Ching ching Ching ching Ching ching Ching ching!

[jimgalli]

Living out here in the wild west you'll occasionally walk into some casino and hear that sound. With about the same regularity and odds, I occasionally will open up one of my little ebay boxes, look at my "treasure" and say Ching ching Ching ching Ching ching....! Today was one of those days. In this case it was a 19" Wolly f10 process lens that went begging on Ebay with nary a bid at all. 6 or 7 weeks went by and for some reason I ran across that finished auction and sent the guy an offer of his opening bid of $45 if he would carefully pack it in a USPS flat rate box and send it to Nevada. It had a Packard shutter (broken but usually they are repairable although this one may in fact be dead). It's not the prettiest lens I've ever seen. Not much sex appeal. Then I noticed it had a little balsam seperation around the edges. But wait, why would an ordinary process dialyt have balsam?? So I pop the glass out of the barrel and holy cow 8 glasses~2 groups. Like a Protar. 80+ degrees! So quick like a bunny, I carve out a lens board and put it on the 12X20. Sure enough with a full 2" rise and a slight forward tilt, it's not only sharp as hell, but I can see right up through the aperture from the far corner. 16X20 coverage for $45. Not bad. Color me happy

 

[MattCarey]

I'll give you $50 for it!

Matt

 

[Paul Sorensen]

So, let me see, you have already saved a search for "a sack of lenses that must be junk because I don't know what they are," and now you are searching under "it must be bad since the packard shutter is broken and it looks old."

Jim, you have to give some of us a chance, us poor folks are completely at your mercy!

 

[jimgalli]

I'll give you $50 for it!

Matt

What do you take me for??? A Capitalist!! Nevahhhh. Who knows, there may be a 16X20 in my future :rolleyes:

 

[Paul Sorensen]

Actually, I can show off too. Once I bought a box of stuff from Jack's camera in Indiana on ebay. The listing said "rollei stuff" or some such. It had a Bay III Rollei lens hood in pristine shape with the case, also mint. There were many other beautiful items, including several mint chrome ring Nikkor filters and a mess of Rollei Bay III filters, including a softar. I paid about $30 for the box and sold the hood alone for over $100. I probably got $500 out of the box. I would have expected Jack's to know what they had, I have always found them to be a decent shop!

 

[Mateo]

OK, I'll bid $51.00

 

[MattCarey]

What do you take me for??? A Capitalist!! Nevahhhh. Who knows, there may be a 16X20 in my future :rolleyes:

"Honey, you see, I had this $45 lens, so I had to buy the camera and film holders..."

Matt

 

[jimgalli]

"Honey, you see, I had this $45 lens, so I had to buy the camera and film holders..."

Matt

That's right. Buy first, explain later

 

[Dave Wooten]

I think I'll put some balsam on a couple of my old lenses and see what they cover

 

[noseoil]

Jim, keep a lamp shade handy. The next large lens that shows up, hang the shade on it and explain how you had this inspiration for a new table lamp. A really long lens could be a floor lamp. tim

 

[laz]

I don't know about you all but I'm saving this thread for the day when we see that puppy up on ebay with a 2 grand reserve!

 

[jimgalli]

Well, the last laugh may be on me. I used that lens on the 12X20 this weekend..........and the negs suck. I'll of course check for gg/film plane registration with that holder, and shoot an 8X10 sheet on a "known" camera with the lens to check it out. But woof! I may have paid $45 for a $19 lens!

 

[Dave Wooten]

I'll give ya twenty.

 

[jimgalli]

Sorry Dave. I used it today on the 2D Kodak (a known) and the neg looks excellent++. Happy to clear up it's good name. Guess I better investigate the 12X20. It obviously has problems.