C100: My barber buys prime lenses at thrift stores

nedcam

nedcam

Well-known member
I go to a retro throwback of a barber shop, feels like a small town, 1940's, North Woods type of place, unpretentious. Deer heads on the wall. The barber I've been seeing for years ($10) is a fantastic photographer, mainly portraits, sells his stuff on the side. Since he has three kids he doesn't want to leave his day job. We also have audio in common because he runs the board in his church but we talk lenses a lot and he has dipped his toe into video, but prefers the still world. We talk shop.

So he pulls open a drawer and he has a LOT of primes, all for $10-$20, all from thrift stores! Some 1.4. Before this god damn interwebby thing was invented I used to buy and sell used gear, mainly from bankruptcy auctions, estate sales, helping pros' widows, etc. and made good money. Us pros in video and stills would cruise pawn shops. But then when Craigslist and Ebay were invented I stopped doing this, figuring there would be no more good deals to be had.

However...there seems to be a world of non-techy, no internet connection, off the grid, or whatever people who are not going to put pro and prosumer gear on the web to sell it because they just want it out of the house quick. Maybe a jilted girlfriend? Who knows. But he claims by regularly stopping by these thrift shops he comes across great deals, mainly the lenses which are attached to old 35mm bodies which makes people think they're worthless. So I may do the same! Who knew?
 
Yeah, come across older lenses occasionally at thrift stores (but not usually here in the city because people know what they've got)... You should do a doc about your barber -- seems like an interesting guy...
 
If he has an old, dusty, canon 70-200 v2, I dunno, whatev, I guess I'd take it off his hands. $30 sound ok? Cool.
 
scorsesefan said:
Yeah, come across older lenses occasionally at thrift stores (but not usually here in the city because people know what they've got)... You should do a doc about your barber -- seems like an interesting guy...
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I second it. He seems to be an interesting character.
 
My favorite interview lenses are late 1970s era Nikon 85mm 1.8 Ai and a 50mm Nikon 1.4 Ai. Both were bought from pawn shops. More than $30.00 though. I paid $115.00 for the 50mm 1.4 and $185.00 for the 85mm. They are better built than any common plastic Nikon or Canon lenses built today, are razor sharp and very flattering to talent. Their only downside is they flare like crazy outdoors and have a decent amount of CA outdoors. But indoors with good lighting, they are beautiful. I like the old Russian cheap stuff too and there are a wealth of old Konica, Minolta, Leica, Olympus manual lenses just hiding out there in garages and pawn shops. Just have to be willing to look and be willing to buy the adapters to try them out.
 
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