Collecting filmless cameras... a guide
If the time period is selected and set, the first point of contact is a large auction platform on the Internet. Your collection will grow the fastest and cheapest by starting with these: (Initially only the larger model series are listed)
For a cheap start:
- almost all Sony Mavica MVC-FD cameras
- almost all Casio QV models
- almost all Kodak DC models
- almost all Fujifilm MX and DX cameras
- most Agfa ePhoto models
- most Canon ION RC still video cameras
After that you might want to spend a little bit more on:
- some Olympus C-xxx models
- Nikon Coolpix models
- Minolta Dimage models
- Minolta Dimage models
- Panasonic NV and PV series
- Ricoh RDC series
- Sony DCS series
- Toshiba PDR series
- Sony still video MVC series (2000, 2010, 5000, 7000, A7AF, C1 and A10)
After owning the above cameras you might want to spend some real money on:
- Kodak DCS series
- Fujix DS and Nikon E series
- most still video cameras (not mentioned above)
- the three Minolta DSLR cameras (RD and MS-C)
- ALL Dycam models and the early Logitech Fotoman equivalents
- early digital cameras before 1994
- Limited editions and prototypes (wherever available)
How to continue
Once you've started and built up a small or large collection, you should start to think outside the box and consider other platforms. Above all you should find a lot of models that were not even marketed in the US or Europe in abroad countries. For instance there are digital camera series that were marketed exclusively in South America or Russia. Therefore you should devote some time to a search engine and also look at markets outside of America or Europe. Shipping and customs fees are almost always the cost drivers. A 100 dollar camera from Japan could be up to 100% more expensive before you receive it. Here you should check whether you are ready to make these investments and to make the effort. In fact, it can often be worth it. But you should only start here if you already know the American and European market well and are sure that you will only get this model abroad. It would be very annoying to spend 200 dollars abroad only to find the same camera for 100 dollars on Craigslist.
What to avoid or not to do
Searching for cameras on photo fairs or exhibits might be practically futile. The number of digital or svc models there are very limited and often unusually expensive. Also I need to warn you about one particular seller on an auction platform whose sole motivation is pure greed. In addition to the many honest and good dealers (such as AWCAMERAS, DIGITALKAMERAMUSEUM, NSXDREAM, LEICASTORELISSE or PC1480) there is also one black sheep out there, who almost exclusively buys rare collectibles cheaply in Japan and then sells them on auctions platforms for abhorrent amd excessive prices. Even the simplest models are advertised with lurid slogans and touted as a huge rarity. Since I started collecting I have followed most markets and kept records of sales so I can confidently say that this one person has damaged the used market considerably and destabilized the pricing policy. Therefore I advise to search just a little bit longer for a specific model and not give in to this one greedy seller. For legal reasons I can't name any names but if you filter the auction search for maximum prices you will find him very quickly, even though he has already changed his eBay name half a dozen times over the last 6 months.
By the way, if you don't want to pay too much and are interested in the value of a camera, feel free to contact us. Our extensive database has stored all sales prices since 2012.
Footnote: As a rule of thumb I always like to see it this way: if it doesn't have a USB port or an SD card, you're good to go!
Footnote: As a rule of thumb I always like to see it this way: if it doesn't have a USB port or an SD card, you're good to go!