what are the biggest bargains you have found?

casualcollector · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 3:09 am Post subject:

Great value on an interesting camera. Well made, like all Canons of its time. Adapting the lenses to anything else would require dismantling the camera to remove the rear elements.

harry tibi · Joined: 11 Nov 2011 Posts: 58 Location: nl

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

harry tibi · Joined: 11 Nov 2011 Posts: 58 Location: nl

Oooh, I didn't make myself clear: there are no ready made adapters for this type of camera and there NEVER will be!
Confused

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

harry tibi · Joined: 11 Nov 2011 Posts: 58 Location: nl

Yeah, I think you're right. There's only limited interest for this particular camera, I'm sure. There are millions of AE-1's with lenses lying around that are easier to find and much easier to adapt. Still, the construction of these splittable lenses might be interesting from an optic kind of view; I'm sure this Teletessar kind of 3.5/125 lens will deliver another kind of image than the FD 3.5 or 2.8/135. I'll be thinking about dismantling. In the mean time I could check if there's any interest among collectors. Thanks!

Drack · Joined: 27 Feb 2011 Posts: 735 Location: Lithuania

If there are no factory made adapters for this type of lenses than yes, your only way is to make one yourself. However it seems to be a waste of a good camera ( if it`s a working one ) to simply use it on parts. I`d probably try to find one that is already broken and butcher that one. Smile

gmonkman1 · Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 3:03 pm Post subject:

Hmmm? It is very difficult for a servant to serve two masters.
One master (the photographer) says "it is only the image that is meaningful."
The other master (the gear collector) says "the equipment must be worshipped "
Only you will decide what you are and let one master gain control of your heart.
In the end realizing that you can never take it with you.

Aanything · Expire: 2014-05-30

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Lightshow · Joined: 04 Nov 2011 Posts: 3666 Location: Calgary

+1 If the body still works, find a non-working body to "dismantle".

I picked up this:
P. Angenieux 135/2.5 Type P2
$100

Billou · Expire: 2015-05-19

Hello guys ! Long time reader, but first post ! Thanks for the great forum, it helped me building a nice collection of vintage glass !! Wink

Two good deals for me, last year on a flea market a Revue 135mm f/2.8 with a Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50 f/1.9 in M42 (never saw that anywhere) for 5 euros, and recently a Topcon RE2 with the 35/2.8, 58/1.4, 100/2.8 and 135/3.5 for 190 euros on ebay.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

harry tibi · Joined: 11 Nov 2011 Posts: 58 Location: nl

Thanks Ian, I appreciate your contribution to the subject. I already feared the lenses aren't that good, but you can't be too sure; it's Canon's first step into a new market. Maybe I should shoot a roll of film first; I'm sure everything works fine.
Thanks everybody!

Marco cavina · Joined: 19 Jan 2013 Posts: 7 Location: Faenza (Italy)

Several bargains in a lifetime, this in one of them: in November 2006 I had what can be seen in this picture (including the Leitz Fokos rangefinder) for a mere 150 Euros (with lenses freshly serviced).

Phenix jc · Joined: 19 Dec 2009 Posts: 398 Location: France

TijmenDal · Joined: 22 Sep 2011 Posts: 206

Wow Marco! That's amazing! Good job!

Andreq · Joined: 30 May 2011 Posts: 184 Location: Quebec, Canada

I'm back home with a "like new used once" set consisting of :

1 x Tamron 28mm 2.5 BBAR MC
1 x Adaptall-PK adapter
1 x L-06 Hardcase

for $20 CAD

Drack · Joined: 27 Feb 2011 Posts: 735 Location: Lithuania

guardian · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1746

Just received a nice Konica Hexanon AR 28mm f3.5 five element lens. It came with a couple of filters and a Konica TC camera for US$28.

I have sharper seven element versions of this lens. Today's lens was bought to obtain:

Better coatings, smaller size, and lower weight. And it's still a sharp lens.

