Thrift shop finds

connloyalist · Joined: 22 Jul 2020 Posts: 345 Location: the Netherlands

I am a bit embarrassed to be starting all these topics here....

Today I went to a large thrift shop here in town to ask if they would come pick up a bed I want to get rid of (yes they will). Remembering they have a small camera section I walked over there to take a look. Sitting right there, an Olympus OM-2 Spot Program with a 50mm 1.8 lens, labeled "defective". Price: 5 euros for the bundle.

I asked if I could take a look and the answer was "sure". Apparently the body had "something" wrong with it (a lack of batteries perhaps?) and on the lens they couldn't get the aperture blades to work. Well, the "defective" lens was not, it worked just fine. It helps if you know which buttons to push and levers to move. A bit dusty on the inside and the aperture ring felt a bit gritty, but technically fine. So I went over to the person there and said something along the lines of "the lens seems perfectly fine to me, the lens by itself is worth more than 5. Are you sure you want to sell it for 5, with the camera? The answer was "Eh it's OK, take it for 5. That is what it is labeled as".

OK! It might be worth that much as a display piece even if it doesn't work.

Came home and started taking a look at the OM-2SP. I couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it so I put in a pair of batteries (fortunately it takes LR44's). It is still looking good, it seems to work just fine. Don't know what will happen if I run film through it (light seals for example), but so far so good. I just may have picked up a functional OM-2SP for a fiver. Smile

I would be interested to hear about your thrift shop finds.

Regards, C.

kansalliskala · Expire: 2016-12-30

I bought a perfectyly working Yaschica T3 for 2 euros.

LittleAlex · Posted: Wed May 29, 2024 7:00 pm Post subject:

Month ago at the local flea-market discovered that baby:

The seller didnâ€™t know anything about the condition. I bargained for $100. Unfortunately had been able to lover the price only to $150. Then decided to risk to take it for that price â€œas isâ€.

Only at home discovered, that all works properly. Including the slow speeds of the shutter, and the film winding. The mirror is little foggy, but still it is usable.

Am going to try it with the film soon.

connloyalist · Joined: 22 Jul 2020 Posts: 345 Location: the Netherlands

Nice one!

Regards, C.

kiddo · Joined: 29 Jun 2018 Posts: 1266

Just got me a Minolta x700 with MD 35-70 macro for 20, supposed to be broken. Threw in some batteries, lights turned on but it would not load film and mirror wouldn't go down. I've helped the curtain a little bit to close properly (to hear the click sound) and since then camera is working perfectly. Lens has got fungus everywhere, yesterday could clean the rear optical group and first half of front optical group, it cleaned very nice, still have to go further as there are some thin traces of fungus in the elements next to the aperture.