Or it could just be a mid-life crisis. What ever you want to call it I have been collecting an assortment of Canon photography equipment from the late seventies to early eighties. I have been utilizing Canon equipment since that period in time so it makes sense, at least to me, to go back to familiar territory. My photography skills are not where I would like them to be, but I get lucky every now and then and wind up making a decent shot. Even though I have a modern Canon DSLR and five lenses ranging from a Canon F1.8 50mm to a 70-300mm F/4-5.6 IS USM lenses. I still like to shoot in manual mode, I do shoot in auto mode here and there but I always feels like I’m cheating.
Today’s cameras make us some what lazy, with instant viewing of our shots makes adjusting our cameras a whole lot simpler. That leads us back to my recent procurement of vintage SLR equipment. To this day, some of the vintage lenses and camera bodies still command some pretty stiff prices. The fastest glass and wide angles will cost you several hundred dollars apiece. Unless you stumble across them at a estate, yard sale, or on Craigslist where the people selling them, have no idea how valuable they are. I have made a few scores this way, but they are few and far between.
What I have pictured here is a variety of Canon equipment that I picked up over the past couple of months. I am always buying and selling vintage SLR’s and Rangefinders and I keep certain pieces that I pull from the collections that I buy. I always buy collections because you can break them up and usually more than double your money selling the pieces individually. But sometime a kit pops up at the right price and I will go for these to. If I can’t make one dollar into two or more, I will most likely pass on the purchase. These items represent a total of one hundred dollars investment on my part. The collection includes:
Canon FD 50mm F/1.4
Canon FD 50mm F/1.8
Canon FD 28mm F/2.8 Wide Angle
Canon FD 135mm F/3.5
Canon FD 35-105mm F/3.5
Canon FD 70-210mm F/4
Canon FD 100-300mm F/5.6
Gemini 2x Doubler
Speedlite 188A
Speedlite 199A
Canon power winder A2
Canon A-1
Canon AE-1 Black
Canon AE-1 Silver
All manner of Hoya and Tiffen filters.
If I sold these pieces individually, I would get north of seven hundred dollars for them. But pulling them from collections I bought, I got them for a fraction of there open market value.
I also use the lenses on my DLSR using aPro Optic Canon FD Lens to EOS Body Adapter glass so it will focus to infinity. There is also a 1.3x magnification factor and requires a one stop increase in exposure. And you still have to focus the FD lenses manually. While going through film cost a bit more and you have to wait to see your results, I find shooting with this equipment more rewarding and challenging. It also makes you think about your shots and settings.
So come along with me to those simpler times and rediscover the fun you can have using vintage camera equipment no matter the brand preference, there are deals out there on them.
