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More of a thinking aloud post than anything else...
As alluded to by colpepper in another thread, after a decade of falling prices, my impression is that prices of film bodies are on the up in the last few months.
Nice rangefinders, like the Yashica Electro 35, that were selling regularly for £20-£30 six or nine months ago, are now going for £40-£60, with the top end over £100. You can still get the odd £20 bargain, but they're getting fewer and further between.
As colpepper noted, Mamiya C220s and C330s that you could barely give away not so long ago are heading toward £200 and beyond.
I guess all the people that were going to switch permanently to digital have done so by now, and offloaded their film kit if they were inclined to do that.
Some of us have been taking opportunity to buy up cameras that were always desirable, but way too expensive in the past - medium format in particular is in the frame here. My brother has bought himself a Rolleiflex T and a Hasselblad 500C/M in the last year (and yesterday a developing tank and some Rodinal). For myself, I've still got a hankering after a Mamiya RZ that I suspect I may have to satisfy sooner rather than later if my suspicions are correct.
Then there's the let's see what it's like because it's cheap option. For myself, I've mostly been indulging myself with fixed lens rangefinders and slightly quirky SLRs like a Yashica J-3.
And there's a new generation of people who got their start in photography with digital cameras, probably with a compact or bridge, then made the transition to DSLRs and are now looking for a new challenge.
Now, most of these audiences are people looking for film cameras to actually use them. The pros who were shooting film have largely deserted the practice and sold off their gear. There's probably a diminishing supply of undiscovered amateur cameras left in the attic that are in working condition and those that are not will be cannibalised for parts to keep those going.
The good news is that it should do something to stem the parallell decline in film sales and the other ancillary equipment we need to keep shooting film, so hopefully manufacturers should keep making the stuff and retailers continue to stock them.
The trouble I can see is that, if that is the way things are going, it won't be so long before the collector/investors start to notice - and we know what that's done with the Leica market (which seems to be a law unto itself).
Am I delusional? I just wondered what everyone else's opinions are on the topic?
As alluded to by colpepper in another thread, after a decade of falling prices, my impression is that prices of film bodies are on the up in the last few months.
Nice rangefinders, like the Yashica Electro 35, that were selling regularly for £20-£30 six or nine months ago, are now going for £40-£60, with the top end over £100. You can still get the odd £20 bargain, but they're getting fewer and further between.
As colpepper noted, Mamiya C220s and C330s that you could barely give away not so long ago are heading toward £200 and beyond.
I guess all the people that were going to switch permanently to digital have done so by now, and offloaded their film kit if they were inclined to do that.
Some of us have been taking opportunity to buy up cameras that were always desirable, but way too expensive in the past - medium format in particular is in the frame here. My brother has bought himself a Rolleiflex T and a Hasselblad 500C/M in the last year (and yesterday a developing tank and some Rodinal). For myself, I've still got a hankering after a Mamiya RZ that I suspect I may have to satisfy sooner rather than later if my suspicions are correct.
Then there's the let's see what it's like because it's cheap option. For myself, I've mostly been indulging myself with fixed lens rangefinders and slightly quirky SLRs like a Yashica J-3.
And there's a new generation of people who got their start in photography with digital cameras, probably with a compact or bridge, then made the transition to DSLRs and are now looking for a new challenge.
Now, most of these audiences are people looking for film cameras to actually use them. The pros who were shooting film have largely deserted the practice and sold off their gear. There's probably a diminishing supply of undiscovered amateur cameras left in the attic that are in working condition and those that are not will be cannibalised for parts to keep those going.
The good news is that it should do something to stem the parallell decline in film sales and the other ancillary equipment we need to keep shooting film, so hopefully manufacturers should keep making the stuff and retailers continue to stock them.
The trouble I can see is that, if that is the way things are going, it won't be so long before the collector/investors start to notice - and we know what that's done with the Leica market (which seems to be a law unto itself).
Am I delusional? I just wondered what everyone else's opinions are on the topic?
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