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What do you do with the camera that comes with the lens?
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:40 am    Post subject: What do you do with the camera that comes with the lens? Reply with quote

I found I started to accumulate a number of vintage 35mm cameras recently, as the lenses I purchased all came with such a camera. For the ones with good conditions, I'll probably use some day, but for the majority of them, they are just non-working ones. What can I do with them? They are usually M42 mount cameras. Thanks.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 1:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hah! The lens collectors dilemma! I have a huge number of these things. Minolta, Konica, Fuji, Canon, etc. I also have numerous old folding cmears. I can't bring myself to throw them away. People will sometimes buy the on e-bay if they need a part and the shipping isn't too high. My den is cluttered with a bunch of them. Makes my wife (who is a clean and neat freak) a little upset with me.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 1:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Taking the cue from KEH, put them in a LOT OF 35MM CAMERAS FOR PARTS AS IS auction.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 1:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If the shutter is working, I usually give them away to anyone who wants to try film and can apply the sunny 16 rule.
There are plenty of film user groups on facebook and I have had no trouble finding a home for unwanted camera bodies among their members.
T Happy Dog


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 1:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This
Graveyard by The lens profile, on Flickr


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 4:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I do my best to avoid getting any lenses that have cameras with them just so I don't have to deal with them or pay shipping for something I don't even want.
I'd love to get a black Super D for my RE collection, but I know it would just sit in the closet.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 4:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jamaeolus wrote:
Hah! The lens collectors dilemma! I have a huge number of these things. Minolta, Konica, Fuji, Canon, etc. I also have numerous old folding cmears. I can't bring myself to throw them away. People will sometimes buy the on e-bay if they need a part and the shipping isn't too high. My den is cluttered with a bunch of them. Makes my wife (who is a clean and neat freak) a little upset with me.

Same! Those non-working cameras are in my garage, undergoing heat. I wish I had a cabinet with glass doors to place them there.


visualopsins wrote:
Taking the cue from KEH, put them in a LOT OF 35MM CAMERAS FOR PARTS AS IS auction.

Thanks. Let me take a look of this approach.



Oldhand wrote:
If the shutter is working, I usually give them away to anyone who wants to try film and can apply the sunny 16 rule.
There are plenty of film user groups on facebook and I have had no trouble finding a home for unwanted camera bodies among their members.

Didn't know that. I thought pretty much everyone has gone digital these days. I actually want to save a few and see if the screws on the camera can be used in lenses.
Probably the screws are too large for the lenses.


D1N0 wrote:
This

Yours look very clean than mine. Smile)


Lightshow wrote:
I do my best to avoid getting any lenses that have cameras with them just so I don't have to deal with them or pay shipping for something I don't even want.
I'd love to get a black Super D for my RE collection, but I know it would just sit in the closet.

I once ask a seller if I can just take the lens with reduced shipping and got a no so I usually don't ask again. Maybe I can pay the full price and ask them not to ship the lens to me. For me, I want to get some tiny fixed lens rangefinder cameras with really nice condition, preferably with the original manual, original case, original accessaries. But it is really hard.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 7:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's a funny idea that these camera's back in the days cost an arm and a leg, and now they're basically considered 'waste'.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 7:51 am    Post subject: Re: What do you do with the camera that comes with the lens? Reply with quote

vivaldibow wrote:
I found I started to accumulate a number of vintage 35mm cameras recently, as the lenses I purchased all came with such a camera. For the ones with good conditions, I'll probably use some day, but for the majority of them, they are just non-working ones. What can I do with them? They are usually M42 mount cameras. Thanks.


