Contax Compact Cameras

Does anyone know why the price of Contax film compact cameras have absolutely rocketed in price recently?

LCE currently have a T2 at £949 and a T3 at £2499 - another seller has a few T2's all above £1500.

I'm sure these were around the £200 - £300 mark jus a year or two ago???

Hipster demand?

Just out of idle curiosity, I searched e-Bay for Contax film cameras from the UK. The first non-sponsored item was a boxed T2. The description starts "If you're reading this, you know about the Contax T2. One of the best 35mm point and shoot/Street photography cameras ever made. Popular with serious photographers and celebs (Kendall Jenner!) alike.". The last part of the last sentence might go some way to explaining silly prices (although I must confess to having to look up who Kendall Jenner is ... ).

A dealer's shop window display card is also listed. £6.99 + £2.99 postage for a piece of white card on which is printed the words 'The Classic Compact CONTAX T2'. Anyone ever thrown away one of those things believing it to be worthless???

Steve

Film and film cameras, especially the ones regarded as better, have rocketed in price in the last two or three years. They were going up for some time before that but it's getting really silly.

Oh yes - many times.....

I've got a 'collection' of a few items of POS material but the stuff I know I've thrown away of the years brings me to tears!

The market for film cameras in general has gone crazy, especially the premium models.

We are also finding it very difficult getting film - have got 1000's of rolls on order with various suppliers. I had a drop of 100 rolls the other day and they sold within 4 hours....

Sarah at Cambrian said the same thing, can hardly get film to sell (or hardly any Nikon stuff - there was more Pentax on display)...

Nikon supply is terrible at the moment.

It's all on backorder with them but comes through in tiny quantities and when it comes in it is already pre-ordered so goes straight out.

As for Canon Eos R7, that's even worse....

I wonder what my metal bodied P30 would command?

Probably the same as what mine would - whatever that might be...

Steve

It's like going back to the late 1960s/early 1970s when lots of things were being advertised but nobody had any stock. It wasn't just cameras and lenses though, the field I was in at the time had long, ludicrous delays on all sorts of products, sometimes many months. Then a batch would arrive, there would be a flurry of activity and then everything sold out again. Back to square one.

The Days of Plenty may be well and truly over, or at least on hold.

Yeah, I know. I'm not in the UK but I had a look at one of the online film suppliers a couple of days ago and maybe two thirds of the films on their website are out of stock. The demand for film has increased in the last few years but supply has dropped off massively, which is presumably the cause of the massive price increases. Between the difficulty in getting the film you want and the cost I wouldn't be surprised if many people are being forced to use digital when they want to use film.

This is exactly what is happening.

My prediction - early digital compact cameras, especially premium models, are going to rise in value.

We've already seen this starting to happen.

You know what you were saying about metal bodied cameras....
...well this is getting really out of hand now!!!!

LCE have a Zenith 12XP + 44M-4 58mm f/2 for £1213398

https://www.lcegroup.co.uk/Used/Zenith-12XP-+-44M-4-58mm-f/2_344792.html

....and it's gone - someone got a bargain