Stolen equipment – Ebony 45S Ti

H

Habitant

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Aug 18, 2025
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Hi all,

My Ebony 45S Ti, the love of my photographic life and much-cherished for +25 years was stolen on the street in London on August 12th. It's in a Gitzo backpack with a few dark slides, a 75mm Rodenstock F4.5 and a 150mm f5.6, a Minolta IV meter (and other bits and pieces) along with it. The camera's such a specialist thing that I can't believe the thieves will have much idea what to do with it, let alone unfold it.
There are simply no words to describe the profoundity of the loss for me. It was a huge part of me, the most perfect thing I've ever owned.

If you come across someone selling something like this, please let me know. It's a relatively rare model in the Ebonys out there – I am watching eBay and Gumtree and hunting around town. But who can imagine what they might have done with it. If it were a digital camera, they would have made some proper money off it. In fact, I reckon they would have made more money off the carbon fibre tripod they didn't get.

Thanks for any help in advance.
 
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That’s dreadful. So sorry to hear about this sincerely hope you get it back.
 
Fingers crossed it will turn up , and hopefully quickly . The ability to spread the word and be able to contact the specialist retailers as well as what comes up for sale these days has to help. Using social media may help if you can work it out, or get help to search it. Good luck.
 
I'm really sorry to hear this. I wonder if it's worth contacting some of the London dealers where the thieves might try to offload your gear. Is there a London Craigslist?
 
Check your local ""pawn brokers, cash for goods shops".
 
Hi all, many thanks for your support in this. It's such specialist equipement that I think there is perhaps one or two dealers in London who might be able to sell it. I will keep looking. I really doubt that Cash Converters or similar could sell something like this – as I said, simply opening it, unfolding it, isn't straightforward for the uninitiated. I can only sigh and keep looking. And the robbery occured in central London, on a main street; I reckon the most likely offloading opportunity would be a car boot sale – but which? There are hundreds, all over the place…
 
You would think there would be cctv footage, but then again I doubt if the police would be interested in doing and detective work.
 
Camerashy said:
You would think there would be cctv footage, but then again I doubt if the police would be interested in doing and detective work.
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There is CCTV footage, but the Met don't do detective work, it seems. So if they catch the two guys, then they may be able to go forward with charges. But they have to happen upon them first. And so on.
We should be able to do to them what they used to do to horse thieves in the pioneer days.
 

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Habitant said:
There is CCTV footage, but the Met don't do detective work, it seems. So if they catch the two guys, then they may be able to go forward with charges. But they have to happen upon them first. And so on.
We should be able to do to them what they used to do to horse thieves in the pioneer days.
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Too good for em' !
 
Habitant said:
There is CCTV footage, but the Met don't do detective work, it seems. So if they catch the two guys, then they may be able to go forward with charges. But they have to happen upon them first. And so on.
We should be able to do to them what they used to do to horse thieves in the pioneer days.
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And yet we still have to pay council tax to fund the police ...
 
Habitant said:
Hi all,

My Ebony 45S Ti, the love of my photographic life and much-cherished for +25 years was stolen on the street in London on August 12th. It's in a Gitzo backpack with a few dark slides, a 75mm Rodenstock F4.5 and a 150mm f5.6, a Minolta IV meter (and other bits and pieces) along with it. The camera's such a specialist thing that I can't believe the thieves will have much idea what to do with it, let alone unfold it.
There are simply no words to describe the profoundity of the loss for me. It was a huge part of me, the most perfect thing I've ever owned.

If you come across someone selling something like this, please let me know. It's a relatively rare model in the Ebonys out there – I am watching eBay and Gumtree and hunting around town. But who can imagine what they might have done with it. If it were a digital camera, they would have made some proper money off it. In fact, I reckon they would have made more money off the carbon fibre tripod they didn't get.

Thanks for any help in advance.
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Hey bud,

I’m shocked and saddened this happened. What happened? This summer I have been out a good amount with my large format or my mamiya RZ67 riding my Brompton. I live in London myself. Had people more intrigued rather than shifty energy.

I’ll keep a look out
 
Yes, typically more people are friendly, puzzled and interested in what I am up to. Amazed that people still shoot film and use an "antique" (sic) camera. "My grandfather used to have one like that he was a bit of a camera nut quite a keen amateur not a professional…" Etc, etc.

