More vintage stuff getting even more expensive

[calvin83]

[kathala]

[quote]
the 17mm f/4 S.S.C., 135mm f/2 & 100mm f/2 all Sell fast and often go for over-heated prices. Worst is the 17mm as the identical FDn version is less than half the price…
[/quote]
yes, which is ironic, since especially the 17mm is a dreadful lens.

[quote]
On the other hand, the 20-35L & 80-200L seem to have lost some value over the last few years. [/quote]
I can confirm that as well.
Even more movement, I just realised, has been in the 5o/1.2 nFD L, which, by the way, is exactly as sharp and pleasing as the 55/1.2 asph. The L went for ~12oo a year ago, now it's half that, in pristine state. Go figure. I might buy mine back


[quote]
I’ve never encountered anyone who has been to a camera fair. Nor have I even considered doing so myself.
[/quote]
Same, actually. Having seen the price imaginations of "pro" and wannabe-pro sellers on ebay, I imagined fairs to be overpriced nerd fests for collectors and dilletants.

[quote]
Last time I dropped a few films off in east London there was a queue of 5 ahead of me - something I’ve not seen for a long time!
[/quote]
Lucky you. Last time I tried to have some films developped, I was laughed out of the store: "No. We have [i]phones [/i]now!"

[D1N0]

Another auction: https://www.catawiki.com/nl/l/60826521-canon-fd-55mm-1-1-2-s-s-c-aspherical

[cooltouch]

Another old Canon lens that has become super pricey in the last few years is the Canon FL 19mm f/3.5, whether the mirror lock-up model with finder or the "regular" version that doesn't require mirror lock-up.

I owned one back in my film days and I regret having ever sold it. Really a remarkable lens.

[Excalibur]

[kypfer]

I'm getting the impression that the initial surge in the prices for "legacy" lenses was driven by sheer ignorance.
The introduction of mirrorless cameras with their associated (usually third-party) adaptors to fit all and sundry old lenses meant a lot of people bought a few old lenses to try out, just because they could!
Articles about lenses like the Trioplan with it's "soap bubbles", the Lydith with it's "painterly bokeh" and the inevitable Helios-44 and it's swirls often implied that many more old lenses had their own "unique character" and were thus desirable.
Now, with the recognition that these characteristics are often only fully realised on a full-frame camera, this novelty is starting to wear off.
Whilst no doubt some old glass has a bit of "pixie dust" and even fewer old lenses are genuinely superior, the vast majority are "just OK" ... or worse!
Unfortunately there are those who "paid through the nose" for their ultra-multi-soopa f/0.95 whatever and are now looking to recover their initial purchase price "plus a bit, for inflation", so the asking prices are going up, whilst the marketplace is shrinking, as newer photographers are recognising the limitations of using a legacy system just for the sake of it.

[RokkorDoctor]

[Alun Thomas]

I have to say, there is a definite trend of certain ebay sellers endeavouring to raise prices for some lenses out of all proportion to their worth. Usually it starts with one seller putting some absurd price on some random perhaps slightly obscure lens or family of lenses, then other sheeplike sellers following them. One example I've noticed recently is Kowa 35mm leaf shutter SLR lenses. These are slightly obscure, but that's about the most you could say about them. The 50mm is a decent lens (the same as many others), the 28 and 35mm lenses are okay, nothing special. The 100, 135 and 200mm lenses are sub-par at best, just like every other leaf shutter telephoto lens I've ever tried (they all have bad problems with fringing the the frame corner, and massive size in comparison to the maximum aperture of the lens).

Right now, some one is trying to sell a 35mm lens for US$1,499, another with a damaged front element, and some blather about being a cinema shooters fav, is there for $1,250. A 100mm lens is listed for $1,849, and another for $1,800. Finally, some person in Europe is trying to sell a 'full set of 4 lenses' (there's 6) for, get this, 9000 euro.

I guess I'm glad I bought them before these profiteers noticed them, so I get to try them out, but I certainly don't advise anyone to pay anything like that for those lenses. They are in no way worth that amount.

[Oldhand]

[caspert79]

I noticed that there’s often a huge gap between the asking prices on Ebay, and the actual prices they are sold for. Still, some lenses are overpriced for what they are. Luckily, there still quite some hidden gems that can be obtained for little money.

[calvin83]

eBay introduced ChatGPT AI Description Generator. This may cause some items are being mislabeled.

[visualopsins]

[Lloydy]

Another thing I've noticed since I last posted on this thread (13 months ago) is the supply of old MF lenses has dried up dramatically. Yes, there's still a ton of stuff on ebay - is it selling? I don't know, I don't sell there.
And the free sites like Facebook Marketplace + Gumtree are just recycling the same old crap month after month, and even if it's dirt cheap it still doesn't sell. Boxes of 3rd party zooms are on sale for next to nothing, good and interesting stuff rarely comes up, and when it does the seller is expecting outrageously inflated prices, prices way in excess of what was 'normal' in the good old days

The charity shops have nothing, and I have a good relationship with most of the local shops that will save stuff for me to have a look at, assess and value - and have first chance to buy it. I've bought nothing from a charity shop in over 12 months, and that's because they are not getting camera gear donated. I strongly suspect that the young people who are clearing out their deceased parents houses have in the main done so, I really do think the supply has dropped off dramatically, and, the people like us have now mostly got what they want.

