| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Vlad |
Posted - Jun 06 2010 : 9:25:06 PM
Hello all!
Who made it to Bievres this year? Any good bargain/cameras found? Please report!  .
Cheers,
Vlad. |
| 14 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Charly Leicashop |
Posted - Aug 31 2010 : 06:09:31 AM
It was a Nikon F :-) |
| Vlad |
Posted - Jul 02 2010 : 09:45:16 AM
Karl, thank you for the post!! Please tell us who and what is in the picture besides the Agat-18  .
ALAIN! Great to hear from you!! It is good news, please recover fully soon, we miss you here at the forums! Feel better, mon ami!
Best regards,
Vlad |
| mermoz37 |
Posted - Jul 02 2010 : 09:11:53 AM
WoWWW....
what's these cameras ? "Beacon" ? USSR cameras ?
Hello to all friends...To day , In spite of high temperatures weather , here, I feel a little bit better from my Chimiothérapy bed...
shake hands all...
Alain |
| Charly Leicashop |
Posted - Jul 01 2010 : 11:50:27 PM
picture by Satomi Fujisawa |
| Charly Leicashop |
Posted - Jul 01 2010 : 11:27:16 PM
http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/172010_DSC_1502.JPG
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| Vlad |
Posted - Jun 13 2010 : 10:37:26 PM
David, Fred, so Soviet cameras as I see were somewhat in abundance but the prices were let's say "formidable" . Still glad you guys each found at least something. Thanks for the feedback!
Cheers,
Vlad |
| Vlad |
Posted - Jun 13 2010 : 10:33:42 PM
Hi Jean, thanks very much for posting the picture from Bievres, it's always a pleasure to see those!
I am reposting here a tremendously enjoyable report from Bievres that was posted on IDCC by Peter Loy. It was an excellent read, so I hope you will enjoy it as well.
-----------------------
Having only just recovered from the London Photographica show and the WestLicht auction in Vienna, my father and I headed for Dover and the ferry crossing to France for our annual visit to Bievres.
As usual we arrived in Bievres on the Friday for a late lunch. Unlike many years ago when it was possible to find people selling on the Friday or even Thursday, there was no sign of any cameras though we did bump into two dealers from Germany, Joachim Baldauf & Boris Jamchtchik. At the hotel (the infamous Novotel Saclay – see review of this hotel below, by the late Burt
Rubin) we found Ruud Hoff and Dian relaxing in the garden with Jeff Schwartz and his wife Judy, collectors from Florida on their first visit to Bievres.
Later we caught up with Steve & Gerrie Shohet and Dieter Scheiba and headed back to Bievres for dinner. It transpired part-way through the not-very-good meal that the previously excellent restaurant we were in was only staying open for the camera show and would be closing for good on the Monday. Still, the company was good, even if the meal wasn’t. Back at the hotel, three other UK camera dealers had arrived late and were hoping, in vain, to get something decent to eat. Obviously they had forgotten that they’d booked the Novotel Saclay. We generously agreed to help them attempt to empty the contents of the hotel bar.
At 8.00am the next morning we headed to Bievres for the fair. Although there are no cameras to be had before about 10.00am at the earliest, you have to get there early if you want a parking space that doesn’t require you to also take your hiking boots, a map and a packed lunch. Besides, it’s very pleasant to sit outside a café for a couple of hours as every few minutes a familiar face stops for a ‘Bonjour’ or a chat.
Officially, stall holders are not supposed to trade until midday. At 10.00am our ‘scout’, a dealer from Austria, returned to the café to tell us that there was nothing happening but I didn’t entirely trust him so we headed off anyway to begin the camera search. My suspicions were justified as we immediately saw someone unloading 2 or 3 aluminium cases onto their table. I had just picked up an Olympus Pen FT and was about to discuss the price when one of the organisers arrived at the table, shut the cases and told the stall holder that he wasn’t allowed to trade until 12.00. I decided it was better to go in the opposite direction to her as it became obvious that as soon as she had left their tables, the stall holders would begin unpacking again. It’s almost impossible for the organisers to police this as they can only see a couple of stalls at any one time. The fair is on several levels with trees between most levels and a high wall separating those on the lower road from the rest of the stalls.
Keeping a watchful eye out for one of the organisers, I headed for a table where a French dealer was selling a quantity of large brass lenses.