So the basic story is that I was sitting on a bench talking to a friend in front of a café in Covent Garden. I had my backpack and tripod beside me on the ground, leaning against the bench. A man came along, dropped his keys on the ground in front of us. My friend and I called out to him, but he paid no attention and kept walking. My friend went after him and handed him back the keys. We thought nothing more of it until he returned, came close to us and started talking to us in an agitated way, speaking in garbled nonsensical words – not English and probably not language, but performance, in retrospect – we paid attention to him for a moment or two, but quickly realised that we couldn't help him, and turned back to our conversation.

He walked away. We commented on the oddness of the scene. I looked beside me and my bag – carbon fibre tripod left behind – was gone. The CCTV footage shows an man coming into frame at low level and grabbing the bag.

One feels a bit of an idiot and perhaps some of you reading this are convincing yourself that this couldn't happen to you, that you are too wised up. You're probably not. These guys are very, very good. It's their business; they're not chancers on a Lime bike clawing a mobile off a distrated millennial (I have witenessed this two times now). But they got +£5000 of equipment that they will struggle to shift. It's probably in a car boot sale and some lucky person is wondering what it is as I write.

I've written to all the people I know of in the UK who sell equipment of this sort and level and they've all been very kind in their replies. There is perhaps a community out there somehow, right?

It still hurts. I have no idea how I will ever be able to scrape together the money to buy something similar… I am willing to go back to a Wista if I have to (hahahaha)....
 

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Which reminds me about insurance........must check about it....
 
Not a nice read I must say. I have witnessed pick pockets steal from walking tourists. Sad sight.

I presume you would have contacted Apeture in central London. I have a good relationship with them. Very helpful and friendly people.

I have many searches on eBay as I’m still after a nikkor 90mm f4.5 so I’ll keep you posted if anything pops up.
 
A distressing read , timely reminder to note serial numbers - it’s easy and fast with your camera phone.. It makes any enquiry or image search for your stolen gear easier and more powerful.
I am not sure if our Police join up their recovered suspected stolen items from area to area , I doubt it , worth checking and looking into registering the items stolen wherever possible.
 
Thanks for sharing the details. Sad reading indeed and I agree, these are professional thieves from the sounds of it. Wista's are great to use. I wouldn't part with mine even though I tend to use my Chamonix more. For the future, I wonder how much help an Apple Air Tag hidden in the bag might have been? If I set a camera bag on the ground next to me I try to put my foot through a strap or a tripod leg.
 
Nas said:
Thanks for sharing the details. Sad reading indeed and I agree, these are professional thieves from the sounds of it. Wista's are great to use. I wouldn't part with mine even though I tend to use my Chamonix more. For the future, I wonder how much help an Apple Air Tag hidden in the bag might have been? If I set a camera bag on the ground next to me I try to put my foot through a strap or a tripod leg.
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That's exactly what I do, loop the strap round my ankle. Really sorry to hear about this, I hope you manage to get it back.
 
Hendo'svan said:
That's exactly what I do, loop the strap round my ankle. Really sorry to hear about this, I hope you manage to get it back.
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Yes, I generally do loop a strap around a leg or arm, all the time, everywhere. But not that time, we had just sat down and we were organising our coffees and so on. Our backs were against a wall and it felt pretty isolated and safe. But it's on a corner and the second thief reached around the corner and grabbed the bag. I have to say, the "performer" was very good at what he did and drew us in, convincing us that this was some hapless tourist trying to find their way and in some great distress. Moments later, I was running through the streets, tracking my phone and planning murder.
You'll like this: the police told me that they couldn't "…enter a place with people in it…" – like a pub, for example. And "…Cambridge Circus, that's near Chinatown isn't it, we couldn't do much around there." They took the SIM out of the phone somewhere around there, in any event. I am more brave: I entered places with people in them – in other words, every pub and restaurant in the area from Cambrdge Circus to Soho Square. But no, these guys weren't youths on a lucky grab and run, but seasoned professionals who do this every day for a living.
 
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You should have said the assailants were grandmothers who nicked the gear whilst protesting against a genocide, I’d wager they’d have been happy to “enter a place with people in it” then.
 
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