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Last spring I acquired 2 DCS-200 bodies and one DCS-420 off of Ebay. The 420 gave me fits with a dead battery and a replacement that stuck when inserting it that required destroying the new battery to get it out. (Cheap replacement that was sized wrong.)

One 200 had a failing hard drive, the other an LCD with bad pixels and possibly a connection problem to the camera body. it worked one time perfectly then started randomly firing after that.

At the beginning of the summer I decided I was frustrated enough I gave them along with some other camera gear (500mm off brand lenses, a few film bodies, etc.) to a charity resale shop. I was just going to stick to the later Kodaks like the 600-700 series and true Nikons.

By chance I went there a few weeks ago, and to my surprise all three were sitting on a shelf over six months later. I thought, well, I gave them away, end of story.

But a spark started in the back of my mind; the 200's are getting scarce and some day I'd regret it, I could still mix parts and get one working. The 420 just needed a battery. Today I went back--the shelf was empty. I asked at the counter and the lady said they'd cut the prices in half to sell them and had been holding all three for someone who never came back. So I bought them. Again.

The amount I spent was so low you could say it was a donation to the charity; on the one hand I think it's crazy to have even taken them back; on the other it seemed like fate for them to have been there so long and be ready to go on the day I returned.

Hi,

Warning: If you keep this up, you will need shelving to hold all of your obsolete electronics!

Later!

Stan

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Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

That's a good story.

I think it was a win for all concerned: the charity got some cash, some browsing members of the public got to see some pieces of photographic history (whether they realised it or not!), and through that extended period of introspection, you learned something profound about yourself (didn't you?)

Ray

I have to say, it was a little of both



Kiu

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