Bought any photography stuff today?

[mzjo]

I was a bit stuck with my 15€ jumble sale photo scanner which is playing up due to a broken trap and a very dodgy micro-USB connection. I had started to contemplate the alternatives, reading up on DSLR scanning (which seems to be slide-copying as used to be done in the Dark Ages), looking at flat-bed scanners (way over my budget) and thinking about building an enlarger (all the ones being advertised were way too expensive). This afternoon in the Emmaüs charity warehouse I came across a number of enlargers, a huge medium-format jobby out of the last century or two, a Durst M6xx which was too big for me so I didn't check whether it looked ok, a Durst C35 which I had already seen and knew that the focussing wasn't moving properly ... and a couple of Durst F30 heads, one of which was still on its mast and had its lens and the other was just the head. The one on the mast had been messed about with, lamp housing was wrecked and the focussing was (is still) seized solid. The other head had the focussing ok and the lamp housing complete. No baseboard, no mast foot to connect baseboard to mast. The man said, "30€ for the two", I said "it's too much given that neither is complete or working. How about 25€, which is still more than they're worth?" He said"I can't interest you in one of the others, a nice Durst M6xx or a C35?" I said "the one's too big for me, the other doesn't work!" So he accepted my 25€ (they were really only worth about 20 in that condition).
At home I transfer the lens to the working one. Yup the bulb is ok, it focusses, there is a lot of dust but the condenser is in the filter tray which makes cleaning a bit easier, I should still have an old Scneider camera lens which I used to use on my old F30, which may be better, and now I just have to make up a foot for the mast and cut a bit of tree for the baseboard. Looking forward to doing a bit of enlarging again (about 30 years since the last time). Really pleased!

[Woofage]

Took my teeny-tiny Lumix GX880 on my holibobs and to Latitude festival. For the latter, I had the 45-150mm lens fitted and this combo will fit in a small bum bag . I've got used to not having an EVF again, and the teeny-tiny controls (good job I don't have big sausage fingers).

So, prompted by the "a new camera" thread I was browsing Ffordes' website and I seem to accidentally bought an Olympus 17mm f2.8 lens (this is the cheap one, not the considerably more spendy f1.8 version). I already have the 14mm and 20mm Lumix primes but I think the 17mm will make a better length as a walkabout lens (34mm equivalent on 35mm).

[Jaded]

Do you mean f1.8 and f1.2

[Woofage]

No, I mean f2.8 & f1.8  . I'm not talking about the fancy Pro lenses. The f2.8 I bought was as cheap as chips - £80-something all up so at that price it seemed rude not to. If I find it gets a lot of use I'll possibly upgrade to the f1.8 but if this is substantially bigger I'll pass as the beauty of this cheap lens is its size and weight (or lack of).

[mzjo]

Landouge jumble sale (just up the road from me). Having been beaten to a set of bike tools by a couple of swarthy types from somewhere south of the med, who didn't appear to know what they were buying, I found a nice consolation prize in a folding camera in very nice nick and complete with decent leather case. 18€, I couldn't leave that (even Madame was in agreement). I couldn't get the back to open at the stall but had a good play once home. It turns out to be a Lumière Lumarex 6x9, made in 1934 from the serial number. All appears to be correct, I had to clean a stain off the back of the lens, possibly condensation (I will have to check that it doesn't need the lens fully extended when folded to give adequate clearance with the film, might just do that as a precaution anyway!). It looks fine now and is loaded and ready (Foma 200, 120, just happened to have a roll in my stock). Odd thing is everything that I read says it should use 620 film but the metal spool that was left in the camera is definitely 120 and 120 plastic spools fit perfectly. I'm not complaining!

Patience needed to see the results. Our ambient temperature is too hot for the developer that I'm using. I will have to wait for winter!

