What have you just BOUGHT?

I recently picked up this 1930 Elmar A. It's jammed up and appears to have been exposed to a fair amount of moisture. The story I got on it was that it sat on a shelf in a west coast beach shack for a number of years/decades. I can wind the shutter using the speed dial, so maybe there is hope that this oldie can work again. I might get into it this winter.


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Olympus 38mm f2.8 Pancake

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Such a tiny little thing.

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Huh. Who wudda thunk there was so much good secondhand camera gear in the world...

Since Covid and the lockdowns I've felt, well, somewhat jaded with my photography in general, and the need to move my image making to new areas and dimensions. A new lens seemed a good way to do all this.

Two weeks ago, a 300mm f/4 Nikon Nikkor ED long telephoto lens. Maybe 20 years old or even older. 90% as new. For a very fair price, from my most excellent secondhand dealer in Melbourne who I have no hesitation in recommending, Camera Lane in Spotswood. Known to many if not all in Australia.

Way back then when these splendid pieces of Made In Japan glass came out, I yearned for one but I didn't have the cash or the credit to buy one, especially at new prices in Australia. Now I have one.

Not for birds or long landscapes. Skulking in the shadows at open markets in Indonesia and Sarawak, probably. Always politely, of course!
 
DownUnder said:
Huh. Who wudda thunk there was so much good secondhand camera gear in the world...

Since Covid and the lockdowns I've felt, well, somewhat jaded with my photography in general, and the need to move my image making to new areas and dimensions. A new lens seemed a good way to do all this.

Two weeks ago, a 300mm f/4 Nikon Nikkor ED long telephoto lens. Maybe 20 years old or even older. 90% as new. For a very fair price, from my most excellent secondhand dealer in Melbourne who I have no hesitation in recommending, Camera Lane in Spotswood. Known to many if not all in Australia.

Way back then when these splendid pieces of Made In Japan glass came out, I yearned for one but I didn't have the cash or the credit to buy one, especially at new prices in Australia. Now I have one.

Not for birds or long landscapes. Skulking in the shadows at open markets in Indonesia and Sarawak, probably. Always politely, of course!
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Quite a big beast, and a very extreme lens! Sounds like just the thing to jog you out of the creative doldrums. And that's one of the best reasons to give in to GAS; anyone who says that "equipment doesn't matter" is full of beans!
 
Retro-Grouch said:
Quite a big beast, and a very extreme lens! Sounds like just the thing to jog you out of the creative doldrums. And that's one of the best reasons to give in to GAS; anyone who says that "equipment doesn't matter" is full of beans!
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If they're full of beans, eventually that turns into GAS. That's what happens to me. 😆
 
This week I bought a plastic 30mm push-on lens cap. It could only be made to fit with a LOT of sanding down, and is still rather tight.
I also bought a minolta plastic cap which I'd hoped was a push-on 21mm cap. Turns out I hadn't noticed the seller had used a Vernier on the outside of the cap and the cap is too small even for the two 20mm push-on filters I'd bought before finding out my Altissa Altix III takes 21mm push-on stuff. There is what looks like a thread, but I know it's smaller than 17mm as I've tried a filter of that size.
 
I just bought a Canon Serenar 85mm f2 in LTM. I had one many years ago when still shooting film on a Leica M3 but sold it when it I found its focusing was not properly calibrated for the Leica. But I always regretted selling it and recently found one at a competitive BIN price on eBay. And in very nice condition too. One of the better things about buying from Japan is the speed of delivery. Though most sellers these days charge a significant P&H fee, Japanese sellers at least mostly use one of the major freight companies - as a result my purchase arrived in my hands in Oz in less than 7 days which is particularly fast (though less than 2 weeks is the norm). Now that's service! One the other hand (as an aside) I find USA deliveries amongst the slowest I have experienced - especially if USPS is involved in which case a USA purchase can occasionally take a month or even two to arrive in Oz unless things have improved lately (I tend not to buy from USA partly for this reason).

I have taken some shots with this new lens and will post some samples soon when they have been uploaded to the PC and post processed. One thing I am keen to do, is to compare this with other lenses in this range - for example, less than a year ago I bought an 85mm f2 Nikkor in LTM locally in my home city. These are somewhat rarer than the Nikon mount ones of the same era and came at a substantial premium partly for this reason (and partly because it was owned by a fairly important Australian photojournalist, Robert Macfarlane). It will be interesting to see how the two differ (I think I have already noticed that the Nikkor has a tendency to produce more "swirly" bokeh in some settings but have not yet noticed the same feature in the Canon. Of course this does not make either one any better than the other - just "different".
 
Dear Board,

Here is my latest acquisition. The lens has been mine for decades, but the new to me old used camera is the prize.

Now I can walk out with an old Nikkor MF lens and take terrible pictures to my heart's content, without wasting a frame of film!

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

2023-11-18_08-25-40 by Tim Murphy, on Flickr
 
This week I bought a Yellow 29mm push-on filter and a Green (well, more of a sort of "light-mid Green that could in theory actually be a Yellow-Green but if it is, it's a Greeny Yellow/Green") 29mm push-on filter. Annoyingly, the front of the Yellow is marginally smaller than the front of the Green one and so I'll either have to faff about re-adjusting the tabs on the hood every time I change to the Yellow from either the Green or my UV OR I'll have to get a second lens hood. That's the problem with having filters made by different companies. If I get an Orange will IT need it's own hood?
 
This week I bought a 29mm push-on lens hood for my 29mm push-on Yellow filter. Annoyingly at present the hood is a bit small. Tomorrow I'll have to faff about fiddling with the tabs or even sanding the inside of the hood to see if I can get it to fit. I know what you're thinking "Umm, maybe it's a 28.5mm hood?" If it is, that'll mean even more sanding down, and also cramp in my fingers.

I also bought some filter cases, four of which are Kodak black and yellow cases of the same design and size as the ones I already have for the growing set of filters for my Altissa Altix III.

I also bought a Walz series 4.5/25.5mm UV drop-in filter for my Altix III. Annoyingly, even though it's marked as the same size as the Kodak drop-in filters I already have, it was really tight to fit in the front of the 210-250 Kodak filter holder. In the end I had to put a large book on the front part of the filter holder and hope that I could put enough even pressure on it to force it onto the Walz filter. Luckily I managed it. Stupidly, I did this on top of my printer and there seemed be a "cracking" sound as I pushed down. I don't really want look for any damage I've done to the printer.
 
largedrink said:
Just purchased this Nikonos V in olive. Came without a lens but I had a spare 35mm 2.5 for it. I also attached a cover for the hand grip as the original was missing. It's in great working order, I like the industrial strength look and feel and ergonomic controls a lot.

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Dear largedrink,

I bought one in orange earlier this year. I had planned to do more fishing in my boat but things didn't work out. There is always next year!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg PA 🙂

Nikonos-V by Tim Murphy, on Flickr
 
Tim Murphy said:
Dear largedrink,

I bought one in orange earlier this year. I had planned to do more fishing in my boat but things didn't work out. There is always next year!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg PA 🙂

Nikonos-V by Tim Murphy, on Flickr
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When they think of the Nikonos, most folks, naturally, think of boating, diving, fishing, etc. I'm nowhere near the ocean, and there are very few bodies of water as well, but nothing beats a Nikonos in a howling desert dust storm; trust me!
 
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