It is not unusual that a lens + camera is less expensive than just the lens, not to mention the photo bag with more items. Sometimes I can sell a bundle of cameras when their exterior is impeccable. An OM1 used in a lab + a Canon FTb QL come to mind. When more common and no value in sale I take them apart, lots of small screws + springs that can help me repair or convert lenses. The mounts I save for possible adaption projects or to use as tools for such projects. Without a camera OM mount mounted on a piece of plywood, clamped in a vise, it would have been impossible to remove the front group of an OM 50mm 1.4, the 6xx.xxx serial number that also needed slots created there for the spanner as they are absent. https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4186790

I actually bought two bundles of Canon EF film bodies to use the mounts or even the whole camera for such projects, preferably have the metal mount types then. In the past I have used a small part of an SLR mirror to repair an old 6x6 folder rangefinder. Little chance I ever will use the collected penta prisms that I find hard to throw away. There is no remorse here for actions like mentioned, I directly recycle the most important part, the lens, that may never be used again if it is not cleaned or repaired. That counts even more for fixed camera lenses where the body did not work anymore, countless selenium cell exposure systems are dead for years and even the Lomo fans are not interested then. The brass, aluminium, steel of the bodies goes to the scrapyard for the normal recycling processes like your white goods and cars will.

Edit: of the few M42 bodies I got there is not a mount that I did not use. One replaced an FL mount at the front of a shortened noname bellows so I could use the more common M42 adapters for enlarger lenses on that bellows. At the rear of the bellows a Sony FE mount replaced the FD mount.


Last edited by Ernst Dinkla on Tue Jul 14, 2020 8:01 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 7:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A used camera and lens store in Budapest pays a small amount for them so I take them there.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 8:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I tell myself that I've not, as yet, liberated a lens that I could not put back on the camera. But that has never completely removed the guilt that I know where all the bodies are.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 10:19 am    Post subject: Re: What do you do with the camera that comes with the lens? Reply with quote

vivaldibow wrote:
I found I started to accumulate a number of vintage 35mm cameras recently,

Mee too! (oops ... i hope this wasn't too political, as political statements are strictly forbidden here ...)

vivaldibow wrote:

as the lenses I purchased all came with such a camera.

Somtimes the newly arriving cameras turn out to be a slightly different version of something I already had. Which makes it easier to keep them Wink


vivaldibow wrote:
For the ones with good conditions, I'll probably use some day,

Maybe.

vivaldibow wrote:
but for the majority of them, they are just non-working ones. What can I do with them? They are usually M42 mount cameras. Thanks.

Send me a list - maybe (probably) some of them are missing in my collection ... I don't have that many M42 cameras yet Wink

S


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 11:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lightshow wrote:
I do my best to avoid getting any lenses that have cameras with them just so I don't have to deal with them or pay shipping for something I don't even want.
I'd love to get a black Super D for my RE collection, but I know it would just sit in the closet.


It usually doesn't matter and camera's with lenses are usually sold by people not knowing the value of the lens. So I pay less than just getting a lens without camera.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 11:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In post apocalyptic / steampunk world they will become valuable for harvesting parts, especially the mechanical ones Smile.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've made loads of these, they sell OK. ( I only use dead cameras and lenses Wink )





PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 6:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've given a few to the children of my friends. Often they're fascinated at first, then quickly give up when they realize film requires more effort than an iPhone, but a couple of the kids have stuck with it.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lloydy wrote:
I've made loads of these, they sell OK. ( I only use dead cameras and lenses Wink ) ...


Maybe some mflensers would be interested? Smile

An old aluminum film canister would look good with Mamiya, maybe...would that these lamps were merely holders, cameras loaded & ready to pick up & use!


PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 7:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lloydy wrote:
I've made loads of these, they sell OK. ( I only use dead cameras and lenses Wink )





One of the better idea's, I like it!
I'd say keep whatever you want\think
The others, I think of people who could be happy to receive something of that kind (my witha lens though,,) and just give them to people in a friendly gesture


PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 1:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Winding up with cameras that are essentially rear lens caps for lenses I've bought is a situation I've run into on occasion. But I haven't bought many M42 lenses, none with cameras attached, so I haven't had this problem with winding up with a hodge-podge of cameras of a single mount. Mostly for me, it's been Canon and Nikon, some Pentaxes, but that's been about it.

