Strings and bows

[lushd]

Greetings all

I have been pondering the issue of careers lately and thinking I need a new string to my bow.

A few years ago I was terribly impressed that I could buy, on Ebay, a perfect reproduction of the motor drive hatch cover for my Olympus OM1 made by a very nice man in Texas in his light engineering factory.

Then this weekend, I discovered a factory called Sonia in India makes Leica M body and rear caps and sells them on Ebay (you can buy them 100 at a time, if you want)

Also amongst the esteemed associates of this forum there are makers of excellent straps, cases, and replacement skins.

You can kind of see where I am going here - which bits of camera paraphrenalia not already available do you find hard to get? Would you be prepared to cough up money for them? If so, how much?

I should say I have no idea of going into competion with anyone already providing services and goods to members here.

Any ideas (the dafter the better, really) most welcome. Looking forward to your usual dry wit!

 

[PeterL]

Any ideas (the dafter the better, really) most welcome. Looking forward to your usual dry wit!

A robot like the one in your picture, that I can send out to take pictures for me when I'm busy ? 😛 I don't actually have any constructive idea, but don't be discouraged: Domke bags also started out with one guy who didn't find any camera bag that fit his needs. So why don't you start the same way: look around at what irritates you and make it better.

In time, you might want to open a shop that buys bulks of film and loads them into cartridges for us lunatics, who still are using analogue 😛

Peter.

 

[jamiewakeham]

Ilford Delta in 35mm format, respooled to give less shots per roll. Suppose 18 would make sense, bing half of 36.

Dunno why, but I *always* find 36 too many, and I end up wasting the last ten shots because I need to get another type of film into the camera and I'm too impatient to pull the leader back out and re-use the last few frames!

What sort of skills you got?

Cheers
Jamie

 

[lushd]

Thanks comrades - that's two good suggestions and questions which is more than I started with!

Don't know about the robot but I do own one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...2349&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_ReBay_Pr4_PcY_BID_IT

It drives about like a little maniac and then stops while the driver raises his camera and takes your picture. If you are lucky (and the damn thing works) the flash goes off!

Keep the suggestions coming.

 

[wyk_penguin]

Have a look at Leicagoodies, you may find some inspiration.

 

[PaulDalex]

Donald,
I spend almost more for accessories than for camera and lenses. And to find them I am dirven nuts. Especially in Europe. Examples. My sight has weakened with age and I need diopter on every camera (+3). Some cameras have it incorporated other, alas, not. It is a core to find them on ebay. The last I got stays on the camera very loose and is fixed with a rubber band. Next I have a truck of Manfrottos but I crave for a bamboo monopod for lightweight cameras. One more example. Neckstraps, not easy to find and often ugly (I hate those large ones that scream Canon! Nikon! etc). I am nostalgic of interwoven skin neck straps of yore. Also I find beautiful those skin straps advertised somewhere in this site. Another expensive accessory example is panoramic heads. Bulbs for flashes...The list is endless. There are zillions of hard to find accessories that are vital to me
Regards
Pistach

 

[pvdhaar]

What I'd like to see is an adjustable thingamajig that allows a camera with strap lugs near the front to hang normal when you've a small lens mounted. My Bessa-T for instance hangs perfectly straight with the (heavy) 50 Hexanon, but with the (light) CV 25 it topples backward and is uncomfy.

 

[PeterL]

What I'd like to see is an adjustable thingamajig that allows a camera with strap lugs near the front to hang normal when you've a small lens mounted. My Bessa-T for instance hangs perfectly straight with the (heavy) 50 Hexanon, but with the (light) CV 25 it topples backward and is uncomfy.

And vice versa ! My SLR hangs fine with 50mm lenses, but topples over with my 90/f2 🙂 You could make it a universal thingamajig that detopples all camera's 😛

 

[lushd]

Hmm - keep 'em coming folks and thank you for your thoughts. What I love about asking a bunch of nice people who share the same distractions as me is the originality of the suggestions - I would never have got near some of these on my own. I am deep in ponder-mode.

I did find out that the biggest sales on Ebay are in women's clothes (but not what the biggest profits are) which gives some idea of what people are willing to part with hard-earned for in an alternative market place to a shop.

That strap thing is not so silly - have you ever seen a Wilkinet? It's a way of strapping baby securely to your body with properly distributed weight and leaving you with free arms and normal posture. Something along the same lines that allowed you to bend without dipping the camera in your beer while keeping it ready for action and you could wlak or run without bouncing it everywhere. I don't have a clear idea yet but I will brood on that one...

Not totally clear here but I think we could be onto something

 

[kmack]

I saw a "street shooter" rig once that may be of some interest. The gentleman had modified a pair of tactical shoulder holsters. He replaced the "pancake" holsters with a pair of half cases and rigged a velcro tab that would hold the cameras in the cases. With a jacket on you could not tell that he had a pair of IIIG's fully loaded and ready.

 

[John Camp]

Think bags. Relatively cheap to get into (a man and his sewing machine) and I would argue that there really aren't any good modern bags for rangefinders. And there are lots of possibilities: a bag for around town, that perhaps looks like a bookbag (doesn't scream camera!) and where you can get the camera out immediately; and a travel bag, where you can stash (say) two bodies and perhaps four lenses, but still have room for all the other stuff you carry on an airplane -- a book, an Ipod, perhaps a small laptop, pens, pencils, notebooks, travel papers, etc. I know there's a need; I have all kinds of bags, and I'm currently trying to *make* another one, specifically for rangefinders, out of a small packpack.
JC

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

I would like a smaller camera bag that has the top flap hinge sewn on the out side away from the body. This way when you open the flap it drops away and you can look inside the bag to grab whatever it is that you are looking for. Should also have belt loops to hold it snug to body. I hate having to hold up the flap on my existing camera bags.

Wayne