How to buy the right vintage camera

The past few weeks I got a lot of questions about buying a vintage analogue camera. A lot of people want to buy a vintage camera, but don’t know where to look and how to be sure you won’t buy a camera that doesn’t work. I’ve decided to write a little bit about what to look for when you buy a vintage camera.
first of all, where do you find vintage camera’s? … I visit the local thrift shop almost every week. Thrift shops are by far the best places to look. Fridays and Saturdays are the best days to go there. These are the days people clean up there homes and bring their whole attic content  to the thrift shops. If you don’t have any thrift shops in your town, you would have to try flea markets or garage sales. You can simply find on the internet where and when there is a flea market in your town.  I never recommend buying vintage cameras online, you never know if it works.



If you want to buy an analogue vintage camera you have to think about a few things. For example. Do you actually want to use it, DIY-ing with it, or maybe just put it on your desk in your room as decoration? If you want to DIY with it or use it as decoration it doesn’t matter if it works or not, and it would probably be better to buy a camera that doesn’t work anymore. Those are cheaper of course. (If you have found a broken one, ask the shop owner how much the camera costs. Wait for the prize, THAN tell the owner it is broken. That way the price will go down way more than when you say its broken BEFORE asking the price…) How to DIY with your broken camera?



If you want to make awesome crazy looking vintage pictures with an analogue camera, you have to think about what film size you would want, cause buying a camera for 126 mm film wouldn’t be a good idea since 126mm film is not produced anymore. If you are a beginner, I recommend a 35mm film camera. It uses 35mm film, which is still produced and relatively cheaper than 120 an 110mm film. If you’re not sure what film the camera you found uses, just flip open the back. (Probably by pulling, pushing or spinning a button at the right side of the camera or pulling up the film spool) Inside the camera there will be a sticker or carving telling you what film it uses.
35mm film:



After you found out your camera has a usable film size, you are going to check if the light meter works. This is something you can only check if you have a camera with light cells. just find the light cell, look through the lens, put your hand over the sell. If the light meter works, a little pinn will show that there is not enough light. Or, with – for example – the olympus trip 35, the shutter will block.


The next thing you have to do is kinda weird. Smell you camera…. YES, smell it… If your camera uses batteries, this is the way to find out if the batteries have leaked. If they have leaked, your camera is probably completely useless. If you only smell the old leather and dust from the attic, everything is okay. If you smell a real salty smell (almost dog pee smell-ish… yukk …) your batteries have leaked.
The last thing I check is the shutter. Wind up you camera and pretend to take a picture of yourself. Look at your lens, If you see the shutter opening and closing while taking the picture, the camera is ready to buy! If you’re not sure, open the back again. (if there is still an old film in it from the previous owner, take that out, you cant use that anyway) When you opened the back, look inside the camera, wind it and take a picture again. If you see a real quick flits light through the camera lens, you can buy your camera.
Have fun buying your analogue camera! If information is missing, please comment. This is what I do when I buy a camera, IT’S POSSIBLE that your camera still wont work after these steps.
Have a nice thrift shop/ flea market analogue hunt!


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