Hello from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

Hi. I found apug in a British b&w photo magazine. This site just blows me away! I have found my kind! I had my first darkroom when I was 14 years old. I turn 52 this thursday. I have stayed the course with b&w. I shoot some colour, and I do have a digital camera, but I just love the old mechanical cameras the best.

My equipment is pretty eclectic. LF is two speed graphics, a pre-anny and a speed with a bunch of old lenses, from turn of the century tessars to a eurynar and a few ektars thrown in for good measure, some barrel lenses and some in shutters.

MF includes a few folders, a pentacon 6tl with 4 lenses, a Century Graphic with 80/2.8 Xenotar, 105/3.5 Colour Heliar, 105/4.5 Kodak Special Anastigmat (from a Monitor) and a 135/4.5 tominon, some tlrs, Yashica D with Yashinons, a Mint Rolleiflex T and I just got a Yashica A off ebay for $15. It's probably been dropped, since the nameplate is gone, but the lenses are clear, the shutter is snappy and the focus and the taking lens are in sync. I can't wait to try it.

35 is all over the map. I have been acquiring old screw mount slrs and lenses from ebay for pittance. First slr I had when I was a kid was a Mamiya Sekor 500tl. I now have two 1000 dtl's and I am having a blast shooting with them. Couple of ME supers, a K1000 and a bunch of k mount lenses are my "modern" 35mms. I have several retinas 1b to a 3c with aux lenses for the 3c. A lone Fed 5c too.

Darkroom includes a Beseler 23c and an ancient Testrite 4x5.

I've rambled on enough. I'm really enjoying this site. Lots of interesting people here with lots of experience.

Hi and welcome to APUG! You are among friends!

Welcome to Apug. You have found a community that is truely unique and passionate.

I even know where Thunder Bay is!!

Again, welcome.

Welcome from Ferndale michigan a little south of you.

Good to have you aboard APUG! Sounds like you've found your place on the web

Murray

Welcome from South Western Ontario. You made a good choice, enjoy your stay.

Greg

Welcome from a Stratford boy ... now in Rochester, NY, but I also lived in London many years ago. Lake Superior is my favourite area, I want to move to the area down the road.

Hey Buster ... I used to shop at Stan C. Reade a lot, plus Linden Photo.

Hi and welcome, from South East England

Stoo

Welcome from Melbourne, Australia.

Greetings from New Brunswick. It must cost you a pretty penny to keep those LF,s well fed. Most folks do not realize the shipping costs & taxes we Canadians incur PLUS the further north you get the higher the $$.

Glad to read your post
Mike

Welcome from the other coast of Canada! This site is awesome as you'll soon find out.

The exchanges are great to participate in and there are lots of threads to read and add to. You'll love it here.

BWKate

Thanks for all the welcome messages folks. Yes Mike, it does cost a lot to feed those speeds. However, my friends call me a cft (cheap f$%^& teacher). (BTW-Photography is my hobby, I don't teach it) I bought quite a bit (8 boxes of 100) of ood tmax when my college's photography program downsized and stopped using 4X5. It's in the freezer and works just fine. I also shoot lith film (cheap). I shoot it at iso 5 and soup it in rodinal at 1:100 with very little agitation. You can develop by inspection since you can watch it develop under the safelight. Not much lattitude, but not much grain either! I buy 5X7 lith from freestyle, and cut it. One sheet gives me 1 4X5 and 2 21/4X31/4. The 6X9 sheets are a little short, but they work fine in the holders. I shoot the stuff in my century graphic too. 300 sheets of film for under $30. Told you I was cheap. My biggest problem here is the unavailability of chemicals and darkroom materials. Everything is pretty much mail order.

One drawback to this site... I'm spending waayyyy too much time on my computer.

Rick.