What have you just BOUGHT?

This lens: it's a Schacht Travenar R 90 mm f/2.8 from about 1968. For a long time I have been looking for a 90 mm lens for my 1956 Exakta (which was just CLA'd and got new shutter curtains this summer in Goerlitz, Germany).
It wasn't easy to find - sure I had found another Travenar a while ago which had more than 10 aperture blades (instead of 6 like mine) but that one had had a fungus, unfortunately.

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I think with this special old Ihagee 50s waist level finder and its large screen it might be a nice gear for my first street experiments. :cool:
Many will disagree, but I think these old Exaktas are the most beautiful 35mm SLRs ever made. Dials, levers, buttons, knobs, more dials... And lots of chrome! What's not to love?
 
Many will disagree, but I think these old Exaktas are the most beautiful 35mm SLRs ever made. Dials, levers, buttons, knobs, more dials... And lots of chrome! What's not to love?


Back in the 50's they were the hot item with the radical SLR concept. The Wurlitzers of the camera world. The Exactas excited me but were way beyond the reach of even my dreams. The Exa was within dream reach. I had the dream but not the money. My first SLR was the venerable and almost indestructible K1000. It was sent off to another member to be recycled into a new photographer's hands.
 
Back in the 50's they were the hot item with the radical SLR concept. The Wurlitzers of the camera world. The Exactas excited me but were way beyond the reach of even my dreams. The Exa was within dream reach. I had the dream but not the money. My first SLR was the venerable and almost indestructible K1000. It was sent off to another member to be recycled into a new photographer's hands.
The Exa II was my first "real" camera, and I managed to save up for an Exakta VXIIb with my summer job after my junior year in high school. I thought I had the Hot Item, indeed, until Andy, the rich cool kid in my class, showed up with a Nikon F. Instant envy and severe GAS, needlessly so, but I was young and stupid.
Now, when GAS hits, I only have one excuse, and it's not that I'm young!
 
The Exa II was my first "real" camera, and I managed to save up for an Exakta VXIIb with my summer job after my junior year in high school. I thought I had the Hot Item, indeed, until Andy, the rich cool kid in my class, showed up with a Nikon F. Instant envy and severe GAS, needlessly so, but I was young and stupid.
Now, when GAS hits, I only have one excuse, and it's not that I'm young!


Yeah, well you always had more money than I did. ;o)
 
Self pity ground me down to resorting to some retail therapy and I just sprung for the Thypoch Eureka 50. It is a recreation of the TTH Planar 50 that was on the UK Reid Leica copy. I have a weakness for TTH Planars so this should calm it for a while. The reviews have all shown nice color captures and have liked the lens. And it is on sale with US$100 discount. That's all it took. Friday, the 15th it will be here.

That means I can drag these bones out and get some pics of what is promised to be a three day extravaganza of very high king tides, higher than our normal king tides. There will be some flooding. I am safe at 50 - 60' above sea level. I am pretty sure that I am safe. I'll post pics, if I have good ones. Otherwise this never happened. ;o)
 
Brilliant lens. I have the same and use it a lot for landscape work.

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Nice work! Unfortunately, I had to return my copy of this lens. When I received the lens, described as "like new, free from any dust, dirt and scratches" I discovered fine scratches on the rear element, the inside of the lens full of dust, dirt, and something that looked like the beginning of fungus.

I am going to look for another copy of this lens, it handles and renders very nice.
 
Photographing Shadow and Light: Inside the Dramatic Lighting Techniques and Creative Vision of Portrait Photographer Joey L. This guy fascinates me. I have his book Ethiopia which is a masterpiece of photos of the country from urban to stone age. His commercial shoots and those he does as photo essays have a graceful formal arrangement to them. And I was somehow sure I knew the technique. Then I remembered it. He arranges like the Renaissance painters, think The Night Watch. And he is as careful with lighting. He may bore you but he dazzles me. Kindle copy.
 
Le Sigh. I bought, via Ebay, a Pentax SMC FA 50mm f/1.4 to use a fast telephoto from National Camera Exchange.

They sent a Tamron 90/2.8 macro for Nikon AF instead. Since sent by Useless Package Services, it arrived after they closed for the day so I could only send a message via Ebay and will have to see what comes of it today.
 
I love my 85/2 and it was my 'standard' lens for years in the mid 90s.


You are making me think I should crank up the old Jupiter. It is not a KMZ but a nice guy in Turkey had a good late model for me. It needs to be shimmed but works fine on on an M240 with EVF of a Sony DSLR. Lenses, lenses, lenses.
 
Took the plunge on an Elcan, new with mfr new warranty, out of Japan. Here NLT 21 November, it is written. I think that is the lens fever broken now. I have been jonesing on the Elcan for a while and have followed the reviews which have been good. There was scuttlebutt of a 50% failure rate but so far I have not run across a validated account of failure.

I hope to test it and the Eureka against the SBS, the Amotal and the '43 CJZ 5cm f/1.5. Maybe the sweet '57 J8 I have, too. I have to find a good setup for color and DOF and resolution, inside. I'd like to do it on an M9 and X2D both. I would be interested in the results and maybe some folks here, too.
 
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