Topic: I just picked up...

[Francois]

I always loved how these were sold in the domes.
Today's foam or cardboard blocks can never look nearly as classy as those did.
I only have 1 dome with an enlarger lens in it.

[KevinAllan]

 I don't really need another 35mm SLR but when I saw this Pentax ME Super with Pentax-M 24-35mm lens in a charity shop for £29, I couldn't resist. All functions are working.

[cs1]

It's a lovely little camera, very compact for an SLR. Good catch.

[Indofunk]

I love my ME Super so much that I got a Super Program to see if it would be just a tiny bit better. Apart from the fact that the 1/2 press metering doesn't work, I can still tell that the ME Super is superior Pretty sure it's the pinnacle of SLR technology

[Sandeha Lynch]

I love my ME Super so much that I got a Super Program to see if it would be just a tiny bit better. Apart from the fact that the 1/2 press metering doesn't work, I can still tell that the ME Super is superior Pretty sure it's the pinnacle of SLR technology

For its price point, yes. Which is why I keep my ME Super and my MX.

But then again, I've never owned an LX. 

[Kai-san]

This one was just too nice to let go, an almost mint Zorki 1D in working order with a collapsible Industar-22. It's rare too see one of these lenses in such good condition, the tube is like a polished mirror. The helicoid needs a bit of lubing and the case has to be re-stitched.

[Francois]

Very sweet.

[Francois]

I have a PSA for y'all.
Confinement+Insomnia+eBay are not a good mix...
I wasn't feeling too well and felt like I needed a new toy in my life. Something that isn't a film hog, that's cute and unusual. But most of all something inexpensive.
Short of getting a cat, I got this instead: a Nickelodeon Photoblaster!
We were only 2 bidding on the auction. I laid quiet until the very last seconds and I pressed the button. So, yeah, I'm now the proud owner of something that wouldn't have been out of place in Pee Wee's Playhouse! And couldn't get to sleep for the rest of the night because I was too excited.

I measured that the camera's got an equivalent 60mm lens. Shoots 144 frames per roll of 36 exposures, so it's cheap to use. It's got a nuclear power flash and a weird door locking mechanism...

But best of all, it looks so COOL! 

[zapsnaps]

That IS cool. But so is the Zorki 1 D

[John Robison]

I have a PSA for y'all.
Confinement+Insomnia+eBay are not a good mix...
I wasn't feeling too well and felt like I needed a new toy in my life. Something that isn't a film hog, that's cute and unusual. But most of all something inexpensive.
Short of getting a cat, I got this instead: a Nickelodeon Photoblaster!
We were only 2 bidding on the auction. I laid quiet until the very last seconds and I pressed the button. So, yeah, I'm now the proud owner of something that wouldn't have been out of place in Pee Wee's Playhouse! And couldn't get to sleep for the rest of the night because I was too excited.

I measured that the camera's got an equivalent 60mm lens. Shoots 144 frames per roll of 36 exposures, so it's cheap to use. It's got a nuclear power flash and a weird door locking mechanism...

But best of all, it looks so COOL! 

Those things were a 'thing' a few years ago and prices went through the roof. I imagine the craze subsided and prices returned to a proper toy camera offering.
My own experience with silly pricing was the first surge of interest in the original Diana camera, well before Lomo brought out a reproduction. I bought one at a second hand shop for $2.50 and turned it around on ebay for $60.00. Some people is crazy. 

[Francois]

I remember those days. It was really insane.
I find the camera market really strange these days. I was really lucky with this one as it was not sold in the proper category. Also there doesn't seem to be any demand for it anymore. But other cameras are going for insane prices. I noticed that the toy camera fad has pretty much died out, so that might explain it.
While everybody seems to be going the way of larger negatives, I wanted to go the opposite direction and it seemed that quarter frame might be the way to do this short of going subminiature.
Though that was my thought process way past my bedtime....

[Kai-san]

.... a new toy, the KMZ Horizont panorama camera.

[cs1]

Lovely camera. What made you decide to get this particular panorama camera? I've been looking for an affordable 35mm panorama camera and I'm still undecided which to get.

[Pete_R]

The Horizon 202 is the easiest to find. There's someone on ebay now selling new old stock from Russia at a cheap price. But whichever you get, make sure it comes with the handle as, without it, you'll keep getting your hands in the picture. Also make sure you have a return option as they all can suffer from uneven exposure causing banding on the image. You can only find out by using it.

