[Leica] nikon s3

[Photovilla@aol.com]

<<Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 23:20:22 -0700
From: "Mehrdad Sadat" <m.sadat@verizon.net>
Subject: [Leica] nikon s3
Message-ID: <FKEMKHBBDEGFGKMBDFMAMEBICPAA.m.sadat@verizon.net>
References: 

what is the deal with this camera and why is it so expensive? I don't get
the point. what is a collectors item? you pay 4800 to sell it for 5500 10,
20 years from now? why



_____________________________________
Thanks, Mehrdad>>

Mehrdad,

Read all the following with tounge-in-cheek. I'm not ranting at your post, 
more just pointing out the irony of all our situations with these highly 
priced machines...


It has proven that cameras don't make great investments time and time again 
here on the LUG, so I won't go down that road. 

Perhaps no tangible asset is really going to be as good as the many other 
finacial vehicles which are available to you ...unless perhaps you are going 
to turn them over 100x each year. In that case, you are really a dealer, and 
it is really a job... more than pure investment. (...and it is a LOT of work 
despite how it might appear...) So far -my experience in being a dealer is 
that- it pays a lot less than my last job, though it is a lot more fun...

Over the past year I have had literally hundreds of visitors pour in and out 
of my tiny store here in NYC and I have heard about just about every camera 
and company:

1) it is "obsolete"
2) it is "classic"
3) it is "cheap" for what it is
4) it is "waaay to expensive" for what it is
5) "they" (insert camera manufacturer of your choice) will be out of biz in a 
year
6) if only it has an "x" or a "y," then I would buy it
7) if it didn't have that x or y, then I would buy it
8) x and y company should combine, buy each other out, or give back their 
stolen names
9) they don't make 'em like they used to/digital will do away with that in 
one year
10) I'll gladly pay you Tuesday to "hold" that camera for me today!

I think these are the tenants of "camera obsession" as a religion. I dare you 
to tell me you haven't uttered one of these last time you were in a camera st
ore too. It is almost the password to get in the club after all! If you walk 
in B&H and say "nice" looking at the latest/greatest x, the guy next to you 
won't say anything back after all will he?

Now, all I can really offer you is that, if you don't see the beauty or 
purpose in a collectible camera...then it has no value for you! I don't think 
you should pay $1 for one if you don't intrincically get the "point" of why 
you would pay xxx for one.

This goes for the new S3, the many-engraved cameras and the ever-so-rare 
antiquities auctioned off at various stores/sites/blocks. 

I think I really realized this point when my girlfriend's best friend came to 
my store one day and said, "People actually collect cameras? Why?" 

She couldn't comprehend the point of "collecting" such machinary and by the 
end of an hour long explaination from me I think she got it even less!<g> 

It was the first time I had someone in my store that just couldn't connect 
with the stuff on _any_ level and was quite entertaining to the both of them 
how much that bothered me... Please, the history, the esthetics, the fine 
optics and great stories about HCB and friends... Complete disbelief was all 
I got -and to this day- I think she never got over how "really weird" I am 
and what a weird little place I have created for myself in the city. She has 
never mentioned cameras to me again since that day!!!

I guess the little bit I took away from this experience (that I still 
remember 10 months later) is that this stuff only holds value for those in 
the "club" -this little micro-cosm that we have. That is, those who give a 
hoot about any of it! 

That is why you always hear stories of cat burglurs breaking into a place, 
stealing a P&S wunder-cam and leaving behind the gold plated M6J or 
what-have-you. They are only "worth" it because there is a microcosm of folks 
that will pay for it and I suppose that this is how much of economics work as 
well...

cheers!
Rich