Why are older mirrorless pocket cams still fetching a high used price dollar?

[vanislandguy]

My mother works at a thrift store. She picked up a Canon m10 for $5. Gave it to me know how much I love older cameras and such. Have been using it semi daily when I can. I wanted to pick up a second one. Just incase this one decided to quit. I only have a pancake lens for it. So no huge investment here. It really is amazing. Also fun to use. Great image. Looking online they are super expensive being that they are old now. First M camera model(s) from Canon. I would have to say why a huge comparison? From five dollars to three hundred plus? Is there a secret to these cameras? A cool firmware? Something else?

 

[Shaps]

I recently gave up on my Nikon 1 cameras and lenses, I had many of each, and sold most to KEH for around a 70% loss in value. I had followed Ebay and local Crigslist postings and rarely did any Nikon1 gear sell at all. The Nikon1 system is very good but suffered from a too small sensor

 

[vanislandguy]

I believe there is a market for everything. In time everything sells. I would like a Nikon 1 myself. Only reason why an EOS M is because I have the nikon F adapter for it. The Nikon 1 is also amazing. My question is why are people asking so much for older digital cameras? I guess its the same story when you have an item you want to sell its worth nothing. When you want to buy the same thing back its worth more. Time means nothing it seems???

 

[neutron450]

I've noticed this as well. I buy mostly used gear as I'm a cheapskate and don't need the latest most up-to-date gear. Cameras I bought used ten years ago seem to have gone up multiples in value. It's very curious.

 

[4season]

I had assumed that Olympus Pen-F resale prices were high because it was a premium product, and there's been no successor model. EOS-M, I dunno, but what's the competition these days, now that the market emphasizes FF and higher price points.

 

[sojournermike]

Not sure about this level of camera but my local shop owner tells me that there is a very high demand at the moment for old ccd digicams. Every weekend younger people ask for them and he can sell all he can source. I was set to give him a couple of oldies I had hanging around, but my daughters (19 and 22) have claimed to, to add to their film pony and shoots.

Mike

 

[vanislandguy]

Ya, just an interesting topic to talk about. Older gear becoming sought after. I guess it's like a classic car. In time everything becomes worth more. Providing there is someone wanting to buy it. I think that's cool. Whats worthless today could be worth more later on. Example the Nikon F3. Amazing.

 

[xkaes]

Throw in the fact that there are fewer digital cameras made than older film cameras -- and that their life-expectancy is much less -- any model will become harder to find much faster.

For example, Minolta made the SRT101 for over six years -- millions in fact. Throw in the SRT100, SRT102, SRT200, SRT201, SRT202, and all the variants, and it's no wonder these cameras are easy to find, very inexpensive, and still working.

Any given digital model will only be made for a couple of years -- a few at most -- and then support (of various types -- software, repair, new lenses, etc.) stops. But if someone can find an old digital camera in good shape that they want -- because theirs is dead -- buyers might pay a lot for it.

 

[vanislandguy]

Yes, well said xkaes. I'm always looking for a bargain like the next guy. If I find a cool camera for little to no money because it old. I'm buying it. I just found a Nikon 300mm f2.8 AF ED D lens this weekend. With case, lens strap, lens cover, etc... 340CAD. That lens was probably a few thousands new. The fact that its both manual and screw driven af that's ok. I'm not a pro anyways.

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

Markets work in mysterious ways. Demand for vintage digital cameras is no doubt driven by social media influencers and further buoyed by price, availability, and novelty. Small sensor cameras (Nikon 1, EOS M, Pentax Q, Sony RX, Samsung NX) were eschewed by 'serious' photographers but represent great value, performance, and ergonomics for anyone who's entire photographic experience has been confined to a cell phone.

I wouldn't trade any of my Nikon 1 gear for love or money. The J5 is a phenomenal camera. Each of V series offers a unique combination of features that were all eventually rolled into the Z full-frame cameras.

 

[xkaes]

That's the DEAL OF THE WEEK!

 

[reddesert]

Perhaps they are still holding some dollar value simply because it reflects use-value and demand. Higher end digital cameras like DSLRs and mirrorless were very expensive new, so a few hundred dollars for an older body is still typically a large discount off new. People got used to the churn of digital upgrade meaning that older digital cameras, including DSLRs, were outmoded and sold for peanuts.

But there is a point of diminishing returns in upgrades. A mirrorless or DSLR with 24 mp sensor is probably only a modest advantage over an older one with the same physical size sensor at 10-12 mp, so the older one holds use value. And mirrorless arrived after DSLRs and during a transition to more people using cellphones for photos, so there are fewer mirrorless cameras than DSLRs on the used market.

