Film camera prices?

[ronlamarsh]

Just checked out KEH, its been a long time since I went there. I was rather blown away by their asking prices for Rolleiflex 3.5T BGN $465 ! And nikon F3HP EX+ $665! Are these actually reflective of the market?

[LyleB]

From what I've observed, KEH prices not only reflect the overall market, but also how many they have in stock at any given time. If they have just a few of a popular camera, the price goes up, an over-abundance of a popular camera, you can get some decent deals. Great deals even, like my BGN rated N90s for $29. It looks and works like new.

Just keep shopping, you can find a good price, maybe not on the Rolleiflex...

[mwdake]

I think it must be the market driving up the prices.
I have noticed some things I used to keep an eye on are getting more pricy.
I pulled a KEH catalog from late last year and...
A Rolleiflex 3.5T BFN listed at $364 and a Nikon F3HP EX+ for a low $225.
I have some older KEH listings, I may look at them too.

[brucemuir]

It's crazy.
I'll admit I have a problem and watch the prices on that site pretty closely.

The Zeiss C/Y 50mm offerings have doubled in price in the last 4-6 months.

Prices on abundant film bodies can still be a deal though.

[Shawn Rahman]

I think it reflects the market more or less. I saw a couple of FM2Ns on ebay go for as high as $400 recently. Also, a 50 f/2.0 AI lens I paid $60 at Adorama only two years ago is selling for double that by them now. Even E series lenses are priced higher than the comparable AIS lenses were sold new.

As good manual gear n close to mint condition becomes rarer, prices are going to keep going up.

[CGW]

Check eBay "done deals" for a reality check. Most F3HPs I see these days are rough, often with issues or near-death. NOS/mint examples got scarce 3-5 years ago. I snagged a late run NOS F3HP+MD4 in 2004 and shelved it, unused. Looks like I'll hang on for awhile.

The micro 4/3s gang is driving up prices on fast MF primes in popular mounts.

KEH is practically giving away Mamiya RB K/L lenses now. Go figure.

[brucemuir]

The micro 4/3s gang is driving up prices on fast MF primes in popular mounts.

Yup...

[rich815]

While KEH has always been a good place to reference when you sell something (i.e. "And I'm pricing this at 75% of KEH EX prices....") I find eBay completed auctions to give a better sense of the market. For example I recently got a brassy but perfectly working F3 for about $100. Granted it's not an HP, but still. Now lenses are a different story. With the Chinese-built influx of Canon DSLR adapters, 4/3 adapters and the Sony NEX adapters some primes are skyrocketing. I was pleased recently, after not having looked for maybe 3-4 years, to see my nice colleciton of 5-6 Contax Zeiss SLR primes to have practically doubled or tripled in price since not long ago. That's cool! (wish I had bought more though back then!).

[John Koehrer]

Last week there was a HP with a 55 micro-nikkor for under $200. Chicago area craig's list.
Pricing is all over the place.

[ArtTwisted]

When you consider it, if the film market keeps up for much longer, since the supply of film cameras is almost at a standstill, prices are bound to go up and up. KEH though over charges, but with the price you do get the promise that the camera will be as rated or better. If your patient you can always snag a much better deal on the Bay, and Adorama also sometimes has crazy prices, BnH not so much.