The Agony of Buying a 40-year old Camera on Ebay

So many choices, so many ways to be disappointed, so many risks.

I couldn’t focus on anything but cameras today. Cameras and film scanners. Then I started lurking around Ebay. I’m a camera addict, and Ebay is my dealer.

Despite my trepidation about buying a used camera on Ebay, I’ve bought three working cameras in the last 7 years — a big Polaroid camera for which film is no longer made, a Nikon F3, and an 80-year old Rolleiflex, which works like a charm. Now I want a little Rollei 35 to carry with me while I’m out and about. I have other cameras, but they’re alarmingly huge and conspicuous and I want to be discrete as a mouse, just going here and there without being given away by a foot-long lens sticking out from my jacket.

Chore Day, May 2, 2020: Rainy Day Project -- Sell Some Cameras on EBay

Today I did my usual chores, cooking veggie burgers for my pug, and doing the laundry. Besides that I’ve been planning to sell some of my cameras on EBay to save enough money for a Cintiq. Currently I’m using a Huion 22-inch pen display. It works but I want a device that has a matte screen, a better stylus with tilt and rotation, and a better feel. I bought the Huion because it was cheap. Instead of going for quality (Wacom), I went for price (Huion). My thinking was “How could it really be much different? And it’s so much cheaper.”

I’ll be selling a Canon 6D, a 24-105mm f/4 lens, A Polaroid Model 95 retrofitted to use Fuji instant film, and a Nikon F3 with f/1.4 lens. Once I have the Cintiq I’ll sell my Huion. I’m not thrilled about selling on Ebay, but I’ll do it.

Al Fresco Art Club Challenge for Sep 29, 2019: Paint a Common Object, Like a Camera

I was in charge of choosing today’s Al Fresco Art Club challenge. I thought that painting a common object that had simple rectangular shapes, such as a camera, would be something I could easily do. In fact, it would be so easy that I might as well paint two cameras. I chose a Polaroid camera and a Diana Mini.

I dashed off a sketch and painted in the background using some dried paint from last week’s challenge, then blocked in the cameras. About 15 minutes into the hour, I came to my senses — I would have time to paint only the Polaroid — the Diana Mini would have to sit there on the page, an unfinished skeleton, like one of those sketches you might see in the margin of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook. Future art historians will have a field day with my humble painting.