Old film camera equipment - what to do with it all?

[Clive Watson]

During my formative photography years I collected quite a lot of film camera gear, some of it good quality, some less so, which is now all redundant. So I was wondering what I could do with it all? It's not really going to be sellable as it is since everyone is digital these days and I doubt any of it is good enough to be collectable but I was wondering if anyone knew of anywhere that might be interested in buying it for spares perhaps? Maybe a repair outlet somewhere? I'm not looking to make a huge amount of money on it, I just think it'd just be a shame to dump it all.

There is Nikon, Canon and Pentax stuff there. The largest item (by far!) is a 600mm f4 Nikon manual focus lens which, unfortunately, is not in perfect working order. It takes sharp images but the focusing wheel has some slack in it as a result of it becoming damaged and then repaired.

Anyone got any ideas?

[Peter_Perfect]

I gave my redundant gear to a newly graduated student, no job, no money, debts, but plenty of spare time. The Pentax lens are of interest as Pentax is the only manufacturer that is backwards compatible on all of Pentax and third party Pentax manufacurered lens.

[cheersm8]

Be selfish, don't give it away, eBay it! You will be pleasantly surprised. People love old camera stuff it is very 'sellable'. Tip: if you decide to ebay the gear, don't do 'buy it now's' just stick them on, at 99p starting prices. Ebayers love the thrill of the chase.

[Clive Watson]

Be selfish, don't give it away, eBay it! You will be pleasantly surprised. People love old camera stuff it is very 'sellable'. Tip: if you decide to ebay the gear, don't do 'buy it now's' just stick them on, at 99p starting prices. Ebayers love the thrill of the chase.

Tried that with a couple of items without much luck. Someone won an auction to buy one of my cameras for £6 and then never paid. I may well end up doing that though. If I put them on as sets of stuff I may have more luck.

[RJL2005]

I gave my redundant gear to a newly graduated student, no job, no money, debts, but plenty of spare time. The Pentax lens are of interest as Pentax is the only manufacturer that is backwards compatible on all of Pentax and third party Pentax manufacurered lens.

Good man :t:

Alot of good photography courses start with manual film cameras. A great idea IMHO as it really hammers home the basics. Why not donate it to a local college/Uni or try advertising it there?

[Roy C]

In case it is of interest to anyone Canon are currently running a promotion that gives you up to £75 off a new camera for any old camera that you may have (film inc in any condition) I know one of the cameras it is applicable to is the 50D.

[666taz]

I sold all my old film gear 5 years ago and with the money i got i got my first DSLR a 300D. i got £500 on ebay for such as minolta dynax, pentax me super and a load on extras so would think you could get a good price.

[Chris Galvin]

Clive,

Now is a good time to get rid of all your old film gear. When the schools and colleges go back in Sept/Oct there is usually a clamour for this type of stuff and I have been in camera shops all overthe country that get asked for this type of gear at this time of year. Mainly because photography students are encouraged to learn the old way using film and manual settings.

I would say bundle it all up take it to your local camera shop that sells used equipment, a lot of the LCE chain do, and perhaps you have some sort of deposit against something that you will use

[Cactusdave]

The macro crowd are always on the look out for quality short primes with a manual diaphragm to use reversed on bellows and will pay sensible money.

[Claymore]

During my formative photography years I collected quite a lot of film camera gear, some of it good quality, some less so, which is now all redundant. So I was wondering what I could do with it all? It's not really going to be sellable as it is since everyone is digital these days and I doubt any of it is good enough to be collectable but I was wondering if anyone knew of anywhere that might be interested in buying it for spares perhaps? Maybe a repair outlet somewhere? I'm not looking to make a huge amount of money on it, I just think it'd just be a shame to dump it all.

There is Nikon, Canon and Pentax stuff there. The largest item (by far!) is a 600mm f4 Nikon manual focus lens which, unfortunately, is not in perfect working order. It takes sharp images but the focusing wheel has some slack in it as a result of it becoming damaged and then repaired.

Anyone got any ideas?

