Should I Buy All This Stuff?!?!

Derrel · Apr 8, 2014

I had not considered filters. Usually those are scavenged early on. I saw one fungus-covered lens, so I expect this has been "sitting" in a storage unit/garage 10,15 years, based on how "old" everything is. A few things you might want: 20,24,28mm wide-angle primes, mainly to reverse-mount in front of a 200mm lens to make a high-magnification 2x to 5x macro setup. (A 200mm lens on-camera with a reversed 24mm on front of it makes a larger-than-life-sized image possible). 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.7 or f/1.8 or f/2.0 normal lenses...58mm lenses...Vivitar Series 1 Macro lenses....Kiron zooms.... 70-150mm f/3.5 and 70-210 Kirons were pretty good, one in F-mount would be nice. "Mirror lenses" like 500/8 or Celestron 300mm f/5.6 are fun to play with. Flash units that appear not thrashed. "Sweet" cameras of any brand that would look great on the mantle or bookshelf....old folding 120/620 cameras. F-mount extension tubes. Bellows.

If you actually want to USE old junker lenses of mixed brands in normal, everyday ways (not in macro lash-ups), you NEED one of two things: A Canon-mount digital SLR, OR a m4/3 camera which can adapt to almost any modern lens. Canon EOS can accept at least seven modern, common mount lenses with a $20-$30 adapter. Add bonus points for lenses that have a mechanical f/stop ring on them-this makes the adapter needed a "dumb and simple" one. "Most" older manual focus lenses do have an f/stop control ring; newer AF Canon,Minolta,Nikon lenses have no f/stop ring, so an adapter needs to be "Fancy".

gsgary · Apr 8, 2014

If there had been a Leica body in there it would have been worth a bit

dxqcanada · Apr 8, 2014

I see a Canon T-70 w/ 50mm f1.8 in the second/sixth image. Possibly a couple of Tamron adaptall lenses. A couple of Minoltas ... possibly XD's. A couple of Nikons, a Canon MF (later one cause it looks like an EOS body).
I would be more interested in the blue bin.
In the bin appears to be a press camera and a TLR.

Derrel · Apr 8, 2014

dxqcanada said:
I see a Canon T-70 w/ 50mm f1.8 in the second/sixth image. Possibly a couple of Tamron adaptall lenses. A couple of Minoltas ... possibly XD's. A couple of Nikons, a Canon MF (later one cause it looks like an EOS body).
I would be more interested in the blue bin.
In the bin appears to be a press camera and a TLR.

Ahhh, yes, I missed the blue bin pic. DEFINITELY a flat-bed type press camera, and a TLR, looks like maybe a little Pentax M-series as well. The TLR and press camera have some potential. A fellow or gal never really knows what the heck might turn up in a big ole Rubbermaid bin full of stuff. I think that one camera MIGHT be a folding Kodak Retina, in the bin, mostly obscured by the plastic bag...those are kind of fun little 35's.

That genuine 1970's wide camera strap...now THOSE have some definite 2010's-decade Hipster appeal! lol

dxqcanada · Apr 8, 2014

Go for the BIN, looks like the best stuff ... the large brown leather bag looks interesting and the small brown case might have something interesting in it.
Hey if the stuff is not working very good minicoop (or I) will probably be interested :wink:

... actually, I wouldn't be surprised if minicoop was already there looking though the stuff.

sm4him · Apr 8, 2014

minicoop better just keep his hands off. I get first dibs. :lmao:

Well, now ya'll have got me kind of excited. I'll definitely dig into that blue bin first and see if anything looks promising.
I'm planning to make a pretty low offer on the whole batch, but if that doesn't fly and there's anything particularly promising, then I'll see if maybe I can swing a deal on at least a few of the better looking items.

If nothing else, seems like it'll be fun digging through all that stuff! I just wish I had someone like Derrel HERE to go with me, who would instantly know whether this stuff was worth $25 or $250. I'll just be throwing the dice and taking the gamble based on looks and the info I've gotten from you all.

tirediron · Apr 8, 2014

For pretty much all of it, you can do an initial cull just based on brand; if you've never heard of the brand, chances are it belongs in the <$25 bin

dxqcanada · Apr 8, 2014

If that TLR is a Minolta and the focus knob is not broken off ... it would be worth about $130+. From the looks of the black leather case the camera might have a lightmeter, so that would increase the price if it is working.
A Graflex would be about $150+ more with a lens ... up to $400 or more in good working condition.

sm4him · Apr 8, 2014

tirediron said:
For pretty much all of it, you can do an initial cull just based on brand; if you've never heard of the brand, chances are it belongs in the <$25 bin

That was pretty much my plan. Figure out how much name brand stuff there was, and only take the rest if it's just included in the bundle. BUUUUTTTT….

dxqcanada said:
If that TLR is a Minolta and the focus knob is not broken off ... it would be worth about $130+. From the looks of the black leather case the camera might have a lightmeter, so that would increase the price if it is working.
A Graflex would be about $150+ more with a lens ... up to $400 or more in good working condition.

…on the other hand, I was not familiar with Graflex, so in the highly unlikely event there IS one, I would have completely dismissed it… !!

dxqcanada · Apr 8, 2014

Any press camera would be work at least $80 ... on eBay that is the no-name brand.
Graflex is worth it. graflex in Film Cameras | eBay

Designer · Apr 8, 2014

Look at it this way: If there is just one piece in there that you might actually want, and it is in good condition, everything else is gravy (LOL!).

I'd buy the lot for no more than $50, then take it all home, pour yourself a drink, and pull up a chair. You'll get at least $50 worth of entertainment alone. Then toss the junk, keep the one good thing, and go on your merry way.

Overread · Apr 8, 2014

You might want to look at local auction houses - I see a lot of film stuff being sold through them on a regular basis. Most of it goes for almost nothing - you can even pick up developing trays and all the other developer stuff for next to nothing.

dxqcanada · Apr 8, 2014

Hmm, no live posting of the Event ... too bad. :grumpy:

sm4him · Apr 8, 2014

Well, THAT didn't take long.

Turns out, the stuff all belonged to his father-in-law. That was bad news--I'd hoped he got it in a lot of stuff himself and therefore had NO attachment to it. But emotional attachment is probably even worse than just an overinflated sense of what something is worse!

Anyway, it had been in a self-storage unit for something "less than a year," he said. Maybe 6 to 8 months. Well, I don't know where it was before that, but some of that stuff was just covered in dust and in some cases, rust. I didn't even come CLOSE to looking at all of it, but what I saw was, as many of you thought, just no-name/third party, junk lenses and such.
The TLR and press camera were definitely the finds of the lot, but I didn't linger on them and inspect them, for fear he'd think *I* thought I had a real find. I just glanced at them and moved on. The TLR actually looked like it might be in reasonably decent shape.

Mostly, I just emphasized that few, if any of the lenses were even salvageable, and most of the film bodies just weren't worth much.

I ended up offering him $50 for the lot, and explained that was mostly because I thought there were a few things in there that would be cool to decorate with. He asked if he could get back in touch with me tomorrow, that he wanted to "be sure it was okay" with his wife. I *suspect* the translation to that is "No way, honey, I'm expecting to get HUNDREDS for this stuff."
But, we shall see.

IF he even contacts me tomorrow, and if he turns down the $50, I may ask to look at the stuff again and offer him the same $50 for JUST the TLR, the press camera, and a couple of other things that looked at least interesting.