Welcome!

Hi,

I have a crazy number of film cameras. Many I just pickup when I see them at flea markets, garage sales, thrift stores etc.

I'm in a unique position. For one, I know an aweful lot about old school film photography. I'm a third generation photographer. I've been shooting and processing film since middle school (1980.) And now I work in the photo department at a local college keeping the darkroom up and running and listening to the latest crop of young students talk about using film cameras.

So I had this idea: buy cheap working film cameras, test them to make sure they're in good working order and sell them for a modest profit.

I'm located in Alameda (the East Bay Area of the San Francisco Bay), and plan on selling only in person. If you are interested in a 35mm camera for a class at a local college, I can help.

This is still in the planning stage, but what I hope to do is to have a checklist and note what's good and bad about a camera. Then I'll run a short bulk roll of film through the camera, taking a photos including one in the mirror showing the camera I'm selling so you know you that film came from the right camera.

Also, I can give a quick basic lesson on how to use any camera I'm selling. And I'd also like to offer another service as a "camera coach" helping students and anybody else interested in film photography with the basics of using cameras, developing film, troubleshooting and the like.

For each camera I hope to do a quick blog entry about that camera. Where possible, I'll include a digital copy of the manual in the post too.

Cool idea?

Let me know!