What have you just BOUGHT?

Magpie Syndrome struck again ...

Robot_Star_II-0242.jpg

Berning Robot Star II - 1938-1940-ish

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Just spent all of $10 for a replacement and a spare "hotshoe" foot for one of my pocket wizard flash triggers.

Dropped the camera with the PW in the hotshoe...chippped some paint off the lens and broke the PW foot clean off. Thought it was a loss, but searched the web and saw that Pocket Wizard repairs them - then saw an entry where a guy fixed it himself. Called PW and bought the part for $5 each (vs. About $65 to ship and repair) and i was able to fix it in about 10 minutes - required reinstall after not seating correctly the first try, but very simple once you knew what to do.

Thanks, Pocket Wizard !!! :)
 
OM-G for $13.00 plus shipping. Someone had dropped it and bent the top by the advance lever. Stupid thing still works though. I'll keep it for parts or use it when I want to take a camera someplace where there is a risk of damage.
 
I've had an interesting two days.

Wednesday, I was browsing Ebay and found a couple of nice Minox auctions. Some 35 models, but also a Minox EC for sale. It's one of the smallest 'spy' cameras ever made, and could easily fit inside a pack of gum. The auction was too nice to pass up.

So, here's where I'm presented with a problem. Minox's 8x11 film is not only difficult to get at the moment (they're having issues), but getting it developed at a lab is even more of a challenge. There's less then a handful of places that do it and all work by mail.

What did I do? Yep, yesterday I bought a daylight developing tank for Minox. Found a UK seller that had a mint in box version, complete with manual and thermometer, probably never used.

I did recently say that I would start developing my own film in 2013, but I never guessed it would happen so soon - or with such a weird format. I'll have a bit of studying to do before I attempt my first roll.

I hope to have the camera and tank by next week, but I still need to find a good European source of the film.
 
One of my groundglass backs (for my Plaubel Makiflexes, also fits Plaubel Makina rangefinder camera) broke, hitting my concrete basement floor. Very difficult to replace, as it is special-thickness European glass, with specially-scribed grid lines.

Went on German Ebay, won an auction, and found a replacement, at a reasonable price! It just arrived in perfect condition, and here it is, installed in the metal Plaubel groundglass frame. This groundglass will interchange with 6x6cm and 6x9cm Plaubel Makina Rollfilm Holders, and single-shot 6x9 Makina Sheetfilm Holders, on all of these cameras.
 

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More stuff for my three Plaubel Makiflexes....

A 2.25"x3.25" original Plaubel Makiflex Back, which takes U.S. 2x3 Graphic Filmholders. And thirteen 2.25"x3.25" Graphic, Lisco, Fidelity, and Fotac Filmholders, enough for twenty-six shots. And finally, (today from Freestyle) 100 sheets of 2.25"x3.25" 400 EI Arista.Edu, which I was told is made by Foma.

Will load the thirteen holders over the weekend for testing.
 

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Went to the SF Bay Area photo fair (http://www.photofair.com/) this morning. Sold most of what I wanted to sell, and picked up:

A 50/2.8 Elmar-M. I traded my 50/3.5 Elmar from 1954 and my Motor-M that I bought new in 2001 (I later got the Leicavit) plus a few Benjamins for a 1997 copy of the Elmar-M with caps and the cute little hood. It has a bit of wear on the paint, but the glass looks good, and, although I enjoyed the vintage 50/3.5, having the aperture ring move the focus and the infinity lock tab were annoying, so I'm happy to have the modern version.

There was a fellow with a box of Chinese adaptors for NEX, M43 and a few XF for $25-35. I have an X-E1, and wanted to get a cheap older 50mm macro, so I looked at the adaptors he had (FD, Nikon, Olympus Pen, and 42mm) and then found a Canon 50/3.5 SSC macro for $50, got the $35 adaptor, now I have a portable macro solution that's a lot cheaper than the 60/2.4 from Fuji. I may want the Fuji 56/1.4 when it comes out for portraits, so I really didn't want to buy both the 60 and 56 from Fuji. I think the adaptor will live permanently on that 50 macro, but maybe some other older FD lenses will come along to tempt me later...

I sold my Tachihara 4x5 that needs slight repairs for an OK amount, and my large format Fuji 250/6.3 that probably needs a little shutter care, and picked up a 135/5.6 Symmar-S large format lens. I didn't need two 250's (I have another 250/4.7 Fuji, and that's a very fast "portrait" lens in the LF world), and never had a 135mm (for those of you not familiar with large format, 135 is a "wide normal"), so I cleared out a lot of closet space, and got a lens I didn't have.

I also sold all my medium format film gear a couple months ago, and I found a fellow selling film, so I traded my last 10 rolls of TMax 400 for 5 rolls of 135 TMax 100 and one roll of 135 TMax 400.

All in all, I got rid of what I no longer used, got some things I would use, and my wallet isn't as light afterwards as I was fearing, so I had a good time.
 
3 Canon T50s, one after the other because all were deceitfully described on ebay as functional, together with 50, 28, 35-70 and 70-210 lenses. Had to send them for repair and one of the 50 lenses has fungus. Ebay isn't what it used to be anymore.
In short I don´t like the way these cameras expose, they all underexpose shadows and burn highlights and have no manual mode. Glass is good enough though, save for the 35-70.
 
Crap, the Minox'es are multiplying already. Bought a new-in-box EC (yes, a second one) and a nice collection of a Minox B, some assorted accessoiries and film. I'm really hoping that will turn out well. Anxiously waiting for the seller to mail me some bank details.

Oh yea, also have an Agfamatic 3000 110 camera incoming. I'm on a bit of a small camera kick to compensate for the SLR binge late last year.
 
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