Home

Please support mflenses.com if you need any graphic related work order it from us, click on above banner to order!

SearchSearch MemberlistMemberlist RegisterRegister ProfileProfile Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages Log inLog in

Rare equipment removed from photographic use by collectors
View previous topic :: View next topic  


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 12:17 pm    Post subject: Rare equipment removed from photographic use by collectors Reply with quote

The other day, someone paid USD 34 020 (equivalent to EUR 27 587 with the day's rate of exchange) for a Nikkor fisheye 6/2.8 which was manufactured in a total of 109 copies only. It became one in an endless row of equipment which has been removed from the World of photographic use to sit on a collector's shelf, not producing images for others to enjoy.

Screen grab 1200px - http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6897/nikkor6mmh.jpg



List here other cases, where ridiculous overprice, rarity or other equipment interest merits making it to this sad list.

Vilhelm


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I bought it!
I just had to sell our car. Sshhht! My wife doesn't know yet...

Laughing Laughing


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 12:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LucisPictor wrote:
Yeah, I bought it!
I just had to sell our car. Sshhht! My wife doesn't know yet...

Laughing Laughing


oh no Lucis!

I took the piles of small change I had lying around and got this one Laughing

btw, I paid USD 34 020 and one dirty sock + used bamboo tree


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What makes you think it is being removed from photographic use?

Perhaps instead it was bought from a collector, specifically to be used, putting one more rare lens back into service?

The price isn't a sure indicator... anyone who wants one to use one is going to have to outbid the collectors. Wink


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, given what members on this forum have written about discontinued lenses worth > 1000€

- "I couldn't possibly carry/travel/use it anywhere where it could be lost"
- a specific topic listing gear too precious to be used anywhere
- my personal experience where I for years regularly have been asked how dare you bring that lens here, aren't you afraid something could happen to it and you can't replace it?.

That's comments on affordable discontinued lenses like Nikkor 28/1.4D or Voigtländer APO-Lanthars. I am fairly confident with a price like that, it's not going to see much use if any. I may be wrong of course, let's hope I am.


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 2:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's going to be a right bugger trying to find a filter for it.


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 2:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

May also be safe to assume it's a guy and he's not married?

Laughing

j/k


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Safe to assume buyer's insurance company will send Season's Greetings cards, all-around insurance for that lens would be about 1000€ annually (0% VAT) over here (insured for 25 000 EUR)


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 2:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Generally, pure collectors pay lots of money to have lenses they will never use, some of them doesn't know how to use them. Consequences :
- Real users have to pay more than collectors, creating a vicious circle
- We almost never hear about theses lenses or stuff, they do not share anything
That's why I generally hate pure collectors who keep things that are designed to be used , and can still be used nowadays. I know I keep some (rare) lenses, and I don't use often some of them. But lenses users would use whereas I don't are not numerous, and I try to share my results. I would not be surprised too, that this lens will be keep on a shelf or a safe...


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 3:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, but then the collectors die and their children sell them badly listed on ebay, and then we snap them up for twenty quid or so Laughing Laughing


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Are there any pictures around taken with this lens? They must be weird. I bet you can see the back of your head when you're looking through the viewfinder. Laughing


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 4:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ManualFocus-G wrote:
Yeah, but then the collectors die and their children sell them badly listed on ebay, and then we snap them up for twenty quid or so

And it'd be just your bad luck that a rogue seller was shill bidding, and you ended up paying twenty-five quid, and another ten quid postage. Talk about rip-off.


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 9:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

a lot of good lenses are owned by collectors and not photographers. People are too worried to scratch the lens body these days, just for retail value


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 9:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

peterqd wrote:
Are there any pictures around taken with this lens? They must be weird. I bet you can see the back of your head when you're looking through the viewfinder. Laughing


I was once given the opportunity to shoot a few frames with the Zeiss Hologon. Easy to use, once the overwhelming desire to hold the camera 'normally' can be forgotten ...trying to tell people that the trigger-grip was so much more than an optional extra was always a giggle!!!

The world's most expensive point and shoot camera - 110 degrees angle of view!


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 10:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree with you on the collectors part.

I can't imagine even how to properly handle a lens like this. And the price is really ridiculous. Rolling Eyes


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 10:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

peterqd wrote:
Are there any pictures around taken with this lens? They must be weird. I bet you can see the back of your head when you're looking through the viewfinder. Laughing


Some photos here. The 220 degree field of view would be quite challenging for anyone who'd like to share photos taken with it.

http://www.nikonweb.com/fisheye/

Design story: http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/technology/nikkor/n06_e.htm

Applications: http://www.nearfield.com/~dan/photo/wide/fish/index.htm

More samples: http://philip.greenspun.com/images/pcd2386/


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 10:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think it is a bargain price when you consider what Arse n All ask for a 'rare' 'prototype' 49mm filter! lol

Doug


Last edited by nemesis101 on Sat May 29, 2010 11:35 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 10:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Esox lucius wrote:
Some photos here.

Thanks for looking them up for me! It's not as wierd as I imagined. Thank goodness I'm not a collector.
I'm not a collector...
I'm NOT a collector..


PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2010 11:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A guy I know uses it...


to make shots like that with it...


I had that lens (another copy) for a while, but sold it later...



PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2010 6:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

kds315* wrote:
to make shots like that with it...



Yes! Great you posted it, I could not find these though I searched bookmarks. His work is outstanding, I am thrilled to see this lens is kept alive by skilled creative minds like his.


PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2010 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hopefully the new owner will "AI" it with a Dremel tool to make it more handy for modern cameras. That's what I'd do, the AI version is always worth more. Smile

Seriously, though, I don't get the "depriving the world of pictures from it" argument. Where are all the pictures the world is admiring from the other 100+ copies of this lens? The world isn't admiring them, we can't even find more than a handful. And what value would there be in Mr Averagely-crappy photographer owning it, shooting like mad with it, and sharing every ugly, ill-composed frame with us through Fickr?

It's only in the hands of a real Master that this lens would generate outstanding images (unless you think everything distorted is outstanding), and the Master will create great photos regardless of whether he has this lens (so if he was using it, it would be depriving us of the masterpieces he would have been creating with another lens if he didn't have that one).


PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2010 7:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What do you recommend? That there would be some sort of a quality certificate or creative driver's license for a person to have a right to own a rare lens?

Seriously: I rather see shitloads of crap photos with odd & rare lenses on Flickr than wikipedia-clone blogs where photogs present collections of cameras, as opposed to collections of photos. The value in the crap on Flickr is that from a heap of dung always rises seeds of creativity, if not directly in results by existing owners then as a source for others to discover lenses and use them with more interesting results.

No, I don't find anything distorted creative. I do find this particular photographer's use of the strange perspective this lens produces to be very creative though:

http://www.kubetschek.de



PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2010 7:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Esox lucius wrote:
What do you recommend? That there would be some sort of a quality certificate or creative driver's license for a person to have a right to own a rare lens?


Not at all ... quite the reverse, I was arguing that anybody should be allowed to buy it.

Without even having to sign a certificate guaranteeing that it won't simply sit on a shelf doing nothing.

To me it looks as if the "it should be being used so we can see great photos" trends more to insisting that owners should be licensed master photographers before being allowed to buy.


PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2010 7:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I may be an idealist then, because I've sold rare equipment I owned so that it would find an owner who used it.


PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2010 8:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

More photos:

http://arsenalphoto.com/ge/product.asp?pid=116339&cat1=12&cat2=294&cat3=2&catx=0&keys=&caty=0&size=&sort=&dir=&pg=

edit: where's the link I posted?