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2,000 vintage cameras and lenses discovered in old storage unit

Mar 10, 2023 by Alex Baker 2 Comments

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A boss asked his employee if she would clean out an old storage compartment for him after a tenant had moved out. He said that she might find a few old cameras and could keep anything she did find. But when she walked into the abandoned storage compartment, she wasn’t fully prepared for the scene in front of her.

Kristen and her partner agreed to help her boss out, and as old film camera enthusiasts, they were excited to think they might find a few old cameras. In reality, over 2,000 and lenses were waiting for them, many of them pretty valuable.

2000 vintage cameras and lenses discovered in old storage unit

“My boss told us that there were some old cameras in there and that we could keep whatever we wanted as payment for cleaning everything out as long as we made enough to pay for the labor,” she told Kosmo Foto. “We figured there would be maybe 20-30 cameras in there until we opened the first box, and it was filled with Miranda T’s and Orion Miranda T’s. That’s when we were like, ‘OK, there’s probably 100-200 cameras in here…’”

A museum

Kristen has essentially inherited a lifetime’s collection of film camera history in one go. She and her partner are still bringing home camera boxes, unpacking them, and starting to catalog everything. “At first, it was great, we’d bring home a few boxes, and it was like Christmas every time,” she says.

2000 vintage cameras and lenses discovered in old storage unit

Can you ever have too many cameras?

The couple lives in a tiny apartment in Massachusetts, and things are getting out of hand. “We have way too much camera equipment and not nearly enough space,” Kristen tells DIYP. This a problem I, and probably many of our readers, can empathize with!

2000 vintage cameras and lenses discovered in old storage unit

Some of the more interesting finds include a Minolta MD 135mm 1:2 lens, a Minolta CLE in a bag with two M-Rokkor lenses and a Leica lens, five Minolta SR-2’s, three Orion Miranda T’s (all mostly mint, one with a beautiful Zunow lens) 10 Miranda Ts, one of them with an Ofunar lens and another with a Zunow, Minolta XK, and a Soligor Miranda 85mm 1.8 lens.

2000 vintage cameras and lenses discovered in old storage unit

Kristen says that she plans to keep some of the cameras for her own use as she studied film photography earlier in her life. However, due to needing to keep a handle on the space issue, she has set up an eBay shop to sell the other cameras. If you’re a film camera enthusiast, it certainly could be worth a look.

[Images: All courtesy of Kristen*]

*Name withheld for privacy reasons

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Filed Under: news Tagged With: film camera, Leica, Minolta, vintage camera

About Alex Baker

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

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Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

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