The Canons and Nikons, I've kept most, sold off a few. The Pentaxes, the couple of cameras I got were broken so I haven't done anything with them.

Something I've come across that's almost as common is bidding on a pile of gear to get one or two items -- like what happens sometimes over at Goodwill's auction site. Last time i did this, I was after a nice little Fuji SLR and wound up with four or five others -- a few Pentaxes, a Minolta, a Canon. Whatever, the end result is the same. Too many unwanted cameras. So far it hasn't reached a critical stage for me, but when it does I'll probably see if I can sell them as a Pile-O-Cameras. I collect fountain pens and I've done this before with miscellaneous pens I didn't care about -- just made a Pile-O-Pens and put them up for auction. Got a fair amount of action when I did it that way.


Last edited by cooltouch on Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:22 pm; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 3:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Most times I ask the seller to send me only the lens. However, I do still have a bunch of cameras and some good ones. Colleges often start photography students with film, so there is that opportunity to donate, but they will need lenses to go with them. Then there are the ones with fixed lenses that I've removed. They do go in the garbage.


PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wonder if Camera Rescue finds itself with working lenses, but the attached bodies are dead?

If it is thought that it is an idea worth persuing, someone who can act on behalf of MFLenses could contact them? If something monetary could be arranged it might provide a small income for our site. I don't know a lot about Camera Rescue, so I don't know if they would provide a percentage of sale, where one of our bodies were used. It's just an idea that has come to me.

https://camerarescue.org/


PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 2:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
What do you do with the camera that comes with the lens?


Sometimes i simply keep them Wink



Stephan


PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 5:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lloydy wrote:
I've made loads of these, they sell OK. ( I only use dead cameras and lenses Wink )



Very clever idea and a nice piece of art!


PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

stevemark wrote:
Quote:
What do you do with the camera that comes with the lens?


Sometimes i simply keep them Wink



Those look nice!


PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 5:26 pm    Post subject: Re: What do you do with the camera that comes with the lens? Reply with quote

Ernst Dinkla wrote:
vivaldibow wrote:
I found I started to accumulate a number of vintage 35mm cameras recently, as the lenses I purchased all came with such a camera. For the ones with good conditions, I'll probably use some day, but for the majority of them, they are just non-working ones. What can I do with them? They are usually M42 mount cameras. Thanks.


It is not unusual that a lens + camera is less expensive than just the lens, not to mention the photo bag with more items. Sometimes I can sell a bundle of cameras when their exterior is impeccable. An OM1 used in a lab + a Canon FTb QL come to mind. When more common and no value in sale I take them apart, lots of small screws + springs that can help me repair or convert lenses. The mounts I save for possible adaption projects or to use as tools for such projects. Without a camera OM mount mounted on a piece of plywood, clamped in a vise, it would have been impossible to remove the front group of an OM 50mm 1.4, the 6xx.xxx serial number that also needed slots created there for the spanner as they are absent. https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4186790

I actually bought two bundles of Canon EF film bodies to use the mounts or even the whole camera for such projects, preferably have the metal mount types then. In the past I have used a small part of an SLR mirror to repair an old 6x6 folder rangefinder. Little chance I ever will use the collected penta prisms that I find hard to throw away. There is no remorse here for actions like mentioned, I directly recycle the most important part, the lens, that may never be used again if it is not cleaned or repaired. That counts even more for fixed camera lenses where the body did not work anymore, countless selenium cell exposure systems are dead for years and even the Lomo fans are not interested then. The brass, aluminium, steel of the bodies goes to the scrapyard for the normal recycling processes like your white goods and cars will.

Edit: of the few M42 bodies I got there is not a mount that I did not use. One replaced an FL mount at the front of a shortened noname bellows so I could use the more common M42 adapters for enlarger lenses on that bellows. At the rear of the bellows a Sony FE mount replaced the FD mount.


I think the tiny screws and springs are most useful. Hopefully they are compatible with the parts in some lenses.