Unfortunately a collector/user from the USA was already negotiating the purchase of a Jamin-Darlot ‘Cone’ lens and a dealer from Hong Kong was clinging onto two other lenses. The stall holder insisted that the marked prices were fixed despite the protestations of the potential purchases. I picked up a Ross ‘Portrait’ lens marked at 250 Euros and feeling a little mischievous, I asked if he would take 500 Euros for it. ‘No, that is the best price’, he replied. It was obvious that he wasn’t prepared to negotiate at this early stage so I handed him 250 Euros, showed him his price tag and put the lens in my bag. He scratched his head a bit before pocketing the cash while the other potential customers looked on, bemused.
A few minutes later I was asked if I’d bought anything yet. I pointed out that nobody was allowed to buy or sell before midday but that I had ‘borrowed this lens’ from a stall holder in exchange for ‘lending’ him some money.
The rest of that day was spent trying to find something reasonably priced (and occasionally being successful) amongst the massive selection of highly desirable but ‘optimistically’ priced equipment on display. There is so much to choose from at this fair that even though prices are generally very high – higher than at Photographica in London – it’s still possible to find a bargain. There is almost every camera and lens you can think of on sale here, masses of wood & brass, from simple English and Continental cameras through beautiful tropical cameras to exotica like a Sigriste (that Steve Shohet had his eye on) or a Dubroni. I also spotted a Summa Report, a Rectaflex Rotor, Bell & Howell Foton, dozens of Alpas including a rare 11si Pin (which I should’ve bought Paul!), more Leicas than you’re ever likely to see outside Ginza, Nikon rangefinders (black SP with motor-drive anyone?), several Linhof outfits etc. etc. There is usually a good selection of pre-photography and optical items, stereo viewers etc. including this time a megalethoscope which sold very quickly. And then there are the images, thousands of them from Daguerreotypes to contemporary, digital produced pictures. As last year there was also a working wet-collodion studio. When I stopped by they were busy photographing a passing wedding party and later they were pulling out of the crowd anybody with an ‘interesting face’ who was prepared to sit for a few minutes with their heads in a ‘brace’.
At 7.00pm we decided to call it a day and headed back to the car. We gave Shalley Cheuk, a Hong Kong dealer, a lift back to the hotel. She had flown from Hong Kong earlier that day, was staying for one night and then catching a12-hour flight back to Hong Kong the next day. It gave me jet-lag just thinking about it. Later we joined 11 others for a super meal at the restaurant in the nearby village of Villiers Le Bacle, where, as usual, everybody made exaggerated claims about the bargains they had found at the fair.
At 4.45am, after less than 4 hours sleep, Dieter, my father and I left the hotel again for the short drive to Bievres. Parking on the Sunday is even more difficult than on the Saturday so it’s essential to get there early if you want to leave your car within an easy walking distance of the fair.
There was already a crowd having breakfast outside our usual café, which never seems to close. After a leisurely breakfast we began looking at the tables again. There didn’t appear to be any new vendors at this early hour but I bought a few things I hadn’t noticed the day before. Fortunately Sunday was a lot cooler than Saturday and I was more able to concentrate on buying.
At about 10.00am the sky went very dark, the heavens opened and the stall-holders scrambled to find plastic sheeting to cover their stock. It reminded me of one of the reasons why I never have tables at Bievres.
Fortunately we found shelter under a gazebo where two other UK camera dealers, Simon Chesterman & Paul Cordes, had been about so set up their table. We were stuck there while the rain came down in torrents for the best part of an hour. At one point we were joined by two Mexicans (we never established if they actually were Mexican but they were wearing blanket capes, Sombreros and Mexican boots and appeared to speak no English or French – maybe they were on their way to a fancy dress party). This is where things started to get really silly. Discussing how we could make the serious business of buying & selling at the fair more entertaining, someone came up with the idea of a ‘Bargain Hunt’ (UK TV Programme) style competition so when the rain cleared I went off to find the ‘bonus buy’. I got lucky and after a few minutes of negotiation at a French dealer’s table, came back with this:
http://tinyurl.com/32yqjqn
When I claimed I’d only paid 200 Euros for it, the others decided I was cheating so they quickly came up with another suggestion. And so began the ‘Worst Camera in Bievres’ competition. The rules were simple: the camera had to be complete, in full working order and cost 10.00 Euros (approx. 12 USD), no more, no less. Before I could protest that I was in Bievres on a serious camera buying mission, one of the others had gone off to find his entry for the competition and so I felt compelled to join in.
Usually, I try not to buy ‘junk’ cameras so I did find the task a little daunting. However, pretty soon I found the perfect stall, crammed full of cheap box cameras, folders & modern SLRs. It was opposite the tables of the French dealer Frederic Hoch; most of his cameras were worth at least 10 times more than the entire value of the stall I was looking at.