I had a 202 for a while and dragged it around China. They're not light.

[Kai-san]

Lovely camera. What made you decide to get this particular panorama camera? I've been looking for an affordable 35mm panorama camera and I'm still undecided which to get.

I wanted a reasonable camera to start with, and that ruled out the Noblex and the Widelux. In addition these two have a more complex mechanism than the KMZ's, which could lead to more failures. First I looked at the Horizon 202 and had almost decided for it, but then I discovered the Horizon S3 U500. It's the newest camera in the KMZ range, which in itself could be a good thing. In addition it has a higher top shutter speed at 1/500s, the others stop at 1/250s. At the same time I had seen some very nice shots made by the Horizont in another forum. Still undecided, I received the latest issue of Silvergrain Classics which had a review of all these sving lens cameras. It more or less confirmed my suspicion that all the KMZ models are basically the same with different casings. They all produce nice pictures and I wonder if the lens could be the same model in all of them. In the end I decided that I wanted a camera that looks like a camera, and not a blob of plastic. Regarding the weight; this one is 985g included handle and strap. I spent much of my vacation carrying around a Polaroid 600SE that weighs 3kg, so this one makes me quite relieved. 

[Francois]

If you don't have the grip you need to learn the widelux hold. Both hands behind the camera holding it only by the fingertips a bit like a point & shoot digicam.

[Kai-san]

The grip has a standard tripod thread so it should be easy to find something usable on evilbay, or even make one yourself. Equally important is that these cameras have a working spirit level to avoid curved horizons. Alternatively you can just give a toss and be creative. 

[cs1]

Sounds interesting. Thanks for all your advice.

[Francois]

Alternatively you can just give a toss and be creative. 

Or set it on a tabletop tripod in a vertical position on the ground (scan starting at the bottom), trigger the shot and jump over the camera.

[Pete_R]

Alternatively you can just give a toss and be creative. 

Or set it on a tabletop tripod in a vertical position on the ground (scan starting at the bottom), trigger the shot and jump over the camera.

If I remember correctly, the total exposure time is actually pretty short. Maybe a second? So you would have to jump pretty quick. Maybe getting someone else to release the camera would work.

[Francois]

That's a trick I saw once in an old book on special effects. I don't know how many takes it took to get it right but the results were really weird.

[Bryan]

That's a trick I saw once in an old book on special effects. I don't know how many takes it took to get it right but the results were really weird.

This is one someone shot handheld, not sure what camera it was.  They bent the space needle.  I have tried this a few times with my KMZ FT-2 but didn't get the effect I wanted.  It turns out it's actually pretty easy to shoot it handheld without any problems, which sucks when your trying to make problems. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/espressobuzz/12399430304/in/faves-60348236@N07/

[Bryan]

I had bad GAS recently when some good deals came up.  This Leica IIIf has an early un-coated Summitar lens.  The lens has some brassing but the glass is in really nice condition.  The camera also has some brassing due to the problems Leitz was having with chrome after the war.  It is functioning fine other than a very slight shutter bounce that shows up occasionally.  I think I can fix that, I fixed the same problem on one recently.

Leica IIIf Summitar 5cm f/2 by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

This was one of those deals on eBay where they spelled Rolleiflex "Rollieflex".  I got it for $210, the shutter speeds all sound good and the lens is in excellent condition.  I already have one but not with the Zeiss Tessar lens.  It shows signs of use so cosmetically it's not great but I don't care about that so much. 

Rolleiflex Automat K4B Zeiss Tessar by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

A Zeiss Baby Ikonta.  It needs some work, the shutter is not firing so I need to dig in to it and see what's going on.
 If I get it fixed it could be a good pocket 127 camera. 

Zeiss Ikon Baby Ikonta 520/18 by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Francois]

It's probably just a dried grease problem on that 127.
Lucky that those are relatively simple to take apart. I have a 35mm Voigtlander that I need to fix... but this involves taking apart half of the camera just to jet to the shutter.

