Just got a new camera - Sony F35

I have a suspicious feeling the seller is bidding up to his reserve price. You have to consider the camera is completely dead which is nowhere worth 3k.
 
A damaged camera like that could be very valuable for parts, but very expensive to try to repair for actual field use. It likely has far more than $3,000 in good parts, but could easily cost more than $10k to get it working again.
 
GaryinCalifornia said:
just looked says its sold...
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It did. However, as someone else suggested, there is some reason to suspect the seller had a second account to bid his own item up to the reserve. If that's the case, he may have sold it to himself. Which would be against eBay policy, obviously, but it does happen from time to time.
Honestly, I wouldn't pay $3k for it unless I had inspected it in person.
 
It's called Skiff bidding and it is very illegal on ebay, basically he asked a friend to bid up to his reserve. We will know if he re-lists it again. It's fairly easy to cancel a final transaction, you just need to give ebay a reason, in order to cancel the final fee.

My feeling is that it is so easy to test a F35, especially with a interface box, that this seller knows the camera is more than cosmetically broken. I have emailed several times trying to work out a deal and get more information but did not get much of a response. I could look up the replacement price of the board, because they are pricey for parts but some are suprisingly reasonable. I paid about $55 to get all new screws for the exterior of my F35 which I thought was a worthwhile investment.

I paid Keith $1250 for his damaged CCD block, however the damage was very clear and I had a solid plan to fix the problem, I still need to put the time in finding the right size pin and my friend can replace it. I also have light scratches on my IR Filter, I was going to pay upwards of $800 to get one made which probably wouldn't work as good, so $1250 for just an IR filter is still worthwhile to me. The F35 IR Filter can be removed with 2 screws (DON'T DO IT THOUGH, that filter keeps the sensor clean) but Sony will not offer a replacement for it other than a 50k CCD block. 3K for an entire F35 could be a great deal. Chances are the CCD block is ok, it's well protected. But if the falling force was enough, the ccd could be broken away from the front plate.
 
$3k for an as-is drop is a wee bit much. $2500 or under seems like a more reasonable risk. The EVF and CCD block are two places that could have good value. The Front plate has value either as a stock PL or a Nikon mod for simple mount swaps. If the CCd is good then the mount swap solution is significantly easier and quicker. But considering Jame's camera went for just a bit over 2x the bid price on this busted one (including a heavy, but very capable recording solution). If this re-lists he ought to drop the Reserve and be done with it. The majority of the world market for buying this busted camera is pretty much right here reading this post.

-k
 
Hello everyone... I am also quite infected by the f35 and am looking into getting one. How are you dealing with timecode without the SRR1?
 
this cracked down f35 was already on ebay 2 weeks ago...exactly same pictures and also sold as is with same problem description. Either its a buyer who bought the cam first to find out something major is broken and now resells it or same seller again...I think its the second bc it was relisted wayyyy too fast...Maybe 2-3 days after initial end of auction...
 
Caveat Emptor

Caveat Emptor

I have asked the eBay seller for the serial number of the unit. In the past a quick call to SONY will let you know if the camera has been evaluated by SONY. You do have to use a little "James Rockford" social engineering here, as in, "Hi, my camera was in for a repair estimate a while back, can you remind me of the estimate amount?" This tactic saved me thousands of dollars in buying a used car.

Since the seller won't send the serial number I'd say they know exactly what it is going to cost to repair the F35. Remember that camera was $200,000+ when new. And SONY doesn't discount for depreciation of the camera when it comes to buying parts.

Ask yourself this. How much would it improve the value of the camera if you could say that it powered up and displayed a picture. Or that an image or raster appeared in the viewfinder. It isn't all that hard to find a power supply to attempt to power it up. Chances are they attempted to power it up and didn't want to tell a potential buyer. We've all seen several scams involving the F35 over the last year or so. Yes, there are jerks out there.

Chances are you would be buying a very expensive paper weight if you give this guy anything...

Alan




ottowitz said:
this cracked down f35 was already on ebay 2 weeks ago...exactly same pictures and also sold as is with same problem description. Either its a buyer who bought the cam first to find out something major is broken and now resells it or same seller again...I think its the second bc it was relisted wayyyy too fast...Maybe 2-3 days after initial end of auction...
Click to expand...
 
ajhill said:
I have asked the eBay seller for the serial number of the unit. In the past a quick call to SONY will let you know if the camera has been evaluated by SONY. You do have to use a little "James Rockford" social engineering here, as in, "Hi, my camera was in for a repair estimate a while back, can you remind me of the estimate amount?" This tactic saved me thousands of dollars in buying a used car.

Since the seller won't send the serial number I'd say they know exactly what it is going to cost to repair the F35. Remember that camera was $200,000+ when new. And SONY doesn't discount for depreciation of the camera when it comes to buying parts.

Ask yourself this. How much would it improve the value of the camera if you could say that it powered up and displayed a picture. Or that an image or raster appeared in the viewfinder. It isn't all that hard to find a power supply to attempt to power it up. Chances are they attempted to power it up and didn't want to tell a potential buyer. We've all seen several scams involving the F35 over the last year or so. Yes, there are jerks out there.

Chances are you would be buying a very expensive paper weight if you give this guy anything...

Alan
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I suspect you're right on most if not all points.

In my opinion, it would be a terrible idea for anyone to buy that camera with the notion of returning it to service. Given that you can get a working F35 with viewfinder for $7k, there's virtually no way the repair parts and labor will be less than buying a working camera outright.

It's only practical use is for parts, for those F35 owners willing to do their own repairs. It may be very useful for repair parts, but $3k is steep for that, given the $7k pricepoint for a working camera. At $1.5k it would be a reasonable risk for someone doing heavy mod work on their own camera.

That said, the seller seems sketchy beyond the as-is nature of the sale. So... I'd say stay away unless you get get it for pennies on the dollar.
 
There were a couple of F65s up for sale recently, I don't know if they sold, but they were suspiciously cheap and the seller was very clear on selling them as "untested" - considering a full test report from a service centre only costs about £200 - $350 or so, and can add thousands to the value of a camera, there are only two reasons you wouldn't - either you're clueless about the thing you're selling, or you know it is bust. Either is bad.
 
JMtheDP said:
There were a couple of F65s up for sale recently, I don't know if they sold, but they were suspiciously cheap and the seller was very clear on selling them as "untested" - considering a full test report from a service centre only costs about £200 - $350 or so, and can add thousands to the value of a camera, there are only two reasons you wouldn't - either you're clueless about the thing you're selling, or you know it is bust. Either is bad.
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Yes, if you are buying something like an F65 it's probably better done in person.

Although Pay Pal is fairly good about items that are misrepresented. They tend to come down in favor of the buyer. Although when it's an item that is sold "as is" the phrase, "You pays your money, you takes your chances!"

Alan
 
Having bought a duff lens that I paid for via PayPal, it was a nightmare to convince them to give me my money back.

Trying to find a lens expert in the middle of nowhere in 30 days during a shoot is not easy!
 
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