I think it is somewhat funny that the 35mm camera I bought about 25 years ago is still worth about the same on the used market according to Henry's. I should point out that when I was in high school, I was a major photography geek, largely because I had the solitude of the darkroom and some control of a thin slice of reality (and I bought a lot of stuff via mail order from the exotic Henry's). So, buying a pro 35mm SLR and lenses was a goal. Sure I could and did turn shoe boxes into cameras, but getting photo gear from exotic Toronto (how exotic? when I went on a school trip to TO, I and some friends skipped going up the CN Tower so we could go to Henry's and hang out on Church Street — wait, that doesn't sound right, we were only kids, fercrisakes). I visited NYC and my touchstone is buying a Rolleiflex on 42nd St. at one of the stores advertised in the back of Modern Photographer or one of those ZIFF-Davis magazines.
I loved photography, though I'm not much good at it, and still have an affection for the relentlessly tiny mechanical and chemical processes which contrive to capture some of our experience.
And I still somewhat lust to get one of those 4x5 Graphix. And with flash-bulbs, you can set off tons of them with just some wire and batteries.
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