[T42]

Landouge jumble sale (just up the road from me). Having been beaten to a set of bike tools by a couple of swarthy types from somewhere south of the med, who didn't appear to know what they were buying, I found a nice consolation prize in a folding camera in very nice nick and complete with decent leather case. 18€, I couldn't leave that (even Madame was in agreement). I couldn't get the back to open at the stall but had a good play once home. It turns out to be a Lumière Lumarex 6x9, made in 1934 from the serial number. All appears to be correct, I had to clean a stain off the back of the lens, possibly condensation (I will have to check that it doesn't need the lens fully extended when folded to give adequate clearance with the film, might just do that as a precaution anyway!). It looks fine now and is loaded and ready (Foma 200, 120, just happened to have a roll in my stock). Odd thing is everything that I read says it should use 620 film but the metal spool that was left in the camera is definitely 120 and 120 plastic spools fit perfectly. I'm not complaining!

Patience needed to see the results. Our ambient temperature is too hot for the developer that I'm using. I will have to wait for winter!

That sounds like fun.  We started collecting old cameras after finding one on a flea-market. Trouble is that you have to exercise the shutters every so often and it's easy to forget.

[sojournermike]

My oldest daughter asked me to advise on a ‘proper’ film camera for her boyfriend- she has an Olympus mju2 I gave her a few years ago - and pressed me to look at various odds on the evil auction site. Anyway, blessings! Found him a Praktika TL2 in working order with a 50 f1.8 lens in a local charity shop. £10 and it’s yours sir:)

He’s now happily creating and they’ve already got an A2 print on the wall.

[Polar Bear]

Mike, that is approaching weight training;)
...
For weight training work I also have a very old fotoman 617 with a 90mm lens.

none of that through the lens viewing for me!!

I am still hunting for a decent 100mm or 105mm lens which would be perfect for portrait work.  I want to go around and take piccies of all of the family using the Bronica on a tripod with a hood and backing it up with a dslr for "just in case".

And today my birthday present to myself arrived.  A near mint 100mm lens for the Bronica ETRSi.   I now have a 40mm and a 75mm for landscape and townscape work and the 100mm for portraits.

I am hoping that 2024 is the year that my projects finally swing into action.

A bit of weight training seems fine to me but I also have a decent, sturdy Manfrotto tripod to assist me.  👍

[Wowbagger]

I told myself when I started the course in October that I would treat myself to an upgrade of my Lumix G7, and replace it with a G9ii. However, the more I read, the more it seemed that this upgrade would be pretty damned expensive without a great deal to show for it. I then started looking around for something else.

Having done the course has concentrate my mind rather and I'm searching for all the old photographs I've ever taken and am sorting them into a logical order. This has demonstrated to me that probably the best camera I've ever had in terms of decent output was a not very expensive Sony Cybershot DSC-N1, a small camera that is easy to operate with one hand. I then went through the gamut of that sort of thing but brought 15 or more years up to date, and then selected a Fuji X100V. It seems to be the go-to camera for the street-photography hipster, so obviously I fit the genre especially well. Also, no-one is stocking any new ones - Jessops reckon there's a 6-month wait for them - but MPB have quite a few "like new" ones in stock. I plumped for one of those.

I'm really looking forward to it arriving.

[Salvatore]

A set  bellows for £20 on ebay.

They were listed as for a 39x1 (aka M39 I think) lens and an MFT body. That sounded unlikely to me, more likely it was MFT to MFT with a MFT to 39x1 adapter, so I took a punt.

It arrived yesterday, and it was as I guessed, so I now have a surplus-to-requirements 39x1 - MFT adapter (free to a good home if anyone's interested). The bellows themselves look in good nick.

It's manual, so I can't use my Olympus 60mm macro lens at anything but f2.8 , but I do have an old Tamron 90mm macro  adapted to MFT, and I can stop that down manually.

First results, using both the bellows and the lens at full extension, uncropped: a pound coin and a tape measure (mm)






Next step is to test to find the best aperture.

[Graeme]

I just bought a Kodak Ektar H35N. They had a 10% offer, so for less than £50 I have a new half-frame camera. This is going to be fun to play with.

[Boxford]

After selling all my medium format gear nearly 10 years a go decided to get back on the horse, now to sort out the darkroom.


IMG_0932 by prmarkey, on Flickr