My latest acquisitions

tempra · Oct 8, 2006

This morning I went to a car boot sale, spotted an old praktica on a stall and tried to haggle with him - he wanted £25 which was never going to happen, wlaked around a bit and found a carboard box with a few cameras and other bits and pieces in it.

Haggled a bit and got the lot for £30.

Here is the line-up, from left to right:
Ilford Super Sporti 120 film, bit rough but working - still had film in it

Kodak Retinette 35mm - seems to be working ok

Voigtlander Vito CD 35mm - spotless, looks feels and sounds good - I also got a proximeter for this - I think that they are used for making it into a rangefinder

Konica auto S2 rangefinder 35mm - generally works ok till my nephew 'played around' with the settings, and it appears to be a bit jammed

Praktica Nova B - the mirrir is a bit sticky and the 50mm lens is no good, but I have a good identical one on the other Praktica, plus a prakticar 28mm lens and a no name lens which I think is 28mm

On top of that, there is a little flash unit, and a really old fold out reflector type flash that looks like it's never been used, a Knight lightmeter that needs batteries, a 3x converter for m42 thread, a g-clamp type tripod and a lttle telescopic tripod that extends to about three feet - I wouldn;t put any weight on it though!

Here's a pic of the cams :mrgreen:

They all have their original cases as well.

Any ideas as to actual value of them would be appreciated, but I'd like to get the Konica working - it's wound on, but the shutter isn't releasing, off I go and play - that'll teach the wife not to go away for the weekend without me

mysteryscribe · Oct 8, 2006

Sounds like a good find....

Mitica100 · Oct 9, 2006

tempra said:
Ilford Super Sporti 120 film, bit rough but working - still had film in it
That's about $30-50 in good condition

Kodak Retinette 35mm - seems to be working ok
Depends what model you have. A shutter/lens description would help.

Voigtlander Vito CD 35mm - spotless, looks feels and sounds good - I also got a proximeter for this - I think that they are used for making it into a rangefinder
About $35-50. Proximeter is only used for close ups, by attaching it to the front of the lens. It cannot transform it into a rangefinder.

Konica auto S2 rangefinder 35mm - generally works ok till my nephew 'played around' with the settings, and it appears to be a bit jammed
I'd put this at about $75 in good condition. Be careful with the unjamming attempts. Please describe what it does and what it doesn't and I'll try to help.

Praktica Nova B - the mirrir is a bit sticky and the 50mm lens is no good, but I have a good identical one on the other Praktica, plus a prakticar 28mm lens and a no name lens which I think is 28mm
$40-60 in good condition.

I'd say you 'stole' the lot, at only £30 !! Congrats. The Konica and the Voigtländer are the more interesting cameras.

tempra · Oct 9, 2006

Thanks for that Mitica, a little further information for you.

The retinette is an 022 I believe, well it looks like this one here and has the same lens / shutter combo http://licm.org.uk/livingImage/Retinette022.html

The Konica appears to have a stuck aperture, the shutter opens ok, but the aperture blades remain closed. Everything else appears to work fine, it needs a battery so the meter isn't working or the AV mode, and the plastic battery cap has seen some action over the years and is a bit worn and chipped.

Mitica100 · Oct 9, 2006

That kind of Retinette was made between 1954-1958 and in good condition will fetch anywhere between $40 to $75.

I'm not sure about the Konica but it does sound like the battery just died on you. Put a new battery in and see if the aperture blades come back to life. I'm thinking that the camera has an auto-exposure mode (varying the aperture while you choose the speed) and last time when was triggered it consumed the little 'juice' that was left in that poor old battery. Let me know if that fixes it. If not, we'll try something else.

Good luck.

Don Simon · Oct 13, 2006

Very nice find! The Voigtlander in particular is nice. Does it have a Color Skopar lens? And does it require film in the camera before the shutter fires? Got to admit the first time I tried using my Vito I couldn't work out why it wouldn't fire... I actually started to take it apart before I even considered loading a film :er:

tempra · Oct 14, 2006

ZaphodB said:
Very nice find! The Voigtlander in particular is nice. Does it have a Color Skopar lens? And does it require film in the camera before the shutter fires? Got to admit the first time I tried using my Vito I couldn't work out why it wouldn't fire... I actually started to take it apart before I even considered loading a film :er:

It's the later model, it has a Lanthar f2.8 50mm lens and a pronto shutter. It will fire without film however after a bit more investigation, the shutter sticks open at 1/30th or B setting, only resetting when you wind it on - seems fine on all of the other speeds though, very strange

Lol999 · Oct 14, 2006

I think it's the battery on the S2. I looked at one on a car boot a few weeks ago and it had exactly the same problem.

Lol

jamespetts · Oct 26, 2006

Hmm, interesting. My very first ever SLR (which I still have, somewhere) was a camera very similar indeed to the one on the right, and my father has one of those Retinettes (either that or a sister model - a Retinette from the second half of the 1950s, in any case, complete with original case and accessories, which he used as his main camera right up until 2001 when my mother and I bought him a Canon EOS for his birthday).

nealjpage · Oct 28, 2006

tempra said:
This morning I went to a car boot sale, spotted an old praktica on a stall and tried to haggle with him - he wanted £25 which was never going to happen, wlaked around a bit and found a carboard box with a few cameras and other bits and pieces in it.

A bit late, but what's a "car boot sale"?:er:

Don Simon · Oct 29, 2006

A car boot sale is traditionally one in which people gather in a field or other large open space and sell their things they no longer want or need, or that they think is worth some cash, from the boot (or trunk) of their car or set up a table. The nature and quality of items obviously varies widely. The term is a fairly broad one and can be applied to any similar event. I guess the equivalent over there would be a "yard sale", but on a larger scale. Basically it's just a low-tech Ebay...

nealjpage · Oct 29, 2006

ZaphodB said:
A car boot sale is traditionally one in which people gather in a field or other large open space and sell their things they no longer want or need, or that they think is worth some cash, from the boot (or trunk) of their car or set up a table. The nature and quality of items obviously varies widely. The term is a fairly broad one and can be applied to any similar event. I guess the equivalent over there would be a "yard sale", but on a larger scale. Basically it's just a low-tech Ebay...

Like a swap-meet! I love those things!:heart: