What have you just BOUGHT?

I've just bought a Mamiya M645 brochure from 1982. I suppose I now need ones from 1980 and 1981 to see which years the 45mm 55mm and 150mm lenses were updated.
 
i've bought a couple of minoxes (B and LX) because I wanted one so very badly as a kid. They're absolutely pointless but mechanically satisfying. Two rolls of film cost as much as the camera, but I can reload the cassettes if I want to take more tiny, bad pictures.
 
qqphotos said:
i've bought a couple of minoxes (B and LX) because I wanted one so very badly as a kid. They're absolutely pointless but mechanically satisfying. Two rolls of film cost as much as the camera, but I can reload the cassettes if I want to take more tiny, bad pictures.
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I like your attitude. Who said any of this equipment business has to make sense? GAS is good!
 
qqphotos said:
i've bought a couple of minoxes (B and LX) because I wanted one so very badly as a kid. They're absolutely pointless but mechanically satisfying. Two rolls of film cost as much as the camera, but I can reload the cassettes if I want to take more tiny, bad pictures.
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You must've gotten a good deal on the camera. I bought a lot of Minox film from Blue Moon many years ago for about $10/cassette. I see it's $22 now.

But Minox 8x11 cameras can produce high-quality images. Using Delta 100 film in my Minox B, I made a set of portraits of co-workers and they are sharp (at least at 5x7"). My best portraits ever, actually. On one, my friend is wearing a badge on a neck strap and, in the print, you can see the little company logos in the strap - the logo itself is about 1/8" - and in the print they are very sharp along with my friend's eyes, which is where I focused. There was some luck in guessing the correct focus distance; I did not use the chain.

I've made landscape and neighborhood photos with my Minoxes and have used the built-in filters as well. DAG is a good source for repair or a CLA; maybe the only source.

Here is a Minox II, III, two IIIs's, a B, and the tripod. I keep the B in its case so that the selenium meter is in the dark when not being used.



IMG_0472.jpeg
 
shawn said:
Grab a film splitter on Etsy then cut down film for the Minox. Much cheaper that way.
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Oh yes, I just needed to get a couple of cassettes to start with. I've made a makeshift splitter out of a matchbox and xacto blades which cuts 35mm film into a 16mm strip for the minolta 16 and a 9.3mm strip for the minox. Haven't tried the smaller one yet, but the wider one for the Minolta 16 fits perfectly, though that camera is not impressive optically.
 
Oh the things I find online.....


Ross Sweden Tripod Head by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

This is a Ross AB Sweden tripod head -- you might not know this name, but it's one of the first companies started by Victor Hasselblad. During WWII he created a few cameras for the Swedish Military (the Ross HK7 being the most well-known). Between the end of War and about 1947-48, Hasselblad Fotografiska (which owned the Kodak distributorship in Sweden) sold some camera accessories under the Ross name, this tripod head being one of them. This tripod head continued to be made after Ross was discontinued, but under the Hasselblad name from 1952-58.

So this is a pretty scarce piece -- interesting that I purchased it from somebody in Sweden who didn't even know about the Ross-Hasselblad connection.
 
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JeffS7444 said:
Thanks, examples of whimsical or artistic photo advertising are kind of rare, and examples of same from the USSR, doubly so.
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They are cool, especially since those of us who grew up during the height of the Cold War don't often think of "whimsical" and "USSR" together. We need reminding that people everywhere are, after all, just plain folks.
 
Most recent purchase was a shoulder/chest support for the Novoflex Pigriff-C outfit. Been meaning to buy one for years, and one popped up at the right price, almost unused.
 
Retro-Grouch said:
They are cool, especially since those of us who grew up during the height of the Cold War don't often think of "whimsical" and "USSR" together. We need reminding that people everywhere are, after all, just plain folks.
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Well, I grew up on the wrong side of the iron curtain. I don’t have any nostalgia towards those images - they remind me not so nice things, but I acknowledge that to many it might be quite exotic.
 
valdas said:
Well, I grew up on the wrong side of the iron curtain. I don’t have any nostalgia towards those images - they remind me not so nice things, but I acknowledge that to many it might be quite exotic.
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I think it's an excellent time to be buying Soviet-era items from Ukrainian sellers because it puts hard currency into the economy there. And I'm guessing that reminders of the USSR will not be missed any time soon.
 
valdas said:
Well, I grew up on the wrong side of the iron curtain. I don’t have any nostalgia towards those images - they remind me not so nice things, but I acknowledge that to many it might be quite exotic.
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On both sides of the Iron Curtain, folks used their cameras to snap weddings, babies' first steps, a happy gathering of friends or relatives. They went about their lives as best as they could, and, in the back of their minds they lived with the secret dread that some madman would press the Big Red Button. I repeat, on both sides. I remember, as I'm sure you do. If only that dread were a thing of the past.
 
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