Nikon Holy Grail of Collectors...EARLY 1949 NIKON I Rangefinder 35mm CAMERA NIKKOR QC 1:3.5 f=5cm LENS Ser#609156 | eBay
The Nikon 1
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Goody goody gumdrops this is going to be a neat auction to watch...bookmark it watch it follow it whatever...what do you think it will end up at? Remember this is just an old mechanical film rangefinder 35mm but it is the first kind of Nikon made. They are exceedingly rare. Bid is 3 grand up from 2 just an hour ago and there is still 6+ days to go!
SamSpade1941
Senior Member
Get some popcorn cause it aint gonna go cheap.
10500...18 hours left! I think this one is going to see 15-20K
What a camera!
It used an unconventional format. You can use regular old 35mm film but instead of like 36 exposures you'd get 40 with this camera. Very quickly Nikon discovered that this wasn't going to fly internationally because you couldn't mount this format in a slide mount because it wasn't wide enough. Most color film at that time was Kodachrome and slide film. So they restricted sales of the Nikon 1 to Japan only and made just a few hundred bodies. A couple years later they adjusted to the standard 35mm format. An aside here - Canon came out with their camera first a year or so before the Nikon. But guess who built the lenses, rangefinder, and viewfinders for them because they didn't have the technical capability? Nikon.
What a camera!
It used an unconventional format. You can use regular old 35mm film but instead of like 36 exposures you'd get 40 with this camera. Very quickly Nikon discovered that this wasn't going to fly internationally because you couldn't mount this format in a slide mount because it wasn't wide enough. Most color film at that time was Kodachrome and slide film. So they restricted sales of the Nikon 1 to Japan only and made just a few hundred bodies. A couple years later they adjusted to the standard 35mm format. An aside here - Canon came out with their camera first a year or so before the Nikon. But guess who built the lenses, rangefinder, and viewfinders for them because they didn't have the technical capability? Nikon.
SamSpade1941
Senior Member
That is an easy answer, and the answer is no. You can love the guy or hate the guy but Ken Rockwell said in one of his ramblings that people used to buy cameras as an investments. You bought an F2 knowing you were buying it for the rest of your life. You buy a D300 knowing you are replacing it in a few years with a D600 or whatever cause technology is disposable.
I am a bottom feeder when it comes to camera gear, I cant afford the latest and greatest so I have to use the low end or what the pros no longer use. So you will see me with 3 to 6 year old gear or if it is new then it will be the low end of things. Just economics , as much as I like photography there are too many other things that demand my finances for me to be able to afford a $1500 new camera let alone a $8000 camera. Right now I am entered in a contest where the prize is a new 5d MKIII Canon. I seriously doubt I will win because there is a lot of very good work being submitted but what harm is there in trying?
Someone ask me what I will do with it if I do win, I told them I will trade it for the Nikon I want. That would go a little ways to putting me into a Nikon D3 I am thinking. Or at the very minimum I could always sell it and then Buy a D2x and some lenses even though I would rather have a full frame camera.
SamSpade1941
Senior Member
On thinking further about the Nikon 1 , part of the value there was the fact so few are around now, coupled with the fact that so few were actually made. Finding a survivor is a rare event indeed. Even a parts camera is worth a few thousand.