[IgorZ]

Hi,

I came across a listing for a K2 dmd. The camera is in "mint" condition, according to the seller, but is listed 'for parts'. According to the seller, the meter stopped working, but the shutter fires at all speeds. That didn't make sense to me... I thought that K2 dmd had an electronic shutter, so any electronics failure would mean that the shutter would fire only at some speeds. Is it possible for the meter to fail, but the camera to still work? Or could the seller simply forgotten to replace the battery?

thank you

[ismaelg]

Hard to say but it is probably firing at "mechanical" speed regardless of shutter speed selected. That can go from a simple dead battery to a terminal failure.

Thanks,

[Lord Lucan]

The camera is in "mint" condition, according to the seller, but is listed 'for parts'.

They must be mint parts then
The shutter is electronic, but according to Carl Shipman's book there are mechanical back-up speeds of 1/1000, 1/125 (sync) and B. I can understand the last two, but I wonder if that is true about the 1/1000. I used to have a K2 but can't say I ever tried it out without batteries.

[DonV]

A meter could fail without affecting anything else in the camera.
I'd just ask the question of the seller, he should be able to tell if he is seeing "all" shutter speeds or just 2.

[andrewd]

I think ebay should ban the word ‘mint’. Many sellers seem to have absolutely no idea what the word means. I recently saw a Contax that looked like it had been in a war zone. Large dents on several panels, paint loss on most edges etc. I would rate the condition as ‘heavily abused’, but the seller described it as “ Total Condition Mint Pre-owned, Like new Near Mint ”.

[Jonathan Mac]

The meter could fail but the shutter could work fine on all the manual speeds but the "Automatic" setting wouldn't work because it requires the meter to be working. A more general electronic failure could stop both meter and shutter from working. Without a battery the shutter fires at around 1/125s regardless of what the dial is set to, so the easiest way to tell if the shutter is still working more-or-less accurately is to fire it at the slower speeds and listen.

[Lord Lucan]

Many sellers seem to have absolutely no idea what the word [mint] means.

I think they know perfectly well what it means. They just want the word to catch the eye of potential buyers to make them pause and look as they browse through the Ebay pages.

My understanding is that "mint" is like it came from the factory. It comes of course from the world of coin collection, the coin being as minted. Strictly speaking, for cameras and stuff, it should even include the box and packaging; that was how it tended to be when used gear was sold from a shop - the item itself was shown in the window, but when you bought it the shopkeeper would re-unite it with its box from the back of the shop.

I have seen things advertised as mint that were indeed totally unmarked and maybe hardly used, even boxed, but the sellers had modified them in some way that was an improvement, at least in their eyes, like adding a carry handle to a tripod. But modified cannot be not mint.

[TwoUptons]

I think ebay should ban the word ‘mint’. Many sellers seem to have absolutely no idea what the word means. I recently saw a Contax that looked like it had been in a war zone. Large dents on several panels, paint loss on most edges etc. I would rate the condition as ‘heavily abused’, but the seller described it as “ Total Condition Mint Pre-owned, Like new Near Mint ”.

I think mint is perfectly acceptable when selling flavored candies and gum...
But its meaning in camera sales has drifted very far away from its coin-inspired origins.

A worse word is "minty". That has no connection to any numismatic enterprise...
I won't buy anything called "minty" unless it is meant to smell or taste like mint... so toothpaste, yes, cameras, no...

Though now that I've said that, Yashica or Konica probably made a mint-scented camera in the 90s just because...

-Eric

[Jonathan Mac]

I think mint is perfectly acceptable when selling flavored candies and gum...
But its meaning in camera sales has drifted very far away from its coin-inspired origins.

A worse word is "minty". That has no connection to any numismatic enterprise...
I won't buy anything called "minty" unless it is meant to smell or taste like mint... so toothpaste, yes, cameras, no...

Though now that I've said that, Yashica or Konica probably made a mint-scented camera in the 90s just because...

-Eric

Yep, "minty" may mean, at best, EXC+ because "mint" is an absolute. Nothing can be "sort of" mint. Even "nearly" mint means it's not mint, it's EXC+.