Why don't you make a list of all the goodies and stick them on the for sale section of the forum, you may get rid of some of it and its free to advertise, I'm always buying old camera bits off ebay etc some just to see what they are like and other for projects ie diy mounts etc.
There's also FreeAds , Loot etc you will be suprised what will sell!
Recently I bought a Zenith Photosniper Kit with on or two bits missing, I managed to buy the missing parts online so now have an absolute Mint kit (always wanted one when i was a teen and now got one at last! OK bit basic but still nice bit of kit to for my collection! which also includes a gold finish Contax C2 still boxed I got a few years ago Tacky but nice and hopefully worth a few quid on day?)
Cheers
Brian:t:

[h&p]

Hi Clive, I sold my film gear, Oly 1, assorted Oly lenses, a Minolta Dynax, a very old Miranda (one of the first affordable SLRs) and some bits at a Photo Fair in Sept 2008. Got £200 which was more than a shop offered. It was at Wolverhampton Racecourse but similar events are held regularly at other venues. Look in Amateur Photographer classified for dates in the South. Regards Pete.
)

[Clive Watson]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll try the college route first as that's the only place I know for sure there'll be some demand (and having done a course myself a few years ago, I should have thought of it).

I've made a quick list of the stuff I've got :

Canon fit :
A-1 body, with 50mm f1.8 lens + carry case
AE-1 body + instruction manual
50mm f2.8 Optomax lens
Hanimex 135mm f2.8 lens
Hanimex 80-200 f4.5 macro lens
Mitakon 85-300 f5.6 macro lens
Vivitar 2x converter
Speedlite 177a flash + instruction manual
Power winder
T mount

Nikon fit :
F-801 body + soft case
F-801 body
F-601 body
F-301 body
Sigma 28-105 f3.8-5.6 lens, boxed + instruction manual
300mm f4.5 lens
TC-14B 1.4x converter
TC-300 2x converter
Popular 25CA flash (boxed)

Pentax fit :
MZ-50 body
80-200mm f4.7-5.6 lens
Miranda 28mm f2.8 macro lens
Miranda 75-200 f4.5-5.3 macro lens
Makinon 80-200 f4.5 macro lens + hard carry case
Sigma 400mm f5.6 lens
Tamron 1.4x converter
T mount

Plus various filters I haven't gone through yet. I'm sure I had a Pentax ME-super as well but I can't find that right now. The F-301 and MZ-50 seem to be suffering from mirror lock-up so I'll have to get that sorted first, plus there are quite a few lens caps missing.

[Chris Galvin]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll try the college route first as that's the only place I know for sure there'll be some demand (and having done a course myself a few years ago, I should have thought of it).

I've made a quick list of the stuff I've got :

Canon fit :
A-1 body, with 50mm f1.8 lens + carry case
AE-1 body + instruction manual
50mm f2.8 Optomax lens
Hanimex 135mm f2.8 lens
Hanimex 80-200 f4.5 macro lens
Mitakon 85-300 f5.6 macro lens
Vivitar 2x converter
Speedlite 177a flash + instruction manual
Power winder
T mount

Nikon fit :
F-801 body + soft case
F-801 body
F-601 body
F-301 body
Sigma 28-105 f3.8-5.6 lens, boxed + instruction manual
300mm f4.5 lens
TC-14B 1.4x converter
TC-300 2x converter
Popular 25CA flash (boxed)

Pentax fit :
MZ-50 body
80-200mm f4.7-5.6 lens
Miranda 28mm f2.8 macro lens
Miranda 75-200 f4.5-5.3 macro lens
Makinon 80-200 f4.5 macro lens + hard carry case
Sigma 400mm f5.6 lens
Tamron 1.4x converter
T mount

Plus various filters I haven't gone through yet. I'm sure I had a Pentax ME-super as well but I can't find that right now. The F-301 and MZ-50 seem to be suffering from mirror lock-up so I'll have to get that sorted first, plus there are quite a few lens caps missing.

Judging from that list there are some goodies there that will fly out for the coming term, i's still say that your local camera shop that does trade in will take most of that off you.