Film Glad I don't shoot film

I saw that. If I was in the neighborhood and his price was more wholesale than retail, I'd buy it. I love buying intact collections of anything and enjoying them for awhile and then reselling, but there's nowhere near enough profit there for all the work involved.

I bought an eccentric old man's toaster collection many years ago. It was an amazing collection. Around 120 toasters from the very beginnings of people making toast through the amazing design years of the 50s and 60s. The depth and "bread"th of the collection was staggering. The old man knew what he had.....he was paying collector prices for them for years, but he also understood all the work that would go into selling them. I got the collection for $750. I figured that if I sold them one at a time I could get around $2,500 - $3,000 for them, but it would take me proabably 6 months of part-time work taking photographs of all of them and typing desciptions and packaging them. It wouldn't be easy money, but it would be fun and I could keep it "under the table".

I decided to promote the coming availablity of this vast treasure trove of toasters, I'd make a big splashy ad on eBay for the whole lot with a Buy It Now price that was high enough to generate interest, but low enough to look like a steal....... just in case there was some nutjob out there who wanted to save me a bunch of time and money listing them all separately. After 2 days of getting frantic emails with offers to buy the 3 or 4 really desirable ones separately (like I didn't know what they were worth), I found my nutjob. I packed up 20 huge boxes.....my hands were black from all the newsprint used as packing material...my back ached. The UPS man showed up and I had made a quick strike....after fees and shipping, I made $600 for a week's work.

So that's juts a long way to say, if that camera collection were in the $5,000 to $10,000 range, I'd be sorting them as we speak. And yes, I am a little bit crazy. and maybe I'd keep 3 or 4 for myself. My wife kept her favorite toaster. I couldn't keep my favorite. It was worth a couple hundred.
 
That's quite a story Luke.I used to buy all sorts of stuff that was a steal so I could resell for a profit.Still have most of it.I have a bunch of lenses I've been meaning to sell,all taking up room.Can't get motivated.You did well with the toasters, any pics?
 
I'll look around. If I do have some pics, they are likely on an old PC that won't boot up anymore, but I have a file folder from the original owner with some documents and I think a few snapshots. It's amazing all the different ways people came up with to burn bread.
 
If I did, I could easily turn into a camera collecting monster. I'm not even sure how I ended up on eBay, but this thing just looks so cool.
Kodak Medalist II with 100mm Medium Format Rangefinder Film Camera | eBay

I have a Medalist I.. tank of a camera. Maybe it will cool you off to know you have to respool 120 to 620 reels.. or have the camera converted to take 120? Eh, film has curtailed you ;)

EDIT: Sell the toasters, useless things, buy old film cameras, you can use them!



You want to become a Camera Collecting Monster?

better look at this ... Huge Lot of Old Cameras Collection for Sale | eBay

Tell me you aren't watching that one! I've been thinking this is pretty cool Stereo Camera Verascope F40 Set | eBay but of course could not buy it.
 
I have a Medalist I.. tank of a camera. Maybe it will cool you off to know you have to respool 120 to 620 reels.. or have the camera converted to take 120?

I love the article itself.... the design and all that. Of course, it's cool that it takes photos, but I don't shoot film. Let's see some photos of yours (or taken BY yours).
 
Well, as a large group, perhaps "photographers" are de-evolving. That's not to say that there aren't still a bunch of great photographers out there that could shoot with that camera and use those filters intelligently knowing how the final b/w will look.

But the democratization of photography (and I suppose this started happening a LONG time ago with cheapo cameras, but certainly the rise of the internet and photography forums has poured buckets of fuel to the fire) has in many ways created a vast pool of bumbling idiots with just enough knowledge about photography to be dangerous (I am very likely amongst this group, shamefully enough).

So individual photographers..... the real ones.... are not getting dumber. But fauxtographers now definitely outnumber real photographers. I'll bet if you took that set-up into a camera store in the 50s, more than half of the people there could confidently use the filters. What percentage of people who consider themselves photographers (I still don't count myself in this group yet) will know that using a green filter will lighten foliage and darken the skies? (ah....I'll just fix it in post)

I just think that as a pool, photographers are dumber now than they were back then. But I also think that this is just an example of a general dumbing down of the population in general.
 
Well, as a large group, perhaps "photographers" are de-evolving. That's not to say that there aren't still a bunch of great photographers out there that could shoot with that camera and use those filters intelligently knowing how the final b/w will look.

But the democratization of photography (and I suppose this started happening a LONG time ago with cheapo cameras, but certainly the rise of the internet and photography forums has poured buckets of fuel to the fire) has in many ways created a vast pool of bumbling idiots with just enough knowledge about photography to be dangerous (I am very likely amongst this group, shamefully enough).

So individual photographers..... the real ones.... are not getting dumber. But fauxtographers now definitely outnumber real photographers. I'll bet if you took that set-up into a camera store in the 50s, more than half of the people there could confidently use the filters. What percentage of people who consider themselves photographers (I still don't count myself in this group yet) will know that using a green filter will lighten foliage and darken the skies? (ah....I'll just fix it in post)

I just think that as a pool, photographers are dumber now than they were back then. But I also think that this is just an example of a general dumbing down of the population in general.

"You press the button, we will do the rest." That is the tag line from Kodak Eastman and their Brownie line of cameras introduced in 1900. If you look at a lot of camera advertising early in photographic history, you will see lots of selling points claiming how easy it is to use. Some early ads claimed that "even school boys" could use it. Women were often shown modeling the camera as "proof" it was easy. And later, early Leica ads focused on how flexible and economical the camera was and great for holiday snaps--not trying to sell it like it is today as some professional image magic machine.

You will find throughout history, the general populace was "dumb." We tend to look back in time with rose-colored specs.
 
"You press the button, we will do the rest." That is the tag line from Kodak Eastman and their Brownie line of cameras introduced in 1900. If you look at a lot of camera advertising early in photographic history, you will see lots of selling points claiming how easy it is to use. Some early ads claimed that "even school boys" could use it. Women were often shown modeling the camera as "proof" it was easy. And later, early Leica ads focused on how flexible and economical the camera was and great for holiday snaps--not trying to sell it like it is today as some professional image magic machine.

You will find throughout history, the general populace was "dumb." We tend to look back in time with rose-colored specs.

Well said.
 
If I did, I could easily turn into a camera collecting monster. I'm not even sure how I ended up on eBay, but this thing just looks so cool.
Kodak Medalist II with 100mm Medium Format Rangefinder Film Camera | eBay

I come on! You know in your heart of hearts that what you really want is a Leica M3, loaded with Tri-X, and a darkroom to develop and print the stuff. Just admit it, Luke; you'll feel so liberated!

P.S. You ended up on ebay through a deep, subconscious desire to justify your urge to shoot film.
 
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