for sale, even point & shoots, seems to think they're worth a fortune.
What ever the type, camera collecting is FUN
Doug

[mickeyobe]

PeterW,

I am impressed.

You have given me something to think about seriously.

I haven't bought a camera on eBay for a long time. Too risky.

Mickey

[Randy]

I bought 4 last year that were supposed to be broken on ebay, and they all worked. lol

I have quite a few of mine on display, but our house has forced air heat and it seems to make the dust worse, so what I have on display are in cases. You have a great new philosophy Peter.

[photax]

Peter, you are right, the shipping costs of ebay acquisitions have become far too expensive these days. It makes no sense buying a camera for 10.- if the shipping costs are 25.- or more.
Great idea to display your collection . I hope we will see some pictures.

Randy, you are also right in saying that most of the “broken” stuff, offered at ebay is working in reality. This may depend on legal considerations. I stopped selling things on ebay years ago. There are people who give you a negative rating, because of complaining that the 1sec.shutter speed is not working properly at a 1920 camera. One guy wanted his money back, because he had checked the shutter speeds of a 1940`s Agfa Karat with a laser measurement device ( this is no joke ). And this is no fun…

I like to buy antique cameras at flea markets or at local websites ( with personal pick-up ). 99% of my cameras are working, but it is utterly impossible to run a film through all of about 2.000 cameras. As Doug said: Camera collecting is fun and for me more interesting than collecting stamps or coins or things like these.
And that’s why I am a member of “The Camera Collector”-family, because I am collecting cameras ;D.
BTW “family”: I took a look at a German camera forum yesterday: A lot of know-all and arrogant braggers, rather enemies, than a family…

MIK

[daveh]

MIK,

I totally agree with the sentiment of your final paragraph. All round this has to be one of the best forums around. Thanks to everyone for that.

Dave.


edited to correct spelling.

[PeterW]

MIK,

I agree with you and Dave about our "family" forum. It's simply the best collecting forum there is.

I've decided on my first new-philosophy project. In one box I found, individually wrapped in newspaper, five Kodak 127 VPKs. Four are trellis-strut and the fifth is a Model B where the baseboard drops down and the lens standard pulls out.

I vaguely remember buying most of them. In the hectic, heady days of collecting in the late 1960s - early 1970s there were at least three, occasionally four, large camera fairs to visit every weekend in the summer here in the south-east UK.

Collectormania was at its height, and buyers had to act quickly. If you picked a camera up and put it down again, someone else would probably buy it!

The sellers, mostly part-time dealers, used to buy job lots of boxes of old cameras at the big auctions, and sold so much each Sunday they were content with small profits. They thought the supply would never dry up, and the good times would go on for ever. "Ever" turned out to be about thre years.

Valerie and I used to buy six or seven cameras a week.

In those days, for some reason, I had a soft spot for Kodak VPKs and Agfa Karats. If any were on the tables, and priced at under £5 each, I bought them and wrapped them up in my shoulder bag.

None of the VPKs I bought and packed away was pristine, though some still work, or try to.

They have all seen better days. Of the five, the pull-out Model B is all complete and works, but is very shabby. Of the four trellis strut models, two have missing viewfinders, one is missing its side film-loading door and one has a rivet missing from the trellis.

It's too late tonight to set up a camera and take a picture of them, but I will do so tomorrow.

They will be my first "new philosophy" project over the next couple of weeks ... after I've bought some fresh black paint, some brushes, steel wool, naptha cleaning fluid, black leather dye, black wax polish and some cleaning cloths. All the stuff I used to have has dried up.

It looks as if I'll be able to restore three out of the five

PeterW

[vintageslrs]

Bravo--PeterW!

Looking forward to the photos of them!

[PeterW]

Hi all,

Sorry I wasn't able to get round to taking a picture of the VPKs today. A friend, a fellow photog who lives in Wales,, heard how I was from John and came across country to see me.

He's just bought himelf a new scanner and brought his "old" one for me as a gift.

"Old!!" It's an as-new Epson Perfection 4990 Photo with negative or transparency, masks for 10x8, 5x4, 6x6 and 4 strips of 6x35mm plus one for holding 35mm slides in their mounts.

The software will run on just about anything thats's current, including Windows 7, so I've ditched Vuescan with which I didn't get on at all.

I'm delighted with the whole set-up .

I'll try to get some pictures of the VPKs this week.

PeterW

[daveh]

Peter,

The Epson software is better than that available for the HP Scanjet g4050. Like yours, this has full bed negative scanning but the software is the worst I have ever had with a scanner. Even now, in its latest version, it is prone to losing scans. There is a patch, but why they haven't 'made it right' by now I don't know. Also, if I scan through Photoshop it will not let me do anything other than scanning a document/photo (i.e. will not scan negatives/slides).

I still have an Epson 1650 (I think that is the model) but it will only do 2 negative strips or one line of 4 slides at a go. I bought the HP so I could 'let it get on with it' to do 16 slides or 30 negatives per batch. With the time I've wasted on the HP I could have scanned all my slides on the Epson.

I should have stuck with Epson: I certainly won't be buying another HP scanner.

Congratulations on having a friend who had the sense to have a spare Epson scanner.

Dave.