The premium compact price bubble shows no sign of popping.
Kosmo Foto found one London camera store currently offering a Contax T3 35mm camera for £1,900 – that’s nearly $2,500.
Sendean, a well-known camera repair service which also sells refurbished cameras, lists the camera as “fully servied [sic],90-day warranty, modified metal transport tooth” which implies the camera has undergone some form of repair before being put on sale.
The T3 is one of a family of cult compact cameras whose price has skyrocketed in the last few years. The T3, and its sister camera the T2, are especially coveted, partly thanks to being championed by the likes of Kylie Kenner and actor Chris Hemsworth.
The T3 is considered one of the best compact 35mm cameras ever built – 35mmc’s Hamish Gill declared it “without doubt the perfect carry everywhere camera” – but the price has now hit astronomical proportions.
The problem is, the premium Contax compacts can be up to 20 years old now, and spare parts are becoming increasingly hard to find. The camera’s electronics and autofocus carry a likely risk of failure. How long before they become too difficult to repair?
Not far from Sendean, Red Dot cameras is offering two Leica M3 bodies for £750 and £850 – for the cost of the Contax you could possibly buy both and get a lens thrown in aswell.
Can’t quite afford the T3? Sendean are also offering the much-sought-after T2 for £1,020.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
Also recently seen at that emporium, a Kodak Brownie, barely used and boxed… £3,000,000.
This makes me wonder about the film community sometimes. Let’s start a movement and stop spending this much. Glad I only buy cheap cameras. Good article.