even-steven

removed account4 · Jul 12, 2013

there are all sorts of threads here on apug about
what is the latest RF equipment, whats the latest 35mm and LF and darkroom yadda-yadda-yadda ...

now ...
what's the most expensive piece of photo equipment you have bought.
you can tell us the price if you want, or just type the name ... and then
the best deal so they sort of cancel eachother out

i bought a toho 5x7 to 4x5 adapter board, probably the most expensive thing i have ever bought
it took 3 months to ship and the price was hefty ... but around the same time i bought 2000 sheets of 5x7 tri x for 20$
so im even-steven

David Brown · Jul 12, 2013

Most expensive: The RHDesigns Stop Clock Pro and the 8 foot Delta1 sink. Both new and retail.

Best deal: The entire darkroom of a converted to digital local pro - including Beseler 4x5, 4 Schneider lenses, sink, safelights, tanks, trays, timers, chems, paper and a partridge in a pear tree - for $200.

Ken Nadvornick · Jul 12, 2013

Most expensive camera item?
The Fujifilm GF670 folder, plus accessories.
A reward for completing 2 years of tough software development skill set upgrades.
Call it about USD $2,000, or so, after shipping.

The best camera deal?
Any of the lost cameras I found while working at Disneyland many decades ago.
Took 'em to Lost and Found, waited six months, if unclaimed, they were mine!
An infinite return on investment.

Most expensive darkroom item?
A tie between the Hass Intellifaucet K250 and the Heiland TRD2/02 densitometer.
The K250 is easily the best single darkroom item I have ever purchased!
Each around USD $1,100 at the time, after all was said and done.

The best darkroom deal?
Probably the fully water-jacketed, 4-tank SS 8x10 Arkay sheet film processing line.
A little bit of Naval Jelly (phosphoric acid) clean-up and it looked brand new.
I'm currently converting it into a DIY gaseous burst system.
Original, pre-conversion cost was USD $85, as I recall.

Ken

Sirius Glass · Jul 12, 2013

Hasselblad 903 SWC

winger · Jul 12, 2013

Hasselblad 503cxi with back and 80mm = around 2k in 1998 or so.

Was given a Beseler 45MX with three lenses as well as a barrel lens in 2007 (more odds and ends, too). All in great shape.

mwdake · Jul 12, 2013

Not sure if this is my most expensive, but it is a Super Graphic kit for about $300

Best deal was a whole darkroom with a Durst 4x5 enlarger, a Durst 6x6 enlarger, tons of Durst stuff, lots of Jobo stuff with a CPP-2, a whole lot of darkroom gear, 12 8x10 and 20 4x5 new in the box film holders; I think the list could go on for a few more lines and the whole lot was free.

mike c · Jul 12, 2013

Looks like the darkroom stuff are the best deals and so it was with me,Craigslist listed a Sanders LPL 4550XLG with VCCE and complete darkroom to boot all for $275.

The most expensive purchase was my Hasselblad 500CM I bought new in 1978 for what I thought was a lot of money, still use it today.

MattKing · Jul 12, 2013

The most expensive: my first APUG membership (indirectly).

The best deal: my APUG membership

Barry S · Jul 12, 2013

Ken Nadvornick said:
The K250 is easily the best single darkroom item I have ever purchased!

I just installed one in my darkroom and it's awesome. Seeing those valves rotate is a trip. I've never had a thermostatic regulator in my darkroom, so it's like having a full time assistant to mix my water.

Ken Nadvornick · Jul 13, 2013

Barry S said:
I just installed one in my darkroom and it's awesome. Seeing those valves rotate is a trip. I've never had a thermostatic regulator in my darkroom, so it's like having a full time assistant to mix my water.

Absolutely agree, Barry. Aren't they amazing?

When I was contructing this latest darkroom I charted the cold water temperature once every two weeks for a full year, just to be certain I was below 68F for enough weeks to make the purchase worthwhile. Turns out my highest low came on August 11th and peaked at 66.9F. The following year it was coincidently the same (but on a slightly different date) and to my amazement even with only a 1.4F differential the unit had no problem whatsoever supplying a rock-steady 68F.

Although not really necessary, I baby mine in only two respects. First, I filter both the hot and cold lines down to 1-micron. Cartridges are cheap, and I figure it keeps pretty much ALL harmful grit out of those solenoid-driven valves. And second, I routinely purge all residual water pressure from both sides of the valves at the end of each darkroom session. That certainly can't hurt, and it might just help protect the seals over time.

I talked to Dave Hass personally over the telephone during my purchase and configuration cycle in 2003. He was pretty darned proud of these units. Ten years later and mine hasn't skipped a single beat.

Someone once wrote that if you are going to build a photo darkroom, definitely give up something else in order to get one of these. Best darkroom equipment advice I ever got.

Ken

BradleyK · Jul 13, 2013

Most expensive? A toss-up (I would have to search for receipts) between my 600mm Nikon F4 ED and my 50mm F1.4 Summilux M Asph. Best deal? A virtually spotless ( even the manual was unwrinkled and the box and packaging look like they had just come off the shelf) F5 for $212.00 USD off ebay last fall...or maybe the F3HP I scored last month for $70.00 ( also with all the original packaging)? There again, as Matt King says, APUG membership - the opportunity to access the brain-trust here...is one H..l of a bargain!

polyglot · Jul 13, 2013

Most expensive: probably my Sigma 100-300/4 APO ($1200) then decided that really, I don't like getting up at 0500 to go birding. And having a good bird photo really only proves that you can afford long fast glass and got up early.

