Real talk: likelihood of getting my camera back

ThomSirveaux

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Looks like I either lost my camera, or someone took it as a target of opportunity and swiped it out of my car when I wasn't looking...

As such, anyone know where I should start looking to see if I can find it, or should I just cut my losses and start looking for new gear?
 

Vavrik

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As such, anyone know where I should start looking to see if I can find it, or should I just cut my losses and start looking for new gear?
No idea where you should start looking for it, but I do know this: if I was in the market to buy a consumer product like a camera that is likely to be impacted by a trade war, I would want to buy in the next 30 days, or wait till the dust settles.
 
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ThomSirveaux

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Answering questions:

What kind of camera? Pentax K-50 DSLR

Where did I leave it? In my car. apparently, I also left the car unlocked, overnight.

How did I find out it was gone? I tried looking for it on Sunday Morning, since, you know, Easter and family pictures would be nice.

How much was it all worth? Well, including the tablet that was in the backpack, just over $1k or an Idris, in RSI numbers.

What am I doing to get it back? Checking craigslist and pawn shops.
 

Wolfy

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Make sure to contact your local police station and file a report. Take the receipt and records to identify the camera and prove you own it.
 
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Sirus7264

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Make sure to contact your local police station and file a report. Take the receipt and records to identify the camera and prove you own it.
The camera looks like a 2013 model so i'm guessing it may be a bit older and past warrenty most people don't keep the receipt at that point so pretty sure he wont have it. I think your chances of finding it are very slim i had my car robbed once while i was up in saratoga springs for training years back. The neighborhood was very quiet and safe so normally i didn't leave my car door locked so i'm an idiot i left a ton of stuff in there including a PSP, 2 Nintendo DS and a ton of portable games. All stolen of course except 1 DS which was odd haha maybe his hands were full? I just went out and bought a new one.
I think the big question was what was ON the camera? personal information, pictures of family, dirty stuff?(I almost lost a camera with dirty pics of my wife haha luckily i found it.) The other question is How attached to this camera are you?

If you like i can stop by the NEX during my lunch and see what types of stuff they have floating around there are some really good cameras in there id be willing to help you out a bit i know how much it sucks to get stuff stolen.
 

ThomSirveaux

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The camera looks like a 2013 model so i'm guessing it may be a bit older and past warrenty most people don't keep the receipt at that point so pretty sure he wont have it. I think your chances of finding it are very slim i had my car robbed once while i was up in saratoga springs for training years back. The neighborhood was very quiet and safe so normally i didn't leave my car door locked so i'm an idiot i left a ton of stuff in there including a PSP, 2 Nintendo DS and a ton of portable games. All stolen of course except 1 DS which was odd haha maybe his hands were full? I just went out and bought a new one.
I think the big question was what was ON the camera? personal information, pictures of family, dirty stuff?(I almost lost a camera with dirty pics of my wife haha luckily i found it.) The other question is How attached to this camera are you?

If you like i can stop by the NEX during my lunch and see what types of stuff they have floating around there are some really good cameras in there id be willing to help you out a bit i know how much it sucks to get stuff stolen.
That would be awesome, but since I still have my kit lenses, I think I'd like to stick with Pentax.

If you tell me that you have an amazing deal on something, though, I might jump on that, instead.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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Pentax is nice - I have a K7 and K3 mk1, I defected from Nikon when the D300 replacement failed to materialise and the K3 came out, got the K7 for under £100 for something to use in the rain and not worry about it imploding. I'd started out with a P30 when I took up photography back in the day, so it was like coming home.

Anyway, searching for a way to find your serial number from a jpeg, I found this below site:

http://www.stolencamerafinder.com/

Put an unedited jpeg from your K50 in and it'll search the web for images with your cameras serial number. Might find your own pics, might uploads from whoever has your camera now. Looks like it'll provide your cameras serial number at the very least, K50 is supported. Good luck.

EDIT - I tested the above site, but it didn't work for me BUT told me to use the below which worked:

http://exif.regex.info/exif.cgi

There is "Internal Serial Number" and "Serial Number", the second one "Serial Number" is the one printed to the bottom of your camera, ctrl+F to find it there is SOOOO much exif data that comes out it's awesome. Take that number to all of the local pawn-shops / local second hand electronics places they have to keep a log of s/n and should not accept any items that have had them scratched off etc.
 
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Lorddarthvik

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Sad to hear about this happening to you =(

As for the first point, I would add looking for it in Facebook trading groups, or at least posting the serial number there so if the thief is dumb enough to try and sell it there, maybe someone will recognize it.

