Hey, I'm a professional cinematographer by trade, however I shoot stills for my own personal work. I have recently purchased a Contax 645 kit which has come with a P40+ back (mint condition) I am interested in selling it cheaply ($1500+ below market value), but was wondering if there was any interest out there for such an item or whether I am better to have it converted for a Mamiya?
Please excuse my ignorance with these things, I'm typically used to larger, heavier, noisier cameras.
Cheers
www.liamgilmour.com
Changing the mount is not generally possible on a discontinued product, although it depends whether any trade in models happen to arrive to Copenhagen. But the cost is certainly not worth it ($3,000).
You're likely to find many more potential buyers with a Mamiya mount, but the smaller number of Contax owners might be more urgent in their desire to convert their camera system to digital. There's no way of knowing. With the size of this market place at the P40+ price level, I don't think it matters too much either way and wouldn't sweat that it is a Contax mount. It's all about the luck of timing, and how you price it. If the right person happens to be looking that week, and you've priced it right, you might be successful.
Good luck to you.
Nice work, btw.
Steve Hendrix/CI