What have you just BOUGHT?

A KEH ugly rated Leica M2.

It showed up a few days ago. If looks mean anything, this camera has suffered from hard use the last couple years. Oh well.

I have some film in the camera now, let's see how things turn out.
 
A house. With full basement ready for a darkroom.

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some bits and pieces of Jobo print drums - because MY house doesn't have a basement for a darkroom!

I've been fine developing in the shared-purpose bathroom, but printing, not so possible since I switched to a 'big' enlarger. now I need to black out the room with the big Beseler, so I can expose paper there, put it in a drum, and take it to the other room to process.will sort out details over the winter, but I should soon be able to make up to 16x20 prints from 35mm thru 4x5.


A house. With full basement ready for a darkroom.

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A chrome Elmarit-M 24mm complete with plastic VF. Traded in 3 Nikon AIS lenses and had to top up quite a bit for it. Oh my, Leica prices have gone up quite a bit in recent years!
 
Just bought a Plustek 8100 scanner so i can finally share some of my home developing with everyone here. Can't wait to finish work and get started this evening.
 
Four lightmeters off evilBay. Gossen Sixtomat, Prinzlite III, Gossen Lunasix 3 and a Shepherd FM990. All for less than £10 total.

Ronnie
 
Picked this up at the flea market last Sunday

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Agfa Box 50 + some extras
Trench lighter and British P42 Bergen rucksack (dated 1944) ;)

Also waiting for my 5th Leica IIIc "Stepper" body to arrive ;)
 
A Minolta 2X 300-S Teleconverter, way much better than your average 2X. Works with all Minolta lenses up to 300mm. Rather rare item.

Seven copies of the "Minolta Contact Sheet", which was a newletter sent out to Minolta owners in days gone 'Bye.
 
Leica 135 f2.8 Elmarit. I saw this lens a few weeks ago at Kurland Photo's 5th floor store on Broadway (next door to the Leica Gallery.) I did not want this lens for all the reasons that very few people lust for it; namely, it's big, it's hard to focus, and it defies the whole ethos of Leica-ness. But the lens was competitively priced (read, cheap,) is pristine, its sn 3486xxx puts it at the tail end of the run, and it seems to have decent sharpness with what I'd call a dense rendering with my M9.

I'm only into RF since the early issue of the M8, so coming from the beefy pro-Canon realm, the lens's ergonomics feel comfortable. I haven't used it much, but I can see its niche for my purposes being people shots with flash at various events (mix of candid and portrait)--family and work related, much the same as when I used Canon tele-zooms. Better because it is in every way a Leica lens.

By the way, Kurland will be operating the new Leica store in SOHO when it opens (they hope) in a month or so. I had a nice conversation with staff about the cultural shift of the new store from a place that now does most of its business by phone or on the web. Very little foot traffic--I've been there 4-5 times, bought a lens previously, and have always been the only person in the store (itself arranged more like a gallery than a retail "operation.") SOHO will have tons of foot traffic, and serve people with just a surface knowledge of the high-end product, if that.

Interesting conversation about Leica's business plan, leading to serious inroads into mainstream high end SLRs. I was impressed by his noting that their particular business is not about offering bargains or gear which is pretty much standardized, but about giving reliable information--service--about the product. They do that well. There's a clear commitment to retain that, but also a concern. I wish them luck.
 
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