The target camera for this lens is the smaller, lighter, m4/3 cameras. Today's lens is not a pancake lens . . . but it's close. It's a lot closer than the earlier seven element version of this same lens. Anyway, was lucky. Lens is in very nice shape!

kyonthinh · Joined: 30 Mar 2012 Posts: 222 Location: Germany

1000ft of Kodak Vision 3 250D Recan from Malavita for 80 bucks, cant be happier. Laughing

kyonthinh · Joined: 30 Mar 2012 Posts: 222 Location: Germany

Well, more stuff's coming, a Bronica ETR with 2 AE finders, 120 back, Zenzanon 75 2.8 EII and 150 3.5 MC, all for 195 bucks. Laughing

kennethwfd · Joined: 05 Dec 2011 Posts: 15

Ohnar slide duplicator on Freecycle cost me.... zero. Cimko 80 - 200 99p from that auction site. Just received this & am well pleased with test results from it, using the Ohnar to convert my slides to digital

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Welp, it's been almost a year since the last time I posted a haul here. I've had a few decent ones since. Most recently I found in a second hand "Thrift" store a very clean Minolta XG-M with MD Rokkors 50mm f/2 and 135mm f/3.5, plus an MD-1 motor drive. Everything is in very clean shape. Paid $6 for the lot. I'm probably gonna play around with the XG-M some before I sell it.

I happened to be scanning through the cameras section of Craigslist one day early last summer and ran across a Canon A-1 outfit and with a brief mention of it having a Spiratone bellows. So right away I call the guy, and he tells me that the A-1 has been sold but that everything else was still there. So I had a look at what was left. There was a Sun 24-40, a Canon FD 35-70mm f/2.8-3.5 SSC, and a Canon FD 100-200 f/5.6 SC, along with a typical assortment of kit bag stuff. Oh, and a Spiratone Bellows-Master SST bellows with 150mm Spiratone macro lens attached. The Bellows Master, made by Hama, is a device I've wanted ever since I saw it in a Spiratone ad back probably in 1984 or so. It has full movements -- tilt, shift, swing, rise/fall. It's really a well-made piece of kit.

Price? Well, after considerable hemming and hawing about the poor condition of the 20-40 (the rear mount was loose) and how the 100-200 had the value of a door-stop, I offered the guy $125 for everything, and he took it. Besides the Spiratone bellows, which aren't going anywhere, I'm gonna keep that Sun 24-40 for a while at least. The guy told me that the lens was so sharp he almost never took it off his camera anymore. So it might be worth hanging on to.

Then several months later -- late summer by then, I run across another ad in Craigslist. This guy's selling a Canon FD outfit for a friend who's out of the country and just wants to see it gone. I think this guy's friend just told him to take whatever offer he was given, cuz I made some pretty low offers and he accepted them all. So anyway, from him, I picked up a dead Canon A-1 (I knew it was dead going in), a dead Vivitar 285 (didn't know it was dead, but used it as a bargaining tool once I found out it was), a Canon Motor Drive MA, a Canon FD 24mm f/2.8 SSC, a Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 SSC, an 85mm f/1.8 New FD, a New FD 35-105 f/3.5-4.5, and a New FD 70-210mm f/4. All the lenses came with Canon hoods. And it all fit into a really sharp looking, large camera bag. A "Tough Traveler" brand from Schenectady, NY. So, all the lenses looked like they'd been babied -- they were super clean. The A-1 looked like it had been rode hard and put up wet. The Motor Drive MA looked awful internally, but I felt I could probably deal with the heavy corrosion and bring it back. The 285 was a useful only as a bargaining chip, but the guy was so agreeable I didn't really need it. Actually, bargaining was almost embarassingly easy. I paid the guy $150 for everything. Yeah, I know.

And most recently, I bid on and won a small FD kit on eBay. The kit consisted of a Canon T90 with 50mm lens, and a Sunpak flash. The seller represented the T90 as working fine, but it wasn't. It had the dreaded "click-click" they get when they get to be about this old. I didn't care about the flash, although it did work. Surprise. I did care -- a lot -- for the lens, though. Cuz it's a 55mm f/1.2. Because of the way the seller had positioned his gear in his photos, only one showed a blurry "55mm". And it looked to be about the right size of a 1.2. The auction was getting no bidding activity until a couple of minutes before close, and then suddenly somebody entered a bid. Man, I was pissed. I figured the lens had gotten discovered. But I hung in there and entered my max bid during the final 10 seconds, the way I always do, and I ended up outbidding the other guy, whose max bid was only $10 more than what he'd entered. So I got the T90, an FD 50mm f/1.2, and a Sunpak flash for $150. But the T90 was busted, so I contacted the seller, explained to him that I wanted to keep everything else, and asked if he'd do a partial refund. He agreed and we settled on $90. So I got my 55mm f/1.2 FD -- a "chrome nose" pre-SSC model, btw -- for about $50, if I make a $10 allowance for the Sunpak. Not too shabby.

You know, I'm not actively attempting to collect old Canon gear; it just seems to work out that way. The stuff finds its way to me and then pleads, "take me home, please!" So what can I do? I can't just say no!

Okay, well sorry for this being so long, but I had some catching up to do.