Most film camera collectors may dream of hitting a yard sale or thrift store and finding a Leica priced for a nominal $5 or so. I'm not even a Leica-phile, but would gladly welcome such luck in my sojourns through the various places in my area where I might spot film cameras for sale.
Still, I certainly can't complain. I've been fortunate to encounter a few very reasonably priced acquisitions at some of my favorite local haunts. These include the Tower 60, the Ricoh Five·One·Nine, the Olympus OM-2, and the Yashica T2. Still, while all of these were great pick ups, I think one camera stands out as the most stellar deal that I've ever stumbled across...
Handsomely clad in all-black, the Canon FTb is a well built and handsome model for its time.
On the way home one evening, I capriciously elected to stop in a Goodwill near me at which I had never previously seen anything film related, save a fixed focus point and shoot... once. My cynicism was obviously high, expecting it to be wasted time and effort, but as the entire effort would take no more than five minutes, it wouldn't be a huge loss.
To my sheer surprise, a pair of SLR cameras (one manual and one auto focus) were haphazardly tossed onto the shelf in the electronics section, both priced at $4.99, having just been placed there judging by the price stickers having been printed and dated on the same day. I wasted little time in quickly snapping them up and getting in line to pay.