[zapsnaps]

That's a very nice haul. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun using them

[Kai-san]

Early on a grey Saturday morning I spotted an online ad for a metal case with camera equipment. I hit the button within ten minutes after it had been posted, and here's what I got for 540 pounds incl. shipping:
A Mamiya RB67 Pro with three lenses (90, 180 and 250mm), two 6x7 film backs, one 6x4.5 film back, one WLF and one prism finder, a bellows lens hood, two rubber lens hoods, a gelatin filter holder, an 81B gelatin filter, two extra dark slides and a cable release.
The shutter on the 180mm lens is sluggish and needs to be fixed. Otherwise everything seems to be in working order. One of the 6x7 backs was even loaded with Fuji Pro 400H film, ready to go. And tucked in beside the foam I found an exposed roll of Agfapan film. Not bad on a dull Saturday morning!

[Francois]

Wow!
That's got to be the deal of the century!

[Bryan]

Very nice kit kai! 

I just got this Zeiss Ikon ICA Trona 210/7 9X12 plate camera.  Cosmetically it's in kind of rough shape but the lens and shutter are in excellent condition.  There is a small tear in the bellows that shouldn't be hard to repair.  It came with 3 plate holders, two need work and one is in good condition.  I ordered a few more plus some film inserts.  I hope to have this working good so I can take it on the road next year.  The negatives are close to 4X5 in size but the camera is much smaller than my Crown Graphic, much more portable.  Also, I'll be able to make some contact prints. 

Zeiss Ikon ICA Trona 210/7 by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Francois]

If you ever need to replace the bellows, just pm Sandeha. He does fold some nice ones.

[Bryan]

If you ever need to replace the bellows, just pm Sandeha. He does fold some nice ones.

I've made a few of my own with some help from him.  This would be the largest for me so I will do a few more practice ones before I take on this camera.  I worked on it last night and I think I got it fixed so that may not be necessary for a while. 

I ordered some Fomapan 100 in 9x12, that's seems to be the only film available in that size.  I could always cut down some 4X5 film as well.   

[Sandeha Lynch]

If you ever need to replace the bellows, just pm Sandeha. He does fold some nice ones.

Thanks for the compliment but just for the record, I'm not making any more LF bellows, only MF folding cameras now.

[Kai-san]

If you ever need to replace the bellows, just pm Sandeha. He does fold some nice ones.

I've made a few of my own with some help from him.  This would be the largest for me so I will do a few more practice ones before I take on this camera.  I worked on it last night and I think I got it fixed so that may not be necessary for a while. 

I ordered some Fomapan 100 in 9x12, that's seems to be the only film available in that size.  I could always cut down some 4X5 film as well.

Jason Lane makes 9x12 dry plates, just the right thing for an old plate camera. They are ISO 2, or you can choose the speed plates at ISO 20. I've bought some 6.5x9 from him to use in a Plaubel Makina IIS, haven't got around to test them yet. I've also got plate holders for my Polaroid 600SE.

[zapsnaps]

My holiday reading. Although 2 out of the 3 books are more for looking at.
The first to arrive was by Araki, who I am very unsure about. But I watched a Youtube critique on his work & bought a book try try and understand more, with my newly minted knowledge. But much of it is still a mystery.
I got the Hasselblad 2019 winner Daido Moriyama's Diary, which I love. Much of his work, too, is mystifying. But I love the rawness he creates.
The third was a book of Ai Weiwei's work. Araki famously said that his photos have no meaning, he has no political thoughts nor philosophy about anything. Well, Ai has a political or philosophical take on almost everything, so it is going to be a contemplative break.

[02Pilot]

I've been quite uninterested in acquiring new gear of late, but sometimes stuff just falls in your lap (sort of). We made brief forays into a few local antique shops looking for a couple pieces of furniture, but of course I had to at least glance around to see if there was any camera gear of note. Came up dry on the furniture, but I walked out with a box of "Camera Accessories" for which I paid the princely sum of $19.46.



I did not do this randomly, as I had spied two prizes in said box while it was in its glass case.





The ITDOO hood is probably worth $100, and the SBLOO 35mm viewfinder - which is almost unnaturally bright - probably at least double that. Both are in great shape. I didn't really need either, but at $18 plus tax I wasn't about to leave them behind.

[Bryan]

Nice find.  I suspect this kind of stuff often gets tossed out because people don’t know what it is or don’t think it’s worth anything. 

