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Old Nikon FE camera and other bits - advice please

Pinky

In suspense, not compressed
I come at this as someone with no knowledge of the subject looking for advice on how best to move on some camera equipment I have inherited.

Contained in a couple of old camera bags are:

Nikon FE camera
Tokina 70-210 lens
Tokina 28-70 lens
Tamron SP 2x converter
Tamron Adaptall 2
Jessop 13mm, 21mm, 31mm - all one unit that looks like a lens but isn't.
Some filters, a flash gun and other small accessories.

Apart from knowing nothing about it all I also have no way of knowing whether it all works as it should, although I know the previous owner looked after things well so I would be very surprised if it didn't.

I found a couple of receipts in the bags for the filters which were from 1990 so maybe that approximately dates everything?

Any thoughts on what to do with this little lot would be appreciated, thanks!
 
As a first-off you could try the photo classifieds here. I'd recommend you open the battery compartment of the FE and check there's been no leakage/damage, pick up a new set of batteries (if it needs them - LR/SR44) and check that the meter is working ok. Next stop is ebay. For both you'll need to take photos of everything. If you can't be bothered with the faff, why not try one of the specialist auction houses - Flints, Chiswick and SAS auctions are all running photo-dedicated auctions. Well worth giving everything a clean if it needs it - I've picked up some scruffy-looking kit at auction for chips that just needed a clean.
 
The FE camera will be worth something if it is still in working order. It will almost certainly require new foam seals and a new mirror bumper. The manual focus zoom lenses are not worth anything really.

The lowest stress method of offloading the gear is to offer it to a dealer like ffordes or vintage classic camera who will do the required service and checks. They will probably sell the FE for £150 after basic checks and service, so they probably wouldn’t offer much more than half that to you. You could try to sell the lot on ebay as spares and repairs, ‘not tested’. I would try at £100 and see how it goes.

If selling on ebay as a ‘working camera’ you really need to know how the camera should work otherwise the ebay buyer is just going to put in a complaint if it is faulty (quite likely on a 40 year old camera). Its not good enough to just confirm that the shutter fires, you need to have some knowledge of how to test shutter speeds, light meter readings and film transport mechanics. Old lenses also have their issues, eg oil on the aperture blades and internal fungus.
 
Thanks all, some great ideas and suggestions,

I'll start by checking the battery compartment as suggested (that's a very good point about whether there has been leakage and damage). BTW, my lack of knowledge of these camera's means I have just had to Google where the battery compartment is!

Then I'll have a think about those options for moving it on.
 
I sold my 35mm Canon stuff through Ffordes on a commission basis. However I wouldn't expect the lenses to be worth very much. My Vivitar zooms had fungus so were just binned. I suspect the Jessops set is extension tubes.
 


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