Post your recent bargains!

I thought I would post this, I am not superstitious so don't think this will 'jinx' anything... I work with spirit and energy often and I use the gut instinct that goes with it for other things... Unlike my partner who goes nuts if i put salt on his dinner or cross on the stairs! Walking under the ladder is the best one =D

Anyway, I thought it best to start a topic for people to post their recent bargains!

First up:
Bargain #1: Kentmere kentona 12x16 in 50 sheets... Have used two of them and the quality was perfect despite age! for £15 + 5 shipping i got two boxes of 50 12x16 in paper, one is ilford warm tone, other kentmere kentona, both work LOVLEY! also had 9.5 x XX? in... This had some base curling during drying (FB paper) but it worked lovely and was easy to flatten out! - ebay

Bargain #2 £15 DURST tricolour safelight... B/W filter shot but the colour one works well! Does not fog my paper after several minutes exposure and is very bright! Is great for illuminating the trays directly and enlarger indirectly. I always like to keep paper in the safe in total darkness to prevent any fog anyway as running one sheet is better than ruining a few! He found a spare 7/12 watt lamp for it before sending the timer i bought from him and threw that in - ebay

Bargain #3 superb Bell and Howell flash gun with all the different filters have seen them go for like £50... looks superb! - ebay same seller as DURST light, also bought a superb timer from him as well. £9.99! - ebay


Bargain #4 2 hoya filters (1 skylight, 1 polarizer 52mm) and slide on filters of all different types... £5 at a car boot.

Bargain #5 Seller of the massive papers as shown in #1 offered me two massive 5L bottles of fixer for £15... kodak unifix and ilford HYPAM both thrown in with the paper... lovely guy he is I have kept in touch... He threw in an opened half full hypam bottle too but this turned out to be inactive and had many little bits in it, but the bottle is in use for RA4 blix once it was thoroughly cleaned.. i then separate my RA4 chems into 1L zoom bottles... he even sent them before I had paid as we had opted to transfer the money direct but my bank refused without the correct phone numbers (which had not updated despite frequent calls) and i paid for them the day they arrived by paypal and paid the fee on my end as by then I had still not resolved the problem with the bank and didn't want to hold up paying any longer as he had said just do it when I could!

Bargain #6 100 sheets of 5x7 Fuji Crystal Archive RA4 paper... years old I know... but gut told me to take the risk... for a mere £6.99 (this was including shipping) i bid the 0.99 and won it for that... Paper arrived today (the bang as the package hit the floor startled me and one of my housemates) and tested it out with a photo of my sisters hamster she doesn't know exists as the prints went missing a long time ago and one of my mother and stepdads honeymoon... I found and sneaked the negatives ... the results? PERFECT at M110 Y90 after some experimentation... I always assume old RA4 paper to have fog or a yellowish cast as some old RA4 paper I own has... I shoot very little colour but is nice to have the paper on hand for when I do! (or if you've found and sneaked old negatives from your parents house on your last visit )

Bargian #7 searched the town for a 12x16 in photo frame at all mainstream shops ( this is bath, UK mark you)... and one tiny one-man photo shop had them in! plus he also sells VC black and white paper including 5x7 a quid cheaper than online and without delivery charges! It is fotospeed and i haven't tried it before though but it should be fine He has offered me C41 negatives only with scans for £3 which will come in handy for the little colour I shoot then i can print what I need in the darkroom... £12 for a lovely wooden frame (for the photo of me and my partner on the kentona.

Bargain #8 ilford sheet film 4x5 and some 4x5 b/w paper about 50 sheets... £5... Cold-stored. Should be good if this carries on the way it is as B/W film is robust! I do not shoot LF nor can my enlarger handle any bigger than 120 but I plan to use it for a pinhole camera so i can make contact prints

The seller of the 5x7 RA4 paper has sold me 2 boxes of 50 12x16 (one has been opened, the other sealed) for £25... hopefully I will get a good load too! I always accept the risk I take with RA4 paper.. b/w paper seems to last and last and last... Id say kentona was less stable due to the chlorine in the emulsion?

Lat year I did get about 30 rolls of expired colour film expired like 3 years prior and it worked well and I had had it cold-stored most of the time up to now... I rarely shoot colour but they worked well.. Fuji ISO 200 film... for FREE!


So many bargains to be had when for the same items I see people paying through the roof for the same items I know no one ever touches old RA4 paper often unless for lomo due to the risks involved... for the low prices I am fine with taking the risk when i feel it will pay off for it's intended purpose I now have a problem of cold-storing it as stated on the box as I am now in a shared house luckily my room is big enough to be a darkroom as well on demand! the master bedroom =) the 5x7 i will probably use within a few months... I want some of it for my 18th (the occasion will warrant a roll of colour alongside B/W) but i know RA4 paper at ambient temperatures don't hold for that long... I never print every shot on a roll.. only the best ones that warrant going in an album or on the wall

So these are mine


Hopefully more to come! Post your list of recent bargains

Most recent bargain: a Pentax MX and 50mm f/2 lens for $40 from Craigslist. Camera was a little dirty but cleaned up fine. I need to replace the light seals (not leaky but probably will be soon if not dealt with). Other than that, it's a great camera. I love it!

