Yamato Pax Golden View - beautiful!

[David Silver]

This walked into my collection last week, and it's far too beautiful to keep to myself! Besides, I may be selling it soon (they come, they go, but I'm always looking for something better!), and I didn't want to let it go without giving all of you the chance to see it. It's a Pax Golden View compact 35mm coupled rangefinder camera made by Yamato of Japan around 1953. Rare, and then usually found with green covering. This red version is the first I've seen in over a decade! Plus it comes with its special maroon carrying case, matching "gold" lens cap, and a "gold" filter and lens hood stored in their own little maroon case.





Enjoy!

Dave

[vintageslrs]

Wow!

that is beautiful!!


Bob

[Randy]

Nice David, I'll bet that's worth some coin.

[PeterW]

Dave, that's a lovely camera. Quite the nicest Leica copy I've seen for a long, long time. Shame if you have to let it go, but at least you'll have the satisfaction of having owned it, if only for a time. Do you intend to run a film through it?

Peter

[kamera]

Yes Dave,

That is one beautifull piece of camera machinery!!! It would sit right in the front of one of my display cases where I could readily see it every time I passed by.

Ron Head
Kalamazoo, MI

[David Silver]

Hey all,

Yes, it's a beauty and there's that temptation to keep it, but I have to admit (or I'd still be straddling bankruptcy!) that it doesn't fit my true collecting interests. Peter asked if I'll shoot with it, but there's no possibility of that for now. The sad thing about ALL the Pax models is that Yamato used a viscous black lubricant that, if not regularly exercised, dried out and turned to epoxy. I don't mean just hard, or like cement, but more of a true epoxy that absolutely locked metal pieces together! Terrible nasty stuff. It CAN be fixed easily, the pieces removed, the lubricant dissolved out or melted, and it all goes back together quite nicely, but the point is that the vast majority of Pax models found today have frozen focusing and diaphragms. Very sad. I have used other Pax models over the years and they are fun little cameras, but nothing earth shattering. Their value lies more in their ingenious compactness and obvious charm. As a collector, I'd rather have one really fine example of the original Pax for historical consideration, and then perhaps (the best user in the series) a Pax Ruby. This Golden View is the "luxus" version of the original model Pax, but despite its rarity and beauty, I regard it as a specialty item and my primary collecting motivation is historical significance. Too bad it isn't in working shape because I could imagine the attention I'd get from tourists and other photographers walking around San Francisco when they saw me shooting with it! As for value, I've seen a seller on eBay trying to get (if my memory serves me properly) a "Buy It Now" price of $799 for a very fine example with the more common green covering. For regular bidding I believe his opening price was $499. That's a bit optimistic for the green, and he's asking too much to start anyway. It's an auction, after all, and I don't understand why sellers insist on such ridiculously high (relative to an item's market value) opening prices. I will be listing my red example on eBay, maybe next week, and my expectation, considering it's immaculate external yet frozen internal condition, is somewhere around $500. True to my eBay philosophy (and to the consternation of so many others selling there), the opening bid will be only 99 cents!

Dave

[kdwall]

Lord, that's gorgeous! Where do you find these things? So it "walked" into your collection? I know exactly what you mean about ebay sellers and their ridiculous starting prices or reserves. If an item is well known to be worth maybe $100, a lot of these fools will start at $99! You start at 99 cents? Even for a rare item like this? Now that is an auction! Good on you!

KD

[karin]

i have the green version myself, and as they tend to be, it's all stuck together. i really want to try it out, so hopefully soon i can get someone to repair it, thanks for letting me know what's wrong, i have been searching for a wile without any clues!

[kiev4a]

Can't see the images

[herron]

This is a pretty old thread, and I believe the original poster (silver) is one of the few (are there more than two?) folks who have been "removed" from the membership roster. Perhaps this explains the missing images.