What is the worth nowadays?

[Nick Regan]

Travelling around the country to buy old equipment for service and resale for a living, I decided I was going to treat myself to a 16 mm Cine Camera to get into the film making side of things. I spotted a nice Bolex H16 camera due at an auction on the East Coast with an estimate of between £150-£250. I put a commission bit for £75 just to express an interest before the sale. Come the day sat, in the saleroom, I was slightly dissapointed when the sale started with an opening bid of £120. Ok I was expecting to end up paying about £300-£350 for the item, when the bids increased past £800 I lost interest then I feel it began to get silly. The camera eventually sold for over £1500 plus the Sales Tax making a total of just under £2000.00.

(This was not ever a camera sale but a general sale along with furniture pottery etc?)

Is this a fair market price do you think or was it just 2 individuals lost in the moment?

Nick

[Mark Todd]

Hi Nick I think the absolutely crazy prices of some things these days is more of a reflection of life itself loosing some thing if you will.

Just usual things and getting a good feeling day to day seems to be getting much harder especaially in the UK !!!

So people are maybe are retreating to nostalgia, and also owning endorphins etc.

Its not just cine old motorbikes that used to change hand for £150 now £5K or £6K plus etc etc, its all over the board.

There is still fair price stuff about and even people happy to take old school money or about what they paid.

Hope you can get sorted out.

Are you planning to process it yourself as paying for both the film and processing 16mm wise now is overdraft land, even super 8 is around the £60 mark with posts etc for just over 3 silent minutes.

Best wishes Mark.

[Maurice Leakey]

An unbelievable price. Probably not used for donkey's years. A service, perhaps might be necessary from Bolex themselves which would also add to the cost.

I filmed documentaries during the sixties, using both the H16 and the Bell & Howell Filmo 70DA. I never could decide which one I preferred.

Perhaps this should be under the 16mm section.

[Terry Sills]

Rather depends on what lenses came with the camera. C mount lenses can fetch hundreds on their own. If it was just the camera without any accessories then that price is ridiculous.

[Nick Regan]

Mark,

I was trained in the Army as both a Darkroom Technician and a Ground Photographer, I know little at the moment about the actual cine film, I never had to think about it. I was thinking of B&W film and processing myself but I dont know yet weather it is Negative or Diapositive. If its just a negative image then I have the facilities to process. But this is all to be the part of the learning curve for me. Camera- Types of film-Processing...

Maurice,

I have had Bolex 16 mm cameras in stock before just never fancied playing with them so just sold them on. (and not for thousands either) I like the build quality. A less expensive unit would be worth the service costs I think.

Nick

[Osi Osgood]

... and then there are things that have dropped in price in a staggering manner, but it is understandable. When I bought my Sharp vision projection TV, (one of the very first projection TVs), it was 3,500! I probably couldn't sell it in a thrift store for 100.00 these days!

[Mark Todd]

Much as you can get an amazing LCD projector these days with a 3 years guarantee for not much past £200

Better than the ones that were thousands 20 odd years ago.

The made in China ones for £50 odd now are better than the first £1000 ones such as the affordble !!! grapes jiggling about sharp that first got going back 90`s ish

£1000 now takes you to a 35mm ( in the home ) plus level.

I sold my HD Epson for £150 last year was bonkers good.

So doing with 720p for now. Still amazing with Blu Ray etc.

Its such a shame Cine actual stock and other costs overall have gone so crazy.

Its also a shame Derann did`nt move in to a couple of sheds round the back of a house in the early 2000`s and manage to keep going.

The Beaulieu`s are often better value Nick and very nice as you maybe know.

Best Mark.

Maybe someone on here may lend you a Bolex Nick, in exchage for you fixing it or for a good service etc.

Just a thought !!!

[Paul Adsett]

Last month we decided to get rid of our 1999 Sony XBR 36 ins TV. It was Sony's top of the line TV that year with a great CRT picture and stereo sound. It worked flawlessly for 22 years but DIRECTV is phasing out standard definition TV this year so it was time for it to go. I tried to give it away but nobody wanted it , even though it was as good as the day we purchased it. It weighed about 300 lbs and I knew there was no way I could move it to the roadside for County pick up, so I finally had to pay $100.00 for a private waste company to come in and take it away. It took them 45 minutes to get it out of the house and on to the truck! So that TV actually had a negative value of $100.00 for me!
It has been replaced with a 55 ins LCD 1080p flat panel which weighs just a few pounds and is so easy to position and move around. So technology inevitably advances but, you know what, the color and contrast seemed better on the old 1999 Sony CRT TV.
And IMO flat panel TV's just cannot compare with digital projection, so all our movie watching is still done with a digital projector on a 10ft screen in a dark room. The new TV is used 95% for news and sports.

[Stuart Budd]

For prices to go to such heights they must have spotted something of value. With it being an auction and not eBay auction too. There are a few on eBay that are asking those prices but most are £200-£400 with a scattering either side. Both BIN and auction style.
I did notice a newer model amongst the sales, an EL. Maybe model related price or as mentioned, accessories!
http://bolexh16user.net/H16Cameras.htm
Best of luck with the camera hunt

[Nick Regan]

I have a Beaulieu 2008 8 mm in stock I was going to start with that but the sealed up rechargeable batteries are shot, tho the battery housing is ok. Can get it serviced up but finding the batteries or a workshop that can / will replace them proved too problimatical so I will try myself later although I tend to avoid working on cameras, but then, I decided then to go the whole hog and get myself a 16 mm camera just for me and it can be my own little shiny thing, that I will get to know intimately so it has to be decent condition at the start. I will find another on my travels sometime.....

[Maurice Leakey]

Nick
Here is a nice little 16mm camera at a very reasonable price. The Cine Kodak model K which accepts 100ft spools. Why not start with something simple?
It's a scaled down version of the Cine Kodak Special.
Note that the earlier 16mm cameras only accept double perforated film.

Cine Kodak Model K 16mm Cine Camera & Case - Fully Working #S8-5101 | eBay
Cine-Kodak Model K 16mm Camera - Overview & Loading - YouTube
Old Cine Kodak Model K Instruction Manual Original Book from circa 1930s | eBay

[Xander van der Merwe]

@Paul - it might be a bit too late now, but I will advise anyone buying a new TV now to get an OLED TV and not LCD - the contrast with HDR is astounding. I personally have one of the Panasonic OLED TVs and it was not too expensive either and the blacks are truly black.

[Osi Osgood]

Another victim of modern times? I have a little portable three inch color handheld TV, cute little thing, but with no one having an "analogue" broadcast out there ... It's no good anymore ... Sigh ...

[Simon Wyss]

A service, perhaps might be necessary from Bolex themselves

Bolex International is permanently closed. No spare parts or services have been available from there any more since about a year now.