PhotoCamel - Your Friendly Photo Community - View Single Post - How do I make an inexpensive start in medium format?

dougjgreen · 09-16-2005

I just wanted to reitterate, the Medium Format market is such that it's crazy to buy new, as there are tons of fantastic deals in the used market. Because many if not most working pros are trading in their MF gear for high end digital SLRs, there is an imbalance of supply and demand, such that a modern Medium Format system can be gotten used for something like 25 cents on the dollar compared to the same gear new. A perfect example is the Mamiya RZ67, where I recently bought a near mint RZ67 body, with 2 film magazines, meter prism finder, WL finder, and 110mm f2.8 lens for around $900. This same gear bought new would be well over $3000 (the body would be an RZ67 II, which is slightly improved, but really quite similar). Similar deals can be found for all brands of MF film gear.

09-16-2005	#4 (permalink)
dougjgreen Guanaco Posts: 459 CamelKarma: 33 Gallery \| Blog	Re: How do I make an inexpensive start in medium format? I just wanted to reitterate, the Medium Format market is such that it's crazy to buy new, as there are tons of fantastic deals in the used market. Because many if not most working pros are trading in their MF gear for high end digital SLRs, there is an imbalance of supply and demand, such that a modern Medium Format system can be gotten used for something like 25 cents on the dollar compared to the same gear new. A perfect example is the Mamiya RZ67, where I recently bought a near mint RZ67 body, with 2 film magazines, meter prism finder, WL finder, and 110mm f2.8 lens for around $900. This same gear bought new would be well over $3000 (the body would be an RZ67 II, which is slightly improved, but really quite similar). Similar deals can be found for all brands of MF film gear.