 

[MattKing]

They fulfil very well the role that simple cameras like Instamatics filled - small, convenient and quite high quality results.
Most people won't buy new ones, because their cel phones do that for them. But those who prefer using a camera, have few simple and relatively inexpensive options.
Thus popularity, and relatively high prices.
Ironically, many of them require the use of memory cards that are quite small, and therefore relatively harder to find.

 

[Sharktooth]

Cell phones have wiped out the lower end of the camera market, so if you want to use something other than a cell phone you'll need to fork out more than $500 for a new digital camera.

For most things, especially things just viewed on the web, you don't need a high resolution camera. On the other hand, I find cell phones far less ergonomic than a well designed camera. I use my point and shoot Nikon P7100 for almost everything, since it's got a decent zoom range, viewfinder, and lots of direct access function buttons. It's not quite pocketable, but close, and I carry it on a belt pouch.

I can certainly see the advantages for someone that wants the features of a real camera, but doesn't want to pay more than $150. There's nothing available new at that price point, so your only options are older used models. The big downsides are batteries and memory cards. The proprietary batteries are the biggest problem of the digital age, since they render so many devices useless when the batteries stop being manufactured. Memory cards are the other big built-in-obsolescence factor. It's so strange to talk about film possibly going away, but many of the batteries and memory cards render older digital cameras completely unusable in less than 10 years.

 

[4season]

My mother works at a thrift store. She picked up a Canon m10 for $5.

Since no one else has mentioned it, I will: $5 for a decent working M10+lens is a phenomenal deal! I'm guessing that $200+ would have been far more typical, so it's not as if prices have suddenly soared on that particular model, you just got incredibly lucky.

And IME, despite once being sold in vast quantities, devices like digicams and iPods are actually pretty scarce in thrift stores, and as far as I know, most of the things reside in the nation's junk bins and storage units. The other year, Canon Ixy/Ixus/Powershot were "discovered". More recently, it's been Nikon Coolpix. In terms of absolute $, we're not talking much, maybe $200. But %-wise, pretty staggering, easily starting from $10 before blowing up 20x in a short period of time.

For what it's worth, Sony's USA web site still has listings for DSCW800 and W830, which would make these perhaps the only new cameras equipped with CCD sensors. Sony can be full of surprises sometimes, as ancient products (which the W800 and 830 are) sometimes make it back into production, just as the RX1R II apparently has, after a long absence.

 

[Luckless]

The spread on "I want it NOW" pricing vs "I just want it Gone" pricing.

I've known a few people over the years who have complete Hasselblad kits from yard sales that they snagged for a song, not because the gear is only worth the $5-50 they paid for it, but because that was what who was selling it at the time thought it would "Go away, but still get more than just throwing it out" for.

Where as if you don't need it gone any time soon, then obviously you're going to price it higher.

List pricing isn't what something is worth, it is merely what someone hopes it might be worth, but until it actually sells that is just hope.

If you want a specific piece of gear, and you want it now, then you're obviously not likely to find a Hasselblad for $5 if you go looking for one. So you wander around and try to find the best deal you feel you can trust and fits your budget.

If lots of people with high budgets and high desire for a specific model, then the price trends up - If there are lots on a market and more sellers have a greater desire to see theirs go so they can repurpose the value for something else rather than risk it sitting as unusable value locked in an object they don't need, then the prices can trend down.

 

[vanislandguy]

The spread on "I want it NOW" pricing vs "I just want it Gone" pricing.

I've known a few people over the years who have complete Hasselblad kits from yard sales that they snagged for a song, not because the gear is only worth the $5-50 they paid for it, but because that was what who was selling it at the time thought it would "Go away, but still get more than just throwing it out" for.

Where as if you don't need it gone any time soon, then obviously you're going to price it higher.

List pricing isn't what something is worth, it is merely what someone hopes it might be worth, but until it actually sells that is just hope.

If you want a specific piece of gear, and you want it now, then you're obviously not likely to find a Hasselblad for $5 if you go looking for one. So you wander around and try to find the best deal you feel you can trust and fits your budget.

If lots of people with high budgets and high desire for a specific model, then the price trends up - If there are lots on a market and more sellers have a greater desire to see theirs go so they can repurpose the value for something else rather than risk it sitting as unusable value locked in an object they don't need, then the prices can trend down.

I agree. Well said. I just wish I could find a deal here and there. I get it though. F