Around $2800 for just the camera, if I recall correctly. The included accessories probably cost another $1000 or so.Originally Posted by Kirk Gittings
Around $2800 for just the camera, if I recall correctly. The included accessories probably cost another $1000 or so.
Dick Phillips' last 8x10 cameras were a batch of Explorers that mostly went to buyers in Asia. I tried to get in on that order and unfortunately, there were no unclaimed cameras. Dick told me he wants to spend his time photographing and enjoying life and not just building cameras. However, he does have most of the parts for his 4x5's and may be making some more. He did say he has no intention of making anymore 8x10 cameras. You couldn't find a nicer guy and I hope he enjoys his retirement. The Compact II's are almost unobtainable on the used market and have a reputation second to none.
The camera that sold is not from Dick's late Compact II production. It looks like the version that Dick was producing around 1996.
That was an amazing auction. Of course it was a well-prepared listing from a reliable seller, but damn, talk about a nice outcome for the seller.
I'm one of the guys who ranted over the Chamonix "ripping off" Dick's ideas... I wonder how he feels about them?
When I last spoke to him, he was happy that someone was carrying out his ideas; he was particularly happy that they were in addition able to provide sizes that he no longer was able to...as I 've said before, a gentleman...
Then I stand corrected
No question he is a class act
Quoting from,
“R. H. Phillips & Sons: Price List (US$)
EFFECTIVE FOR 8x10 COMPACT II CAMERAS FOR THE ORDER PERIOD:
Jan. 01 to Jan 03, 2006
PLEASE NOTE: NO FURTHER COMPACT II 8x10 ORDERS WILL BE TAKEN DURING 2006, AFTER JANUARY 03, 2006. (Caps by Dick)
………
8x10 Compact II $2920.00”
Having retired from a sales background I could only marvel at a man who sold out a year’s production in three days. That was until the following year when he sold out a year’s production in three hours. When you are good, you are very good.
John
good grief...I wonder what my phillips 7 x 17 is worth?. Oh well, I guess I will keep my shen hao 8 x 10 FCL 810A for 8 x 10 for awhile...
Scott,
We can only hope. Two sold here not long ago. Another sold last summer. I think there were only fifteen 7x17 Explorers made. Three of those were in Dick's hands a year after orders for new ones were stopped. I was trying to get one of those, but my wife and I were unable to resolve a medical insurance claim in time. I later bought Clay's (Turtle) second hand.
John
I spoke with Dick a few months ago about his 4x5 cameras. He has a pile of 4x5 bellows, so rather than write them off, he is planning one more 4x5 run to deliver late this year. He'll take orders any time before that.
These are beautiful, amazingly strong, light cameras, with numerous ingenious innovations. He expects these to be the last Phillips cameras ever produced. If I didn't already have one, I'd be on the list!
Until later,
Clyde Rogers
Hello Everyone,
I was pretty much in shock at the price the camera went for as well, but it really did not surprise me to tell you the truth. Being such a rare camera that is out of production and all.
I'm very pleased to say it's going to a very talented young photographer in his 20's, whom will surly be the next big name contemporary photographer, like Jeff Wall or Thomas Struth.
In the meantime, although I've sold off my large format gear, I have by no means left photography! I got to a point where what I wanted to say in my art could no longer be expressed with only a photograph of an object. In someways, I wanted the real thing instead! It's like if you put a photograph of a car into a gallery, and you put the real car. They both SAY completely different things, and personally, I think having a real car in an art gallery says A LOT more than just a picture of a car. I've branched out now, as an artist, into ALL mediums, including painting, printmaking, digital art, metal casting and bronze, found objects, fabricated sculptures and commercially produced consumer commodities. The new work has been VERY successful so far and I have many huge plans in store for the future.
I worked exclusively in photography for nearly 8 years of my life (and I'm only 23), and I finally reached a point where I felt it was time to move on. I owe everything in my art to photography however, and would suggest anyone going into the art field to start with photography. This is because photography teaches you how to SEE, and not just visually, but it opens your eyes and mind to the things most people do not observe. Not only does it make you see these things, but it makes you see them in a different, creative way, and to think about what your looking at and form judgment on it. Because, that is really all an artist does, is form judgments and ideas on the things they see and respond to it in an artistic way. If it was not for photography, I would not be in the possition I'm in now.
Best Regards,
Ryan McIntosh
www.RyanMcIntosh.net
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