Well the March market showed the graphic change happening in the film based photographic scene.

Seller stands were down by 20% and the attendance appeared to be down as well. Certainly the queue prior to the 0800 start was really down compared to any other market I have attended, had an extremely interesting conversation with a very senior citizen in the queue, turned out that he was a staff photographer for the Argus newspaper in the fifties through to the end of the paper.

He was processing colour for a royal visit in the fifties, all of the film was 4x5" and everyone was using speed graphic cameras. It was one of the few times I can remember that I wasn't wishing for the doors to open, heavens he was interesting.

Anyway I waltzed in walked around and within 30 seconds I spied an excellent 8x10" Ilford safelight house, complete with filter and working globe inserted, $5.00.

On the adjoining table there was a Toyo 4x5 technical camera with shot bellows, very secondhand everything but a very nice 270mm lens with a shutter that worked, $190 for the lot, or $160 for the lens. I mentioned that I would check out the hall for other stuff, which I did, returned a few minutes later, the lens had gone.

Picked up two Toyo 4x5 DDS in excellent looking condition $20 each.

Two very small flexible cable releases, $4.00 each.

Mint condition Nikkor f/2.8 55mm micro nikkor, $200, This was bought for a student, I cannot believe how new this looks and feels, compared to my own micro nikkor.

The World of Lith Printing by Tim Rudman $45, don't know whether this was cheap or expensive but I wanted this book and it's new and is a 2006 publication.

Anyone out there who is looking for a 4x5" Jobo film loader, I know where one is for about $40 and it's brand new.

Mick.

Hi Mick, I didn't make it to Camberwell this year, which is probably just as well because they are very hard on the wallet. Last time I went I sold some stuff, made about $250.00 but turned around and spent another $500.00.
Certainly the place to go for bargains. A lot of sales used to be made to begginers or students and that market has dried up with the onset of digital.
BTW, I have yet to see any digis for sale at these markets, were there any at Melbourne?
Cheers, Tony

Tony, I saw one binary camera for sale, I don't think people even looked at it.

There were about three distinct student groups, one group had a master list of things to purchase. I found this out when a young student used her mobile to call the others to where she was, they then devoured the darkroom stuff on this particular table as a group.

A surprising amount of darkroom stuff was around, some very interesting enlargers mainly LPL 7700 with either colour or B&W heads. There were two 4x5 enlargers with Ilford 500 multigrade heads on.

One rather rare camera was one that took three 4x5 exposures at once, using a beam splitter. This was a wood camera and was being sold by the owner of The Camera Exchange, from his personal collection. This was quite old, rare and in pristine condition. I didn't ask the price, but it probably wasn't cheap as there were two serious camera collectors there and they obviously couldn't afford it.

Mick.