Which leaves some of us with a selection of lenses that we like and don't want to part with ... and a bunch of stuff we don't want that has become impossible to sell, the 'boxes of 3rd party zooms' on Marketplace! There's nothing moving, there's no good stuff coming on the market at a sensible price for us to buy, which reflects in the sales I and most of the other traders at the Camera Fair get which are rapidly approaching 'giving it away'.

[Doc Sharptail]

The local on-line buy and sell marketplace has slowed down a bit over the past few months.
It will pick up again in the dead of winter, after the school rush has sub-sided, and a bit before spring time.

There are other sources though, which seem to be a bit more reliable than the thrift store route.

There are two camera shops here that still take some manual focus glass as trade or consignment.
Some of the consignment prices are clearly e-bay influenced. It costs nothing to ask prices, and sometimes there is a good laugh to be gotten- like the consignment nikkor A/I 50mm f1.8 with box and papers for 300.00.
There is also one camera repair shop that sells used goods.

I try to make my rounds of these places once every few months.

Pawn shops can be a good source, but this is more a case of being in the right place, at the right time.

I still don't deal with e-bay/pay-pal simply because it's un-necessary (they can keep their fees, but won't get any from me), especially with the limited income that I have.
I'm down to 5 or 6 new to me lenses per year instead of the 30 or more that I was getting pre-retirement.

-D.S.

[Phalbert]

I agree 100% with Dave. What happens here (and I know about all the pawn shops, 2nd hand shops and cash converters of the country... and they know me... ) is they don't take any used camera stuff anymore because there is no market. It looks like I'm the last dinosaur here interested in these things. So I keep leaving my details, telling them to call me rather than turning away some seller, but nothing happens. I believe the last "vintage" lens I've seen was the kiron 70-210/4 I bought a couple of months ago. I'm also sitting with dozens of film bodies and lenses which I offered for FREE. No-one is interested. Can you believe it?
Now I buy cheap from overseas - not much - and make plans to save and get them here cheap enough. Thanks again Dave for that last deal.
And yes, I do have about everything I would wish for, except for these $$$$ dream things I drool about sometimes.

[RokkorDoctor]

There is also the distinct possibility that the good samples of the desirable lenses have by now been snapped up by those in-the-know who won't sell them any time soon. They tend to be lenses that were premium models at the time, and not too many will have been produced compared to the standard consumer lenses.

I suspect more and more of the less desirable copies with stuck aperture/fungus /dents are now ending up in the bin rather than for sale in the used marked. Relatively few will have either the desire nor skills to fix these lenses themselves, and professional repair quotes have become uneconomic.

When I service a lens it takes me a day if not more, and I have plenty experience and the tools. Those hours translated into manual labour I can see why repair quotes make fixing these lenses the preserve of the hobbyist/enthusiast like myself.

Occasionally I see low quotes for "repair" of a lens, but knowing myself what would be involved there is no way they would be doing a thorough job unless they were a philanthropist. No full disassembly, no cleaning off saline and acidic residues from the metal parts, no disassembly of the helicoid, cleaning off the old grease and burnishing the tarnished threads, no disassembly of stuck apertures down to the individual blades, no re-calibration of the aperture, no re-collimation, etc. etc.

[papasito]

I don't know what happened with MF in the market, I only know what happened with me.

A lot of MF lenses that were my dream, are with me yet.
AND the rendering of them is not better than the one of newer Sony GM lenses.
When I bought my 50/1,2 GM did not use them anymore.
The same with my 14/1,8 GM, 135/1,8 GM and the 24-70/2,8 GMII.
No one MF I have is near to the rendering of the GMs.
I Only use the MF Minolta MC 200/4 becuase it"s light and good lens.
And when I use my a1 in aps-c mode the minolta is a 300/4 lens.

[alex_d]

and there is still a good old question: does someone just collect lenses or use them?

the hard truth is for the one who really use lenses to make real pictures: there is always 1 lens that is on the camera for 90% of the time.

Unfortunately (or maybe not), i have learned the hard way, having a stash of old grass but actively using low budget lens for 80% of pics (just camera in the pocket)

[Lloydy]

[RokkorDoctor]

Nothing wrong with collecting lenses and only using a few favourites. Filatelists don't get told they have too many stamps and that they never use them anyway. Lenses just need a bit more space.

[calvin83]

[Lloydy]

[alex_d]

no, nothing wrong of ownin more lenses than you can use them.

what is wrong (guilty!), it can give a fake sense of the 'possibility of being more creative / inspirational..'

well it's not really true,
maybe for unicorns, .. but we know where unicorns live ...

[calvin83]

We can't become a good collector by taking photos. Similarly, we can't become a photographer from collecting lenses too.

[Dejan]

Well, except for those very expensive lenses (and many of those weren't pricey just a few years ago), collecting lenses is not the most expensive hobby one can have.
It's all relative of course, but for just one serious collector watch you can buy a sample of almost every vintage lens ever produced, including the rare ones. I believe even
some stamps are much more expensive than the rarest of lenses (even Zeiss Kubrickon F0.7). Of course, some collect less expensive watches, stamps and other things,
so everything's relative, including our personal wealth.
I don't collect for the sake of collecting (I don't mind if I use some lens once a year or less often, as long as I find it useful when I do), but either way, at least such a
collection offers a tangible experience. Again, it's all relative and personal, but someone would pay 30 million usd/eur/whatever for NFT art, a digital file. For that money
he could become a major shareholder in Samyang for example. Horses for courses. I'm glad when a lens ends up with someone who intends to use it though.