eBay Pickup: Konica C35v

As someone who prides himself on holding out for extremely cheap pickups, checking eBay for cameras is a bit soul draining for me. If you buy film cameras from eBay, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Firstly, tons of eBay sellers list their gear as wildly overpriced. Bidding on auctions is usually where you’ll end up finding yourself a really nicely priced camera when it comes to eBay. The second concern when it comes to buying cameras from eBay (and I would imagine this issue carries over for most eBay categories) is accuracy of a seller’s description of an item. When I purchase cameras on OfferUp or LetGo, I actually get to touch and analyze them before I end up handing money over. On meetup applications like this, there is usually wiggle room with pricing if a camera doesn’t match the description given on the application. With eBay you don’t get that luxury, and sometimes you can get burned.

I’ve only been burned on eBay like once or twice, and I’m sure I’ll write about those purchases one day, but for today let’s talk about a time where an eBay seller went above and beyond to make a buyer satisfied!

It was a normal late night, I was on eBay and I had a single minded motive – buy a budget friendly compact rangefinder. I decided I needed a bag companion for my SLRs and I figured I would check eBay to see if I could come up on something nice. Just a few searches in and I was hit with a sponsored listing for a Konica C35v in great condition for only…$14.00 and free shipping.

I did exactly what any single one of you guys would have done – I clicked “Buy Now” immediately. I had a Konica C35v for what felt like zero dollars…insane.

One week later I had the camera in my hands and I was function testing it when I noticed that the ISO / ASA dial wouldn’t budge. It was stuck on 400 ISO, yikes. I found Youtube reviews of the camera, I found the original camera manual on Butkus.org (legendary archive of camera manuals for almost any film camera), and the dial was stuck. Honestly…I was so confused that I sent the seller a message and asked if they also had an issue with this – because this problem was not listed in the description.

Within the hour I got an email back from the seller. In short, the response read: “Oh shit, our inventory guy made a mistake. We’ll refund you fully and you can keep the camera! Enjoy!”. Damn, now I really did have the camera for zero dollars.

I’ve purchased about 8 more cameras from eBay that store since that interaction, purely based on how cool they were about their mistake. Stay tuned for more eBay Pickup blogs to hear about those.

Why this camera, though? I chose the Konica C35v as my first rangefinder to see if I’d enjoy shooting a rangefinder. It is an insanely basic camera – it operates with zone focusing (4 clicks), boasts a 38mm f 2.8 four element Hexanon lens, exposes with an electronic CdS light meter, and includes automatically programmed shutter speeds from 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s, 1/250s, and 1/650s (based on lighting and aperture setting). The camera can also be operated in a fully automatic mode, by clicking the aperture ring to “Auto”, pointing the camera, and shooting. It was the perfect intro to rangefinder shooting.

Konica, formerly the oldest Japanese camera manufacturer until its merge with Minolta in 2006, launched the C35 series in the early 70s. The C35v was launched in 1971 to be exact, and was meant to be a camera for the general public based on its physical size, price, and usability. Additionally, the 38mm lens was a little wide to be on a compact rangefinder – so that was another selling angle that the brand focused on at the time.

I will say, the camera is exactly as they marketed it. It is tiny, it was definitely cheap for me (50 years later), and it is incredibly easy to use. There is minimal thinking when it comes to composing shots with this nifty camera. The ability to adjust the aperture is nice and allows a little bit of creative control, but other than that – the camera decides how to make the photo. I enjoy taking this camera out for street photography walks, or even just as a documentary type of camera that gets tossed in my bag to take random photos of my days. I mean, the camera is basically smaller than an iPhone – it’s too easy to bring along anywhere.

Here are some of my first ever photographs I made with the Konica C35v, enjoy the imperfections!