phoenix camera

[Rolleistef]

Hi all,
a friend of mine asked me how much he could get from a brand new chinese phoenix SLR, but I don't have the slightest idea. Do you?

 

[Flash Harry]

never heard of it

 

[Rolleistef]

I've been searching on gougheule, and it turned out that they eventually are Minolta X300... One is without AP (p2000), the other with AP (X3000) and the P5000 is a "redesigned" version... but nobody sells it used!

 

[Don Simon]

Your trouble finding it may be due to a spelling issue, i.e. you spell Phoenix the right way and the company doesn't I think the cameras and lenses are in fact branded Phenix.

Your friend wants to know how much it's worth? Answer: not much. As you pointed out the Phenixes are basically copies of old manual focus Minoltas (they do the same for Pentax K mount too). When I say they're not worth much I don't mean they're no good; in fact they are sometimes better specified than the cameras they copied, for example ISO can be set to 3200, flash sync to 1/125, shutter speeds to 1/2000 etc.

BUT... Phenixes sell here for around £100, and that site sells Chinese cameras for quite a bit more than you would expect to pay for them brand new on Ebay - factor in the fact that it lacks "name" value and the fact that a lot of people will make assumptions about Chinese cameras, and I don't really think you can expect to make much money from it - my guess would be to look at the going price for a Minolta X300 in decent condition and then halve it.