As for what to get, I have no idea lol. I really like my Nikon D5100 which I use mostly with old eastern European made lenses with the help of an adapter. I'm a cheapskate when it comes to photography as I rarely take pictures (and I had a great phone camera up until recently). Prime lenses from that era go for like 10-50 bucks and are quiet good for the money. Then again, I've never owned anything else so...

Anyways, good luck to you, I hope you either find your stuff or find a good deal!

I have a rule to never leave anything looking like it could have any value in my car, even if it's parked inside a yard, because I hear too many stories like this from ppl living in way more "nice n safe" places like I do. I know it's kinda paranoid, but I don't want to deal with the hassle and cost of broken-in car windows cos someone left an empty bag or a crumpled t-shirt on the back seat. Someone could think that something of value is hidden under those objects, and would most certainly break in. Heard it happen way too many times.
Not like it matter that much, around here, "people" smash in car windows just for the heck of it sometimes, or out of jealousy or pure malice, and it's supposed to be a "great" part of town lol.

Just this very night when my friend got home to his nice and quiet little shack outside the "unsafe" city in the hills, he found his car in his locked up yard had it's interior light on. Someone got inside to take a look, and probably left in a hurry after he got into the drivers seat and couldn't find the steering wheel at first glance. It's an old right hand drive Subaru lol (we live in a left h d country) Nothing was stolen, so it's kinda strange, but also nothing of real worth was inside apart from a cheap radio.

One time someone tried to steal my car, he rolled down to the end of the street and as he couldn't get it started (secret starting procedure ftw), left it there, and took the only "valuable" thing in the glove compartment.
My fake Opel branded case of burned MP3 CD-s!
It was worth like 5 bucks all included, and I haven't used em in years, but he had to take something, after all, he wasn't called a thief for nothing. The morning we found the car not where we left it and broken into, we called the police, and they didn't even bother to show up. We waited all day for em, and was told that they would take fingerprints and starting an investigation and blah blah, but ofc non of that happened. We had to go in to the station and report that this happened, and that was the end of the whole "investigation". Anyways, I rented a garage for a year afterwards, and after that got sold to someone else, I choose the tactic of not repairing a slightly damaged panel so the car looks like it's been really neglected and thus not worth the effort to steal for scraps. To be honest, the repair and respray of that panel would cost well over 10% of the cars total worth... I hope that this "tactic" holds for a while yet, until we can buy a "new" car, but that seems to take longer than I expected.

This makes me wonder, how cool would it be to have a secret starting procedure in SC for our ships.
 

ThomSirveaux

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Pentax is nice - I have a K7 and K3 mk1, I defected from Nikon when the D300 replacement failed to materialise and the K3 came out, got the K7 for under £100 for something to use in the rain and not worry about it imploding. I'd started out with a P30 when I took up photography back in the day, so it was like coming home.

Anyway, searching for a way to find your serial number from a jpeg, I found this below site:

http://www.stolencamerafinder.com/

Put an unedited jpeg from your K50 in and it'll search the web for images with your cameras serial number. Might find your own pics, might uploads from whoever has your camera now. Looks like it'll provide your cameras serial number at the very least, K50 is supported. Good luck.

EDIT - I tested the above site, but it didn't work for me BUT told me to use the below which worked:

http://exif.regex.info/exif.cgi

There is "Internal Serial Number" and "Serial Number", the second one "Serial Number" is the one printed to the bottom of your camera, ctrl+F to find it there is SOOOO much exif data that comes out it's awesome. Take that number to all of the local pawn-shops / local second hand electronics places they have to keep a log of s/n and should not accept any items that have had them scratched off etc.
Found the serial with the exif.regex.info link, thanks!
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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Found the serial with the exif.regex.info link, thanks!
My pleasure, cameras were kinda my thing for decades so its nice to be able to share the knowledge every so often :slight_smile:

Remember there is the internal serial number too? Even if a thief scratches the serial off the bottom of the camera (dead giveaway it's been ripped off), the internal will remain the same and if they replace the external serial with another sticker, the cameras exif info will carry the original and the internal serial which can't be changed.

Best of luck getting it back, a K50 isn't going to net anyone enough dolla be worth the hassle of replacing the serials so get that number to all the local second hand electronics places - also google for any online register of stolen electronics/cameras, shops may use or check them regularly so could end up finding it that way if they take it further afield to offload.

Last point - the original stolen camera website I linked to... if it could not find pictures using a jpeg, it can still do a search if you type in your serial manually. You never know, give it a try every couple of days/weeks :slight_smile:
 
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Sirus7264

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Nope! However, I was able to pick up a new body (upgrade from my last one) for "cheap"... but I had to sell one of my rifles to do so.
Ouch how much was "Cheap" and where did you get it from? is it operational and actually better than the old one?
 
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