Hey everyone, in light of the recent re-release of MK1s, and some comments speculating on who’s who in this whole operation, I thought I’d shed some light. I've bought VXs/tapes/lenses from almost all of the reseller pages. I'm gonna avoid using any names out of respect for their privacy, but if you connect the dots, it’s not hard at all to tell who is who.
And now, a (not so) short history of the IG camera pages and the re-release of the MK1.
In the beginning there was vx1000market.
VX1000market: This was one of the original VX reselling pages on IG. The owner started to act pretty shady and disappeared. I never actually made a purchase from this account because (as someone stated) the dude was a dork. Account is deleted and pretty sure this dude is long gone, for a couple of reasons.
Had a very unique (brash) style of communicating, like you were wasting his time by trying to buy a camera from him, and haven't seen that again from any other accounts once this one disappeared.
Used to post IG stories of pros and other relevant skate industry people who would buy cameras from him, don’t really see any other current camera resellers focusing only on pros.
There was also DLFS.
Deathlens_fisheye_sales: Another OG camera marketplace on IG. Was active in 2014. I first made a purchase in 2016. Good dude, very helpful and legit. Only ever had one problem in all the cameras and gear I ordered from him. Later on, this would be one of the two parties to work with Century to get the MK1 reproduced.
Then, enter the MK1 change.org petition: This petition was created in early 2020 by A Happy Medium. You can see it right on the website itself. No secret there.
https://www.change.org/p/century-optics-save-the-century-optics-mk1-fisheye.
This petition was updated on April 20, 2022 saying that it succeeded (with only about 75% of its target signatures) and that Century would make a final run of the MK1. The post directs readers to follow @buy_mk1 and signs off with “#AHAPPYMEDIUMSKATEBOARDING.”
When this was posted, you’d probably never heard of the buy_mk1 IG account. That’s because it was only created a week earlier. In the timeline of things, it naturally seemed like it was the extension of the petition.
Buy_mk1: Makes its first IG post on April 13, 2022. I’ll let you infer for yourself if it’s associated with the change.org petition, and thus AHM.
Then we have another IG account, vx_fisheye_sales, who has kept a relatively low profile through all of this. Someone in this thread mentioned the account might be run by a scalper who beat us all to the punch to buy this release of MK1s and resell them. Let’s take a look.
VX_fisheye_sales: A relatively new camera marketplace on IG (first post in Sept 2020). I made my first purchase around then. Again, everything was as expected. Gear arrived with no problems. No complaints there. And having made purchases from both accounts, I can confirm the account is run by a different person than DLFS. In May 2022, this page makes a post promoting buy_mk1 and the reissued MK1 from century. It’s literally a screenshot of the buy_mk1 page. Seems weird to direct buyers to buy_mk1 if vx_fisheye_sales’ goal is to score all the MK1s for themselves and resell them at a premium.
Okay, one more tidbit, in case it isn’t adding up yet. You may know of the sonyvx1000 IG page. Its profile picture is nearly identical to the vx_fisheye_sales profile picture, and it only has one saved story: it’s a link to purchase A Happy Medium DVDs.
You can draw all your own conclusions. The vx_fisheye_sales page has never directly said that it’s affiliated with buy_mk1. Buy_mk1 never directly said it’s associated with AHM or the change.org petition.
I think that deathlens_fisheye_sales and buy_mk1 worked together to front the costs of getting Century to reproduce these lenses, cut a deal where they each make some profit off the top, and each is going to sell 150 lenses through their respective websites.
TL;DR:My personal conclusion is that VX_fisheye_sales = buy_mk1, which is the same person who started the change.org petition. Deathlens_fisheye_sales is another dude who got cut in on the deal to help front the production costs.
Topic: VX1000 General Discussion (gear/set-ups, filming/editing, tips/advice, etc.) (Read 93269 times)