What have you just BOUGHT?

WoodallP said:
Had a Twenty when all my friends had racing bikes or Choppers. I abandoned it in shame at the end.
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Funny enough the Raleigh Twenty and the Chopper share the same front fork, these days, a lot of restores hunt out Raleigh Twenties just for the front forks! I was too short for a chopper but I had a Tomahawk. I must admit I get some strange looks when I ride around on the twenty but looks don't bother me these days. Back in the day I can see how Choppers and racers were more desirable to us rather than town and shopper bikes.
 
I'd had it in my head that Penny-Farthing bikes had originally been used as racing bikes, (dunno if it's true. I wouldn't do it, lol.) Then I thought "Big rear cogs small front cogs for hills, big front cogs small rear cogs for speed. 700C or 27" wheels for road racing and 26" wheels for mountain bikes, so are the small wheels just for convenience?" and that's when I started getting dizzy with it all, 🙄
 
seany65 said:
I'd had it in my head that Penny-Farthing bikes had originally been used as racing bikes, (dunno if it's true. I wouldn't do it, lol.) Then I thought "Big rear cogs small front cogs for hills, big front cogs small rear cogs for speed. 700C or 27" wheels for road racing and 26" wheels for mountain bikes, so are the small wheels just for convenience?" and that's when I started getting dizzy with it all, 🙄
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'Two Wheels Good', by Jodey Rosen, is a great read on the history of the bicycle and the early chapters cover the early bicycles and those that raced them, its a great read.
 
seany65 said:
I'd had it in my head that Penny-Farthing bikes had originally been used as racing bikes, (dunno if it's true. I wouldn't do it, lol.) Then I thought "Big rear cogs small front cogs for hills, big front cogs small rear cogs for speed. 700C or 27" wheels for road racing and 26" wheels for mountain bikes, so are the small wheels just for convenience?" and that's when I started getting dizzy with it all, 🙄
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People will race anything, and do, and they raced the Penny-Farthings. The racers, known as "scorchers" in their day, were the bane of pedestrians and horses, and prompted legislation to ban or limit their activities.
BTW, the expression "to cop a header" originated with these folks as well. It didn't take much to send a rider flying over the bars from that precarious position.
 
Retro-Grouch said:
People will race anything, and do, and they raced the Penny-Farthings. The racers, known as "scorchers" in their day, were the bane of pedestrians and horses, and prompted legislation to ban or limit their activities.
BTW, the expression "to cop a header" originated with these folks as well. It didn't take much to send a rider flying over the bars from that precarious position.
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This is very true, the dandies and their wooden 'hobbies' were the bane of Georgian London, George III apparently had three early bicycles and never rode any of them.
 
Today I bought a 120m laser rangefinder, mostly to check the accuracy of any accessory rangefinder, so that I don't have t use the laser one if taking photos of people and animals with the scale focus cameras I have. I also bought an AA battery charger.
 
I just bought a late production Nikon FM3a with a 50mm Ai-S 1.4 for 700€. Advertised as fully functioning. Saw the ad on eBay from a reputable seller and bought without much overthinking. My wife uses an FM2n and the aperture priority auto mode would be right up her alley. But now I'm wary of any potential electronic issues. From what I've heard, the FM3a is basically not repairable any longer for a lack of parts. So I will have to give the camera a good shakedown within the return window and make up my mind quickly...
 
Lately I've bought a Nodal Ninja because I don't have enough clutter, and because I was buying a lens from the same dealer along with other bits that will be useful one day.
Also bought a secondhand Nons SL660 with a 50mm lens (it's an Instax Square interchangeable-lens SLR). Seems solidly built.
 
This reminds me. I was given another SMC lens recently. I need to give it a closer look. I think it's a "pedestrian" 50, but maybe not...?😎. Yes, as an "old camera nerd" people give me their "old" stuff quite often.

I no longer have any Pentax cameras, but I used to have some M42 bodies and a K1000 (or equivalent). They were all just great....lenses for sure. But I had far too many cameras (I've mentioned the great purge in other threads). However, I did keep my Super Takumar 50/1.4 that made my Geiger counters zing 😮! That's one lens I just couldn't let go.
But all the Pentax lenses were really good! The 35/2.8 among em. Enjoy that lens.... it's great as an adapted lens too! I used it on my m4/3 bodies and also my M240. Lens worked great! Photographer maybe not so much.
 
IMG_4247.jpeg

Minolta XD5 with Minolta auto D winder and 45mm 2.0 MD Rokkor.

The winder is awesome (so solid), the lens is in perfect condition but the camera…

The frame counter is toast ( don’t know if it is worth the effort to take the top cover off and take a closer look at the fragile spring etc.), the leds hardly light up at all and the camera seems to work perfectly in manual mode but the auto modes seem to give erratic speeds or the mirror hangs up. I wonder if fresh batteries could cure that behavior? Does the XD5 also suffer from the dreaded capacitor problems?

It is my first XD and so far I love it! I‘ve already used the X700 and SRT101 - man, that XD with it’s Seiko shutter plays in a totally different league. I guess one has to get used to the quite noticeable „shutter lag“ of that type of camera, one can clearly see how firstly the aperture closes and then the mirror goes up - due to this „seperate“ steps the camera is quite and has almost nor mirror slap. I hope that fresh batteries will bring it back to life.
 
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Well, I just bought a Voigtlander 21mm Color-Skopar f3.5. I was trying it out this morning and it seems fine. However, I'm not used to relying on the rear view screen to compose pictures. I may look at an EFV. Here's a pic from this morning. M11, 250 @ F11 - shores of Lake Ontario..

..Avery

2025-04-13 09-56-04 - L1001084.jpg
 
AveryWagg said:
Well, I just bought a Voigtlander 21mm Color-Skopar f3.5. I was trying it out this morning and it seems fine. However, I'm not used to relying on the rear view screen to compose pictures. I may look at an EFV. Here's a pic from this morning. M11, 250 @ F11 - shores of Lake Ontario..

..Avery
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I have the 21mm f/4 LTM variant of that lens I use both on IIIf and M film bodies with an adapter. It is shockingly sharp and contrasty.

I got a TT Artisan finder for it, but really, any generic 21mm finder will do. With ultra wides, especially, you're only going to approximate the image edges when you frame on a rangefinder. So, I zone focus and leave a bit on the edges of the frame "just in case".

Here is print scan from a negative I shot last month with that lens on a IIIf:

1744584377859.png
 
The f4 smears badly on digital, the 3.5 is great on digital. I used the f3.5 on the gfx 50r. In 65:24 mode it gave the same fov as the xpan and in 1:1 mode it was about the same as the SWC. Did not cover fully in 4:3 though.
 
Dear Board,

While I am not ashamed to admit that I am a cheapskate today I did myself proud as a skinflint.

I wanted to develop some film and having no proper approved way to hang it straight to dry I stumbled across these at the Dollar Tree. The princely sum of $ 2.50 bought me $ 20.00 worth of film clips if I bought specifically approved clips. These suckers are rubber tipped on the inside of the clamp and straightened out a roll of 120 film when hung to dry like they were weighted.

IMG_20250413_194810_MP by Tim Murphy, on Flickr

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg PA 🙂
 
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