For the seller

Are old camera lenses worth anything?

A camera lens up close

Old camera lenses are often more sought after than the cameras they came on. Film photographers still shoot with them, and video makers adapt them to modern cameras for the way they draw. What decides it is the exact lens, the mount, and the state of the glass, and none of that is visible from a distance: two lenses that look identical can be entirely different things.

Almost every camera collection has a drawer of them: the standard lenses that came with the bodies, the telephoto bought for one holiday, the odd one nobody remembers buying. Here is how to tell what is in the drawer, without unscrewing anything.

What makes an old lens sought after

Speed. The maximum aperture is written on the front: f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8. The lower the number, the faster the lens, and fast lenses are the wanted ones. A 50mm f/1.4 and a 50mm f/2.8 from the same maker are different worlds.

The maker and the exact version. Lenses were revised over the years without changing their name. Collectors know the versions apart by small markings, so write down everything on the ring: name, aperture, focal length, serial number, and any letters that look like abbreviations.

The mount. The metal bayonet or thread at the back decides which cameras a lens fits, and which people are looking for it. Some mounts are easy to adapt to modern cameras, which keeps demand alive long after the original cameras are gone.

Character. Some old lenses are wanted precisely for their flaws: swirling backgrounds, soft glow, strange bokeh. What was a weakness in 1965 is a look now.

The glass decides

Hold the lens up to a bright window and look through it from the back, opening the aperture if there is a ring for it. What you are looking for:

  • Clear and bright is what everyone hopes for.
  • Dust inside is normal and mostly harmless.
  • Haze, a milky veil, and fungus, fine threads or branching spots, are common and matter a great deal.
  • Oily aperture blades, a sheen on the blades inside, and a stiff or gritty focus ring matter too.

Do not take a lens apart, do not wipe the inner elements, and leave a stuck filter stuck. More value is lost in a cleaning attempt than in twenty years of a dry cupboard.

Keep them with their cameras

A lens drawer belongs to the collection it grew with. The bodies say which system the collector chose, the lenses say what they photographed, and together they are a collection rather than parts. We buy that whole: the bodies, the lenses, the caps, hoods, filters and cases, including what would never sell on its own. Our guide to where to sell a vintage camera collection sets out the routes, and Pass it on explains how passing it on to us works.

Short answers

Are old camera lenses worth anything?

Often, yes, and often more than the camera. Speed, maker, version, mount and the state of the glass decide it.

How do I know which lens I have?

Everything is written on the ring around the front element: maker, focal length, aperture and serial number. Write it all down exactly.

Do lenses with fungus still matter?

They can, depending on the lens and how far it has spread. Say honestly what you see; it is common and no surprise to anyone.

Do you buy loose lenses?

As part of a collection, always. On their own, no: single pieces are not what we do.

Why we keep the story

A collection is not a pile of objects.

It is years of somebody deciding what was worth keeping, and sold off piece by piece that is the first thing to go. So before anything is sold, we sit down with you and record it: how it started, what the best of it was, the piece that got away. That story stays on every object with the collector's name, and goes with it to whoever keeps it next. You get a page where you can see where each piece ended up.

Three ways the story gets recorded

On camera, where it lives. We travel to the collection and film it properly: you talking about how it started, the room and the shelves as they are, the objects in your hands. Wherever in the world the collection happens to be.

On a call. If the collection is sent to us rather than collected, we have the same conversation over a video call and write it up, with one photograph of the shelf as it stood.

In writing. If you would rather not talk at all, answer a handful of questions in your own time and in your own words. It goes on the objects exactly as you wrote it.

It never changes anything else, and you can always say no to it. Some conversations run ten minutes, some an afternoon. Read the collections we have taken on

If it is a whole collection

We buy whole collections, not single pieces: one person takes all of it, and the story is kept with every object. Tell us what you have and a person replies within two days.

How passing it on works, in full

1The collection
What is in it
Pick everything that applies. Something else opens a line to tell us.
Roughly how many pieces
A guess is fine. Nobody has counted.
How would you describe it
There is no wrong answer here, and a lot of ordinary is a normal collection.
One or two sentences. This is the question we care about most.
2Where it is, and how it could reach us
Town and country is enough.
How could it reach us
Unseend is in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Sending and bringing are as welcome as a visit; if it is sent, we pay the freight and insure it.
When does it need to be gone
No hurry is a good answer. It lets us plan a visit properly.
3Condition and photographs
In your own words. Broken, incomplete or untested is fine and is normal; it only needs saying.
Photographs
Three to ten photographs The room and the shelves as they stand. Phone photographs are fine, and a slow walk round on video says more than any of them.Send them to hello@unseend.com
Or attach them to the reply that comes back within two days. Any of them works, and nothing is looked at until a person reads it. Do not clean up first — the shelves as they stand tell us more than a tidy arrangement.
4The number, and the story
A number or a range, whatever you have in mind. You will get an honest answer either way.
Would you tell the story of it
Filmed at the collection wherever it is, on a video call, or written in your own time. It never changes the price.
5How to reach you
The reply comes here, from a person, within two days.
Only if you would rather be called.

Answered within two days, by the person who would come, and by email at every step after that. Nothing you send is shared with anyone, and your photographs are deleted if we do not go ahead.

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