And then I saw it and I had to buy it. I imagined that it would be about 3 Euros and I would have to pretend that I’d paid 10 Euros for it. When I asked the price the vendor told me it was 25 Euros, staggeringly expensive.
I talked him down to 15 Euros but he refused to go any lower. I have to admit that at this point, I did get some help from Jeff & Judy Schwartz who attempted to tell the stall holder the rules of the competition.
Fortunately, he didn’t understand a word of English because when you tell a vendor that all their cameras are perfect for the ‘Worst Camera in Bievres’
competition, they don’t usually appreciate it. However they did manage to convince him that it was 10.00 Euros or nothing and so the camera was mine.
I didn’t know whether to be pleased or disappointed.
Back at the base-camp gazebo where the Mexicans had been replaced by two Russians (they didn’t need to be drinking Vodka to convince us of their nationality – they were speaking Russian), the three contenders revealed their ‘10 Euro’ purchases.
We were about to argue about who had won when Sergio Mur, a dealer from Madrid passed by so we asked him to judge the competition. His English is excellent but we weren’t convinced that he understood the concept of the ‘worst camera’ and suspected that he voted for the best one. We decided we needed another judge and in the end got two more; Jo Geier from the Leica Shop, Vienna and Peter Lownds, the Rotterdam-based Nikon collector/dealer.
Interestingly, the three judges picked 3 different cameras as the winner so none of the competitors had to face the humiliation of being the loser. Jo Geier and his colleague Charlie, also from the Leica Shop, were particularly enthusiastic about the competition so I suggested that they have a go themselves. However as they are an upmarket establishment, I suggested that their competition should be to find the worst camera for 500 Euros (approximately 600 USD). At this point, for some reason, they seemed to lose interest in the whole concept.
You can decide for yourself which is the worst camera. Here’s what the 3 of us bought:
http://tinyurl.com/342ryeh
http://tinyurl.com/2ubb2rh
http://tinyurl.com/3xvw8ga
The fair was still busy when we left at 2.00pm to head back to Calais and the ferry to England, reflecting on another successful and highly enjoyable ‘Bievres’.
If you are thinking of going next year, note that the London Photographica fair is two weeks before Bievres so it’s possible to attend both and combine it with a vacation in Europe.
Peter Loy
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| jed |
Posted - Jun 12 2010 : 06:16:30 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Vlad
Jean, glad you found something, was the show as big as last year? Seen any rare Soviet pieces at all? I was mentally there all weekend..
Cheers,
Vlad
Hello Vlad,
The fair was as big as the last year. I saw some 'rare' camera like Drug, Leningrad, a 1949 Kiev II with collapside ZK f2... Also some sellers from Russia or Ukrainia.
All the best,
Jean
http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/1262010_bičvres.jpg
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| Fred_L |
Posted - Jun 08 2010 : 4:05:33 PM
Hi
I went to Bievres as I am living close to this town... not more than 10 kms.!!!!
I bought a fake Sagem coming from fed (80 euros) but wwith wood finish!!!
I have seen early fed with 4 digits in good shape and nice Sport (serial 14000++), but for 600 euros (the Sport!!) so I did not buy it.
I will put my collection on line here in a few weeks..
Hope Alain Berry will feel better quickly!!
Fred |
| RCCCUK |
Posted - Jun 08 2010 : 02:47:05 AM
I went to Bievres this year, but was disappointed at the lack of interesting Soviet-made cameras. I bought an early black Zenit-E in very good condition, but found nothing else of interest. Sorry that you didn't make it to Bievres, Alain. I wish you well, and hope we might meet up next year. I met JLP and a few British PCCGB members. Already looking forward to next year.
David
(http://www.rcccuk.com) |
| mermoz37 |
Posted - Jun 07 2010 : 11:47:16 AM
thanks Vlad... |
| Vlad |
Posted - Jun 07 2010 : 10:52:18 AM
Hello Alain, sorry to hear you could not make it! Bievres without Alain Berry is not Bievres at all..  .. feel better my friend!!! I should be coming to see you at Bievres next year!
Jean, glad you found something, was the show as big as last year? Seen any rare Soviet pieces at all? I was mentally there all weekend..
Cheers,
Vlad |
| mermoz37 |
Posted - Jun 07 2010 : 07:27:41 AM
Sorry ...I cannot went , alas not in good condition concerning health.
Alain |
| jed |
Posted - Jun 07 2010 : 01:17:20 AM
Hello Vlad, I came to the fair :) I bought a Zorki S, a zorki 1 case, a fake Leica cap and some b/w film (Rollei retro 100, Polypan F). I was looking for a Kiev 5, but I only found one in average working condition. I saw some early Fed 1. Best, Jean |
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