Classic & Historical Cameras

The 31st Used Camera Show 2009 took place for six days earlier this year at the Exhibition Floor of the Matsuya department store, Ginza, Tokyo. Exhibitors were drawn from 19 large Tokyo used camera shops, members of the Imported Camera Society (ICS), which sponsors the show. This year total gross sales were about $1.5 million, a 26 percent decline compared with the previous year, though the traffic increased to nearly 50,000 visitors. Unlike the department stores in the Western world, the department stores in Japan, including Matsuya, established in 1869, are fancy stores with many shop-in-shop-type boutiques like Chaumet, Cartier, Dior, etc.

Deal across counter. Photos © 2009, G. Inoue, All Rights Reserved

Crowd on a weekday.

Digital Camera/Classic Lens
Many of the show visitors carried a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 digital camera, and many were equipped with Leica M mount lenses. We also saw many people using Angenieux and/or S.O.M. Berthiot 16mm cine camera lenses mounted on the Lumix G1. These French movie lenses are of extremely high speed, such as f/0.8 or f/0.95. Because of the Lumix G1’s picture size, the original focal length of these French movie lenses is doubled, so that 15mm is converted to 30mm or 8mm to 16mm, offering a broad range of wide angles to choose from.

And more antiques.

The demand here for these French 16mm cine lenses, probably motivated by this fad-like popularity of the “new-face digital camera plus classic lens” trend, is now tremendous, which is demonstrated by the price increase on the eBay auction site. An Angenieux cine lens, which used to be offered in the price bracket of $120-$130, is now auctioned for $1200!

Classic lenses in queue.