I promise that I haven't been lurking - it was just that the trip to japan occupied a fair chunk of March and coming back is always fraught with back-orders for things. Then there is the Tax-man who wants his pound ( or lbs) of flesh, with the paperwork attached!
All is not lost though. Today was the local "spring" swap meet and lots of things going on.
Some weird stuff picked up today: 400 ft of DuPont Superia Panchromatic Non-halation movie stock. Most likely old enough to collect Old Age Pension! Oh,well $5 was not too bad. Also a Helios 85/1,5 in what might be a Leica screw mount or a more obscure Russian SLR mount. Massive lens and it will take a while to figure it out!
Of course, for a person who considers 75mm lenses a "super-tele" the offer of a 400/5,6 and a 560/5,6 Leica Telyt set, with the Focovit grip and focussing tube AND to clinch the deal a Telyt to Nikon SLR adapter, was too good to pass on. The damned thing is HUGE. If you take it outside you will probably have security people chasing you - or aiming equally large missile launchers at you!
All right, there was a Nikon Rf too! Cheap Nikon S as whoever owned it before had partly disassembled it and placed in nice plastic box. Obviously daunted by the project of putting it back together, it passed on to me for about $120. It does include a scruffy looking 50/1,4 ( in pieces, but everything is there) and a denuded S body with the shutter curtains removed ( they are in the box with the essential metal bars). The finder is fine, but so far the advance refuses to budge.
I cant decide if I am going to re-assemble the lens as a fixed 1.4 or go to the trouble of installing all the aperture blades ( I already have 4 or 5 50/1,4's). The camera will be a winter evening project for Nov/Dec.
The R4M Bessa has seen most of the film going through it lately, But I just loaded another 16 Nikon cassettes and have the 50/1,4 mill. on a S3 and the 85/2 on a SP. The cassettes are interesting, so far I have identified three versions of the RF cassette and about 18 variations of center-spools! Not as easy to load as the Leica IXMOO cassette and they did cheapen the manufacturing towards the end. Some of the early ones are jewel like, polished brass and fit and finish with the best of them. The later ones have crimped metal "stops" and the loading spring is push fitted and prone to jamming. More on these in a NHS Journal story in the future.
It will not be easy to top Vienna as a location for NHS Convention, but us locals will try. One thing that Vancouver has is food and restaurants and if the weather is good, it is one of the most spectacular locations you can find. You guys have just about a year to get your plans made and if everything goes to plan, the cherry trees will be at peak or close to it.
