Are people really paying $1000+ for Speed Graphic and Aero Ektar combos?

[Brian Legge]

Unmounted Aero Ektars on their own have been going for about $500-600 recently. Throw in a working Speed Graphic in good condition and shipping and you close in on $800-900 quickly. And that may not include a lens board, ring to mount it, etc. Nor would it include rangefinder calibration which some people aren't up to handling themselves. I certainly understand people paying an added $100-200 for those items sorted out.

[dh003i]

I got enthused by the whole speed lens thing a few years back and built my own Graphic and Aero Ektar combo for around $400. The prices on the lenses and good Speed Graphics seemed to have climbed a little since then (but not hugely) while the adapter for the lens is now apparently readily available, but it still looks like you should be able to put one together for $600 - $700.

This auction seems to suggest that someone was prepared to pay $2500 for one, while this one is a bit cheaper and a touch more eccentric, but the seller seems to think that $2000 is a reasonable BIN.

Are they really selling for over $1000 on a regular basis? Have I missed something and the whole David Burnett thing has got even bigger? Surely this is all a few years old now. I also noticed that there are seven or eight Aero Ektars for sale on eBay UK, all from different sellers, which much be must be some sort of weird coincidence. Or maybe this is a variation on Petzval madness.

I bet my Alpenhaus polaroid conversion with a Xenotar 135/3.5 would fetch a nice price now (but I'm not selling it).

[domaz]

It's a hobby. Some people have the time and like the process of building up a camera others have the money and want to buy the camera the way they want immediately.

[jnantz]

Well... there are people who pay $250 + for a Lensbaby.
Further proof that P.T. Barnum was correct.

the portrait lens baby is similar to a imagon ... even has the strainers ...
i don't see many of those going for $250 ...



brass and junk lenses used to be the reason to buy a speed graphic,
now the brass and junk lenses cost more than the camera ..

it's kinda funny

[rjmeyer314]

I suspect most of us playing with this lens/camera combo picked up the Speed Graphic for $100-$200 and the aero-ektar for $65-$100. This was about 5-10 years ago.

[Corran]

"Drilling a hole" isn't as easy as one thinks when the hole comes up to 1/4" from the sides of the board. Plus you need a mounting ring.

And in regard to "building," personally I modify the rangefinder slightly and calibrate it to very close to accurate. I've gotten many good shots in focus with these things, despite the naysayers.

And finally, regarding sale prices - look at the finished auctions on ebay. One sold last week for $2500. I've sold a couple for very good money (I paid for my D800E with the sales...).

[Frank Petronio]

Well if people are exited then Heck, why do photography, there is more money in building high margin trendy cameras. Maybe you could brand them Coros instead of Lomos? Something to get exited about!

Seriously you are right, you don't just drill a hole to mount an Aero-Ektar. You usually have to do some fabrication and the best mounts include a support for the heavy lens. Getting the rangefinder right is worth a good hunk of change too. I still think hitting focus with them handheld and wide-open is as much luck as anything else, and I haven't seen many shots that were decisively better because they were handheld and at f/2.5....

[Old-N-Feeble]

I won't judge others' photographic tastes. Me? I don't like them and can't be coaxed into liking them but I don't like any soft "swirly" lenses. I do like, to some degree, Imagons with very controlled and even chromatic aberrations.

[cosmicexplosion]

Maybe because most people (not just photographers) are challenged by drilling any kind of hole in anything, let alone a hole of the right size perpendicular to the face of whatever material is needed, particularly if the material is metal. And drilling a large hole isn't so trivial unless you use some kind of hole saw which isn't exactly cheap either. And even with a hole saw it can be hard to control the drill without some level of skill and a drill press or lathe or something.

Used to have a friend who installed sound systems in cars and drilled a lot of speaker holes in sheet metal with a Milwaukee Hole Hog - he got flipped out of the car on more than one occasion when the hole saw hung up in the metal. Maybe most people SHOULD leave it ti Grimes.

If you use a scroll saw it is slow but very easy like nine out of ten easy. And cheap. All you need is a hole to start which can be made even with a hand drill easily on such thin material. A good recipe for a photog with no skills with tools or two right thumbs is to simply get the square cut by timber yard or carpenter or who ever is handy and get a stack made at one time. You can use ply or mdf. In fact there is a million different things to use but if you start with cheap mdf it will only cost a dollar or two each board if cut for you. All you need is measurements. Then after you cut hole it will be a bit wonky so you can wrap a piece of 120 grit sand paper around a round object like a spoon handle or a stick and sand inside hole fairly smooth. As it will be hidden it does not have to be perfect. So investing a few bucks and some really basic skills can save you can save money and build a board in ten minutes as aposed to waiting weeks and costing ????

[RawheaD]

I shoot my AE/SG combo han-held about 90% of the time. Actually, the only time I'd shoot with a tripod is when I use precious film, like Type55. Now we can debate the extent of what "hitting the focus" consists of, but I average 4-5 shots out of a 6-frame Grafmatic back that I'm satisfied with.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=aero...64%40N00&s=rec