Ideas On What You Might Get For Your Camera

The rampaging popularity of digital has gutted the secondary market for used 35mm cameras, and something like the Canon 7 once had value as a usable as well as collectible item. It seems the market is still holding steady for these, however, so you have a surprisingly valuable piece. The Canon 7 is a classic 35mm coupled rangefinder camera, basically a competitive "clone" of the Leica cameras from Germany ,they both use lenses with the exact same form of screw mount, made by Canon of Japan from 1961 to 1964.

The Canon 50mm f.95 lens was a monster, a pat-on-the-back accomplishment for the Canon engineers because of its extraordinary maximum aperture yet a truly awful optic in practice, that has far more collectible than usable appeal. A truly excellent Canon 7 with that huge lens should sell in the $500-$600 range these days. Oh, and to be complete, there's an accessory viewfinder that goes with the lens...the lens was so darn big that the normal viewfinder in the camera couldn't quite see around it! Anyway, this can be a bugger of a camera to sell because the market is rather small. If you'd like some recommendations on how best to sell it.

You have a Leica IIIa, a typical 35mm coupled ramgefinder camera, made by Leitz of Germany in 1936. It was the first 35mm camera to offer a super fast 1/1000 second shutter speed. This is a very common model, and Leitz sold over 90,000 of them from 1935 to 1939. A truly excellent example today, complete with an appropriate 5cm lens. In truly excellent condition, you would expect to get around $250 today.

The Super Baldina is a compact folding bellows camera for 35mm film, with coupled rangefinder, made by Balda of Germany from 1937 to 1940. Not a lot of collectible interest. A really fine one might get $75.

The Nikon FE, introduced by Nikon of Japan in 1978, is one of those 35mm single-lens-reflex cameras ,really one of thousands and thousands, whose current value has been gutted by the rampaging popularity of digital. Just a couple years ago, this used to have good resale value, in the $250 range, but today is a hard sell at $75.

The original Nikon F is a classic 35mm single-lens-reflex camera that maintains some value despite the rise of digital. Yours dates from about 1965. With the meter viewfinder in place, this is a Photomic prism, so you can actually call the camera a Nikon F Photomic, if everything is in excellent condition, you can probably still get about $150. That simple viewfinder, sell it seperately because they're much harder to find and the collectors want them. In excellent shape, you'll get $75 for that alone.

It's a Ernst Leitz Wetzlar 9 cm, 1:4 lens, No. 455160. With protective caps. This is a pretty common lens. Over 120,000 were made from 1933 to 1963, and yours dates to 1938. The Elmar 9cm f4 was the least expensive telephoto lens Leitz offered. A truly excellent example today only sells for about $75.

A Leica IIIf, a classic coupled rangefinder 35mm camera, made by Leitz of Germany in 1953. The Leica IIIf was important as the first completely new camera introduced by Leitz after recovering from the carnage of World War II. This is a fairly common model, with over 180,000 sold from 1950 to 1956, but it still retains some value in the collectible camera market. An excellent examples, with appropriate Elmar or Summitar 5cm lens, can sell for $300-$350.

If you would like you can always go on the internet and look up some of the auction houses, ask them questions on what ever camera you would like to try and sell and they should be able to come up with a price for you. Or you can always do the reasearch yourself and learn about cameras.