[Francois]

You're lucky that there are still some antiques stores in your area...
Here's there's only one left. Well, I don't know if it's still open...

[02Pilot]

There's a quite a few of them, actually. There's a fair amount of empty retail space in smaller towns, and often antique shops will set up there to take advantage of the business brought in by people coming out of the city on weekends, the influx of which has actually driven up prices in a lot of them. You can't find stuff cheap like you used to most of the time. The trick is knowing which ones aren't trying to cash in too egregiously, and which ones will make deals. Of course, things are somewhat slower now due to the circumstances, but with so many people fleeing upstate I think they had a bit of a surge over the summer, at least for stuff like furniture.

[Francois]

I know two antiques dealers. The one with the shop runs the place on such a shoestring budget that he doesn't even have an electricity meter! That means no heat during the winter and his opening hours are set by the sun. I only go there during summertime as I don't want to get pneumonia.
The other one told me last time I saw him that the antiques market in the province is essentially dead. People prefer cheap Ikea furniture to furniture made from actual wood. And I should say he's probably right.
He used to buy antiques around here, load them in his truck and drive down to NYC once a week.
There is a big weekly antiques flea market about 2 hours from here on the north bank near the Ontario border. Most of the good stuff that is found there makes its way to Toronto.

[02Pilot]

Huh, that's quite different from what I've encountered around the US. Almost everywhere I've visited I've found quite a few antiques shops. Usually the further from a big city the better. A lot of them are more junk shops than antiques shops, but I'm OK with that - better deals there anyway. Plenty of people around here just want cheap and new, but there's still enough demand to keep a bunch of shops going year after year. I wonder why the markets are so different.

[Francois]

The one that's open also falls more in the junk shop category than anything else. I did find a few nice things there. But lets just say the owner isn't big on cleaning and dusting!

When it comes to figuring out why both markets are different, I guess it all comes down to Quebeckers being mostly of French descent and the rest of North America being of English origin.
During the 70's, we had a guy who was a publicity guru. He was regularly called to Toronto and asked to translate a publicity so that it could be used in the province. More often than not it turned into an argument with him saying that the ad would not work and the company asking why it shouldn't work since the ad was very well received in the rest of Canada. He would then proceed to translate the ad like they asked and after release they would call him asking why the ad was not performing like expected. So he got sick of all this and wrote a book called "Les 36 cordes sensibles des Québécois", which translates to "the 36 sensitive strings of Quebeckers". In it he describes in very minute detail how people think in the province. The book is infuriating when you read it. Not because it's insulting but because it describes people so well it's scary! I found it and read most of it a few years ago. What strikes me is how little people here have changed in over 40 years.

The average Quebecker is very inflatable. He wants the newest thing that's in fashion. He doesn't care about old stuff as he tends to link his superiority to his belongings. When you use Google Earth and look at many cities you can see it. Just look for clusters of swimming pools. The Quebecker will even laugh at people who don't have the very latest and greatest in everything. And that also includes furniture. I've met people who re-do their kitchen every 15 years just to change the color of the cupboards! And then they invite you to see their renos. But when they come to your place and see nothing has changed, they don't hesitate to tell you that you're a looser.
We urban planners sometimes say that most of the province's houses are in the screwed-on style. Everybody goes to the same hardware stores, buys roughly the same stuff, installs it and says he's made a masterpiece. I've seen everything from fake aluminum Greek columns with decorative awnings that don't work to faux-Victorian houses with a Provencal flavor. Every Quebecer has bad taste, the only difference is that the rich pay more for their bad taste.

Here, things are all about show but no content.

That's also partly why there are so few film photographers here (and even fewer that are in photo clubs). Last time I went to a photo club exhibit I had an old film camera and told the administrator that I was trying out a camera and planning to try out some caffenol developer. To that she promptly told me I was wasting my time and that I should get instead a brand new Fuji camera with the X sensor... She didn't care that I was having fun, because you can't have fun with anything less than the newest and greatest. Things can't be beautiful if you don't see them in a furniture catalog. A car can't be good if it's not the right color.

That's the long way around to understand the market around here... and people at the same time.

