So I went to this Estate sale....

[Lee Shively]

I hate those silly estate/garage sales! But, fortunately, my wife loves them. She's dragged me along to a few of them, early on Saturday mornings. There I am with bedhair and a lukewarm cup of coffee, shuffling through things with everyone else. :rolleyes:

Bargains? How 'bout a Leitz Valoy enlarger with Leitz Focotar 50/4.5 lens and a copy camera attachment for $7.00 US? A primo Olympus XA with flash and box for $25.00? A 13.5cm f/4.5 Leitz Hektor telephoto for $35.00? :D :D :D

But most of the time, I just shuffle around looking at broken stuff. :(

[jnanian]

best thing i got was not photographic, but i was going to use it for a photo-show. i had hoped to lug it into places and record birds tweeting, waves crashing, cars driving, white noise, trains squeeking on a track, you know, "life" ..... it was a 1943 bell sound systems record-o-phone. it cut 33rpm records from blank laquor plates ( analog! ) - i picked it up for $65 and got close to 2 dozen plates from transco for free. i later learned that it was a BSS prototype sort of thing made several years before 33rpm was put out for the "public to consume". kept it for a bunch of years, used it a little bit, and then sold it to a "herbal-tea-drinking-musician" from LA for enough money to buy a bunch of photo-stuff :)

now, if i had only bought "free and accepted's" skirt with the skull and crossbones i saw ... i'd have enough $$ to fill the car with gas and drive to another junk store ... gotta love the junque.

[glbeas]

Best bargains I ever got was through the print shops I worked at upgrading and tossing perfectly good equipment out. I got a densitometer, a light table, a vacuum frame with a non working Olec light unit that I'll eventually have repaired, desks, and other stuff I can't remember.

[audiomystery]

It it is like the Weston I bought on ebay, it was so complicated what with all the various numbers to line up, that I sold it and bought a russian one instead. I think, I'm sure others will disagree, that a light meter is there to get you in the ballpark. From there you have to use your noggin to find the right seat.

[Kino]

Wow. Bumping this oldie back to the top with a garage sale find!

My wife, bless her heart (I really don't deserve her) found a Yashica-44 TLR today for $10 USD and bought if for me!

After 30 minutes with wooden Q-tips and lens cleaning fluid, the camera looks almost mint. The only real problem is the slight dent in the folding viewfinder hood that you don't even notice unless you look closely.

I knew I was holding on to that 1995 roll of Efke R21 for a reason!

Eat your collective hearts out! ;)

[DBP]

I was driving home one afternoon about 3 years back when a neighbor's ex flagged me down and asked if I wanted to take a look at a box of photo stuff he had picked up with other things at a bankruptcy sale and wanted to get rid of. I pulled over and walked into the back of the shop to find a box of miscellaneous darkroom gear with a few disc cameras, synch cords, and similar odds and ends. He told me he was sure there was a another camera around somewhere. I'm expecting at best an old Polaroid folder when he comes back and hands me a Horseman 980! Ended selling me camera, 3 lenses, 3 backs, accessories and the box of odds and ends for $150. I told him I was robbing him blind at that price. And he still stops me in the street occasionally to make sure I am still happy with it! From there the transition to large format was just a matter of time.

[JBrunner]

Here's the thread on my lucky day!!

http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?t=26296

[Thomassauerwein]

My whole darkroom is filled with that kind of stuff. Equipment people did not know what to do with. I love how simple it all is. minor fixes here and there and it does everything I need it to do. Cameras I've had less luck with. They seem to all have a reason for obsolesance. scratches light leaks, whatever they just don't measure up to anal scrutiny. Some of that stuff could be great for a more random or freedom of expression but just can't past the imperfections.

[vet173]

Leica M-4 / 35 sumicron $25.00. I had to agree with him that it wasn't an SLR and even though the camera was made in Germany the lens was only made in Canada. Serial number indicated it was one of the first 100 made and still had the wax L in front.

[mitica100]

Cool! Let's start posting our neat garage/yard/estate/antique store sale finds here.

Yesterday I went up to a local antique store and found one of my dream cameras: a Super Ikonta B in fantastic!!! condition. I've got a roll ready to load up now :)

Cool find! Mine was a Canon SII (rangefinder) with the Canon 50/1.8 lens, lens caps, side flash, filters, all original Canon for $20.00. Found at a local flea market. I asked why they were selling the kit and they said they wanted one of them d***ital cameras, they're much easier to operate!!!

[digiconvert]

Nice find!

Be warned, though. I have a similar WestonMaster and, whilst in good / fair light it's very accurate, in poor light it lies like a scouser in a suit!

I think that may need some translation for our overseas readers :)

BTW for anyone interested on the Weston use the next speed down from your ASA (whoops my age is showing again) film speed. e.g for ISO 125 you set the Weston at 100 etc. etc. , at least that works for my III.

[ricksplace]

Pentax espio 738 in perfect working order for $5 with a fresh battery. Going this morning to the usual parade of yard sales. I find I have to ask if they have any old cameras, to which they answer, "Oh yeah, I never put them out because I thought nobody would want them." Usually it's mostly junk, old brownies and such, but every once and a while a gem pops up.

[Kino]

Hey, look at THIS...

What a bizarre, but neat camera; a Vivitar TW35. Two lens rangefinder with 80mm telephoto on top and 35mm wide angle on bottom you can switch with the filp of a lever. Has motor advance, DX code sensing, IR autofocus, Viewfinder adjacent (in field of view looking through viewfinder, but not in viewfinder proper) LEDs for low light warning (red) and flash charged indication (green). Runs on two "AA" batteries and has a nice heft to it.

Not bad for $5 USD.

[rjphil]

I'm always looking for photographic advertising pieces, so every time I see an antique shop, I go in and ask. The woman suggested I look in "Bill's bay" (apparently this was a co-op kind of shop). No ad stuff, but I see a really long lens on the floor, pushed to the back. It turned out ot be a Samigon 500mm f8.
Just needed a T-mount for my Nikon. The marked price was 25USD, so I offered 15USD. She asked if I would go 18USD on it. (!!) It's in my bag now, and actually quite sharp when stopped down. (My wife is a Nikonista, so as long as I buy stuff that she can use, it's ok).

[Donald Qualls]

(My wife is a Nikonista, so as long as I buy stuff that she can use, it's ok).

Even my wife, who has no use for photography at all, wouldn't object loudly to spending $18 on a lens like that. She has no idea what it is, but she's well aware I've spent more for less on numerous occasions...

[matt miller]

I went to an estate sale this past Saturday and got lucky. I found an 18"x12"x8" humidor with 80 cigars inside for $30. While not directly related to photography, I do like to have a cigar while reading a new issue of Lenswork or when I'm out shooting scenery.

[Donald Qualls]

Well, and when you finish the cigars, it looks as if you could mount a 210 mm WA lens on one end and an 11x17 back on the other to make a hand-holdable ULF camera (or, if your budget doesn't run to several hundred dollars for the WA lens, a pinhole and ULF back).

[matt miller]

That's an idea. I've got an old 210 angulon which would come close.

[DarkroomExperimente]

for $30 I got a Kodak Retina 3c with f/2 50mm Xenon, Minolta srt101, kodak vest pocket autographic, minox 35EL....and a few less interesting cameras and other misc. stuff ( binoculars, etc)

[tlsid]

got my whole dark room from the local newspaper that had not used it for a couple of years, they had gone d****L. got the whole lot for the price of getting it out of the building. omega d45 enlager, more film reels then what i kneed, digital timer, gralab timer, chemical-mostly film developers. and much more then i can mention.