The Minolta 5000i has an electronically controlled focal-plane shutter. If the battery dies, you're not going to be able to take any more photos. It is important to carry a spare battery with you when you go out taking photos. Buying a multi-pack online will lower the price per battery. You should be able to find one in a store or online for less than $10. The Minolta Maxxum 5000i uses a 2CR5 battery. Using the BLS inflation calculator, prices in terms of today's money would be $616.12, $739.36, and $899.58. For listings of other camera price guides, go to Google and search under “camera price guides.Prices were taken from the B&H Photo price list in the back of a September 1989 Popular Photography magazine. The camera values listed in McKeown’s are generally accurate too, but understandably not as current as what you can find on the Web. This 1,248-page volume is pricey at $125, but it has over 10,000 camera photos, lists many cameras that are hard to find on the Internet, and is an indispensable resource for collectors. The good news: eBay easy to join and it doesn’t cost anything.įinally, anyone interested in identifying old cameras and determining their value should consider getting a copy of the latest (12th) edition of McKeown’s Price Gude to Antique and Classic Cameras, published by Centennial Photo, 11595 State Road 70, Grantsburg, WI, 54940, Tel# 71. You can also go to “Completed Listings” to view, by camera name, actual selling prices for auctions that have ended, but you have to be an eBay member. In the case of the Exakta VX IIa, the “Buy Now” prices we saw were $199 for a VX IIa with 50mm f/1.9 Westrocolor lens in “great shape” and a thee-lens two-viewfinder VX IIa outfit at $200. A much more accurate price indicator is the “Buy Now” price-the price the buyer is willing to accept to stop the auction before any bids are made. However, current auction prices can be tantalizingly misleading-such as an Exakta VX IIa for $54 with one day to go on the auction, another for $39.99 with two days to go, and one at an incredible $7.16 with three days to go! As eBayers know well, the real winning bid price may not become evident until the last few minutes-or seconds-of the auction. If you go to the Cameras and Photo section, and type in Exakta, you can view current auctions for all Exakta items. For example, one commercial site on the Google search,, lists an Exakta VX IIa with 50mm f/1.9 Westrocolor lens at $270, and another,, lists a VX IIa body in “excellent condition” at $219.Īnother great source of prices for old cameras is the eBay auction site. Unfortunately, few historical sites list camera values, and you have to be wary of prices listed on commercial sites, because the prices asked for classic cameras may be too high, and the prices offered for classic cameras may be wholesale prices and therefore lower than what a collector might be willing to pay.
Larger pictures and more tech data can be found by clicking on a second link here. Specifically, you’ll find that there were four slightly different models of the Exakta VX IIIa produced from 1956 to 1963, and a total of 181,900 were made during that period.
HOW MUCH IS A MINOLTA CAMERA WORTH SERIAL NUMBER
You can then click here to view small pictures of classic Exakta models, many of which were made in USSR-occupied East Germany, as well as serial number lists, feature descriptions, and even production numbers. Searching under Exakta VX IIIa brings up classic Exakta cameras.
Let’s say you have an Exakta VX Iia that is stamped “USSR Occupied” on the bottom. This will usually bring up a number of historical sites giving good information on identifying your camera, as well as commercial sites that may give you a fair idea of its market value. However, in most cases, you can go to any good search engine such as Google and simply type in the name and model of your old camera.
There is no single site you can go to that will give accurate historical data and current values for old cameras.