Best deal: DeVere 504 with colour head, 3 Rodagons, 8x10 and 16x20 easels for $150. Or maybe the Dynax 5 I got for $10; I ended up making an xmas present out of that (plus a 50/1.7) to someone who was interested in starting out with film.

perkeleellinen · Jul 13, 2013

I got an LPL C7700 for £50 on here and I once got a Contax II with 50mm lens for the price of a pack of ten cigarettes. Most expensive was probably my FM2, bought new in the '90s.

gandolfi · Jul 13, 2013

Well - even though my first Gandolfi was my all time most expensive purchace (10x8 - with 4x5 reducing back - a boyer 300mm lens and suitcase for about 4300$ in -92) I'm doing good!

I can't tell how many cameras and darkroom items I have been given since..

But another Gandolfi - 3 durst Laborator 138's - loads of smaller cameras (among them 5 Pentax67's with lenses)...

I am a lucky guy!

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Jul 13, 2013

Most expensive : 5 Barnack Leicas and a Leicaflex for working 9 AM to 1 AM , 7 days a week. Every night I was hitchhiking to my home , 70 kilometers , one night I stuck in snow storm at 2.30 am night at the middle of the road and bread carrying truck rescued me.
I heard 2 people frozen where I stucked that night.

One night at 1.30 am , I fall in sleep in the bus and bus carried me 100 kilometers away. I was not aware where I was and I started to walking.
I climbed to the hill and I heard voices and I escaped. But they found me , they were soldiers , they found a car and sent me to the home.

After these experiences , I quit working and I will never work for someone in entire life. I am not working for 13 years.

ambaker · Jul 13, 2013

Most expensive? I Gus's that would be my Canon A-1 kit. Bought it new, back in 81, with several lenses and the motor drive. Still have it, but it has developed the squeak, in the last year.

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Sirius Glass · Jul 13, 2013

MattKing said:
The most expensive: my first APUG membership (indirectly).

The best deal: my APUG membership

Joining APUG has led me to new [used] cameras, equipment, darkroom and caused a great expenditure of money. Hence joining APUG is the most expensive thing I have done.

ambaker · Jul 24, 2013

Sirius Glass said:
Joining APUG has led me to new [used] cameras, equipment, darkroom and caused a great expenditure of money. Hence joining APUG is the most expensive thing I have done.

Joining APUG would be #3 on my list.

#2 Getting Married

#1 Raising three boys

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Dennis S · Jul 24, 2013

Sirius Glass said:
Joining APUG has led me to new [used] cameras, equipment, darkroom … and caused a great expenditure of money. Hence joining APUG is the most expensive thing I have done.

eBlay and APUG suggested WHAT to buy .

Vaughn · Jul 24, 2013

Two ebay buys. A lot of 3 or 4 8x10 plate holders bought for cheap...turned out to be NOS, as far as I could tell, and the most modern plate holders I have seen. On the other side, a box of quarter plate holders...a bunch of them, again cheap (shipping was several times the bid price), but they fell apart in my hands -- the glue failed on all of them. I still used them, but had to take them totally apart and re-glue them...and time consuming, but easy task. They needed the cleaning, anyway.

Peltigera · Jul 26, 2013

I don't really do expensive. The most expensive camera I have bought is my Zenit E in 1973 which cost me £45.00 (Two weeks wages). The best bargain I have is a Zeiss Ikon Contessa LKE which cost me £1.04 on Ebay - a superb camera which has been in constant use over the last two years.

omaha · Jul 26, 2013

Relative to inflation and my meager (which is to say, virtually non-existent) income at the time, my most expensive photography purchase ever was my brand new K1000 in 1981.

Terry Christian · Jul 26, 2013

Most expensive: I got into serious photography when I bought my Nikon D80 DSLR with kit lens and SB-800 speedlight. That was $1400 and I have no foreseeable plans to upgrade unless at some point I find myself a D700 for cheap. If you only count analog gear, it would be the Tachihara Zone VI 4x5 kit I bought last November for $600 from the local camera shop, which included two Schneider lenses, film holders, and other goodies. It was too good a package deal to pass up.

To even that out, I've received a few cameras for free, or next to nothing from APUG, RFF, KEH clearance, etc.

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Jeff Kubach · Jul 26, 2013

MattKing said:
The most expensive: my first APUG membership (indirectly).

The best deal: my APUG membership

+1

Jeff

dpurdy · Jul 26, 2013

In terms of even Steven I have been given a lot more than my most expensive purchase.
Among the things I've been gifted......a 355 red dot artar and a 210 gold dot dagor. As well as a Rollei T and a Nikon D1X.
The most expensive thing I bought is a Rollei 2.8FX
The only thing I ever took out a bank loan for was a new 355 Schneider Gold Dot Dagor which I sold when I got the 355 red dot artar.
I found an M3 SS leica with 50mm dual range summicron for 450.00 at a garage sale that I sold to buy a pentax 67 with 2 lenses.
Dennis

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