[02Pilot]

There are definitely people and even communities like that around here and throughout the US, but they're not necessarily representative. Where I am, there are plenty of new developments blighting the landscape with their McMansions, but there are also people whose families have been in the same house on the same land for generations and like things the way they are. For every giant new house there's two or three that haven't changed in decades, don't have a piece of furniture produced after the Kennedy Administration (and some of it may have been grabbed from the town dump), and have a pickup truck or tractor that probably hasn't run in twenty years in the front yard. The people living in the latter may well be financially better off than the former, but they are happy to live as they choose. I don't think there's a lot of cross-contact between the two groups, and I think both are generally perfectly content for things to remain that way.

[Bryan]

Most new furniture sucks.  It’s made of pressed board with a paper thin veneer.  It can’t be repaired or refinished and if you look at how fast it burns you wouldn’t want it in your house.  But then I’m stuck in mid century America, not much new stuff in my house.  I actually repair my appliances rather than getting new stuff that won’t last more than a few years. 

[02Pilot]

Yeah, I'm a "repair rather than replace" sort of person too. I also prefer to do my own installations, and build from scratch when I can. There's something satisfying about it, plus it gives me an excuse to buy more tools.

[Francois]

I too like building better than buying. But here I'm just an oddity. You should see how most house interiors look like the catalog from a local big chain furniture store.

Mom has a friend who buys almost all her furniture at Costco.... She bought a big sofa that became uncomfortable after one year. She just dumped it in the trash and bought another one...

[John Robison]

Well Francois, everyone has different tastes. Fairly sure friends have come to my house (not recently of course) and thought ‘this place just screams Ikea’.
What they don’t know is the back story. A slow but steady and hidden water leak in the kitchen wicked up the drywall behind the built in cabinets resulting in a black mold horror show. Removing cabs destroys formica countertops and the cabinets were the cheapest tract home garbage the home builder could find. Even with a modest $2500 insurance payout decent wood cabs would have set us back about 10K, and that 20 years ago.
So....since I was in the middle of ripping out all the carpet and installing t&g hardwood when the leak was discovered anyway, just took out all built in cabs and floored the kitchen in hardwood all the way to the walls.
The only thing we could afford was Ikea freestanding kitchen cabs and, except for water and sink drain connections for the sink cabinet the only thing that keeps them in place is gravity.
What I do like is no hidden spaces, no sneaky water seepage, can look under the cabs and see right to the wall.
Tacky? Sure. But practical, I’ll take practical over stylish any time.

[02Pilot]

Practicality is a virtue, one that's in short supply these days. I have nothing against buying new when it's necessary or serves a purpose better than buying used. A practical person will look at what they're buying to understand how it's made and at least be making an informed decision. Ikea sells some solid wood products alongside the pressboard, and they're mostly decent - we just bought a couple pieces there that we couldn't find elsewhere. Quite frankly at least half the complaints I read about Ikea can be put down to user error during assembly.

John, having just ripped out an entire house worth of carpet and installed hardwood floors myself, I feel your pain. But they do look nice when they're done.

[Francois]

I personally don't have much against Ikea. I think that they're probably the only manufacturer nowadays that makes decent stuff at a decent price.
Granted MDF is not the best, but a lot of their other stuff is more than decent. And when it comes down to kitchen cabinets, even the more expensive ones are MDF, so why pay more for what is essentially the same thing?

Right now, my computer is on an Ikea table and I'm very happy with it. I also sleep on an Ikea over-mattress, have Ikea cutlery set, have Ikea lamps and who knows what else and I'm more than satisfied with it all.
But I also have some furniture from other places (a.k.a. side of the road) that I'm quite happy with.

But when I talk about ugly furniture that everybody buys, here's what I'm thinking about https://www.braultetmartineau.com/fr/meubles/salon/divans/

[Bryan]

I recently purchased some darkroom stuff that all came in one lot at a really good price and included contact print frames and a few other items including this drying rack.  I think it was made for drying glass plates so I wasn't sure it would work for prints.  My concern was that the prints would sag and touch each other.  It's working great with my RC paper.  It folds up nice and flat for storage.  I spent some time in my Darkroom/laundry room making prints this weekend.  I usually run out of places to hang the prints so this thing worked out great. 

[Francois]

Is that a timer on the back of the printing frame?

[Bryan]

Is that a timer on the back of the printing frame?

I think it's just a reminder kind of thing.  It's just an arrow that you can point at numbers from 1 to 12.