ME Super - chrome - excellent+ cosmetics, needs a CLA (hello, Eric....)
ME winder II - slight corrosion from old batteries, but cleaned up nicely, and works perfectly.
SMC M 50mm F1.7 - like new
Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8 - like new
Vivitar 75-205mm F3.8 - excellent cosmetics and function, but some magenta spotting on front element.
Super Albinar 49mm close up kit - +1, +2, & +3
Vivitar 550 FD Auto Thyristor flash - like new
Assorted filters to fit all 3 lenses
Cable release
All in a padded aluminum case..........$40 on CL.

Yashica FX-3 and 50mm ML lens... $10 on ebay.

olympus xa 2 for $2 at thrift store.

I recently scored, on Ebay of all places, an 8X10 Wolly series I Velostigmat and a 5X7 R.O.C Symmetrical for the combined princely sum of 48 USD shipped. The seller put up the listing as a buy it now, and I probably spotted it minutes after it went up. The glass in both lenses cleaned up nicely, and I've made some paper negs with the Wolly. In spite of its appearance, it's very usable, and I consider it a lucky find. This is a very early one, with a 4 digit serial number. The later 1a Velostigmats are Protar VIIa copies, but this one is a Royal Anastigmat, and not often seen.

Contax RTS III in superb condition (with working, decent LED display) for € 299,-- from a dealer.

I just won a bid for 6 bottle of HC-110 replenisher for $15. Since Kodak doesn't make it anymore, it's a extra special bargain. I'm still waiting for delivery.

They don't make HC-110? Or just the replenisher (if that's different)?

Replenisher is different.

Kodak stopped making HC-110 replenisher. HC-110 syrupy concentrate is still available. If they announce that they'll stop making the developer, I'm going to get a couple of cases because the stuff keeps for a long, long time.

Contax RTS III body for $400 USD, and a TLA 280 flash for $36.

This is the Darkroom section so why post about cameras and lenses ?

Ian

My bad - I saw this in the New Posts list, not from the sub-forum, so I didn't see where it was located. And I wasn't the first to make that mistake.

Friend of mine with a commercial lab donated to me 7 or 8 boxes of 12x16 paper (50 each), some of them no longer in production, including two boxes of Kentmere Art Document paper, and some other useful stuff (two bottles of TMax developer and rapid fixer) among those. Even more valuable than the hardware is his advice based on fourty years in the darkroom business, which he also is willing to give for free.

I think most if not all of what I have bought recently could be called a bargain. My whole darkroom setup I managed to acquire for around $200. That includes two Durst M605 colour enlargers, safelights, a Durst printo paper developing system, enlarging lenses, focus finders, easels, trays etc. Most of it was just given away, actually. My garage is half-full with darkroom equipment that I am not even using as I do not have enough space in my makeshift darkroom. So the next step is to build a proper darkroom. That is going to cost slightly more than $200 though ;-).

A fine Minolta Model 3 enlarger, with working dichroic color head, 6x7 mixing box, neg carriers, and the ultra fine Minolta 80mm enlarging lens. Free.
A fellow APUG member has since gifted me the 35mm mixing box, and some other things to make it a complete setup. Cost of shipping only.

It's a great enlarger to work with, if you have 35mm, 6x6 or 6x7 negatives to work with. I have since discovered that 645 negatives can't be used unless they are cut into individual frames while sacrificing the adjacent frames. That, to me, is just plain stupid.

Leica Focomat Ic for EUR 35.

Hello, I suppose you're from UK?
I'm from south of France and very interested with your papers; specialy the kentona.
If you still have it could we make a deal for you to send it in France.
Thank you.
Christophe

Sorry, the kentona isn't for sale, it has a lot of use to me and it is a lovley emulsion! Have already used a few sheets.
Sorry again,
Jacob

I was looking for my second 120 stainless steel reel and came across a large set of darkroom stuff for $50 at local. So I bought the whole set. Later I sold a stainless steel development tank (w/ two 35mm reels), a patterson development tank (w/ two 35mm reels), two boxes of leftover ilford photo papers (I do not do print myself), and a yankee 4x5 development tank, for a total of $60. Now I still have a 120 reel, a 1L unicolor C-41 development kit, a bunch of film clips, several measure cups, and some misc darkroom stuff.

My bargains of the past week

I love this topic, because I naturally love bargains, along with photography. In the past three weeks I have brought home

An Arkay 16"x20" fiber paper dryer $25, very lightly used with extra fabric
An Omega 600 dichroic C enlarger, free, with 2 lenses, near mint
Omega timer, free
Omega power supply, free
Several easels up to 20", like new
A Unidrum rotator with two drums, free
Cibachrome developing tank set, free
Patterson grain magnifier, free
Patterson small drum and reel, free
Large paper cutter, industrial weight, free
metal filing cabinet, free
Beseler 67C, bought for $120 with a large number of trays, a Tamron adaptall 35-135, new large printing easel, Sekonic studio light meter, an 11x14 contact printing frame, and the same in 8x10, all like new
Beseler 45 with three Schneider lenses, all carriers, new IC enlarging timer, multiple trays, 2 large Kodak hanging safelights and a pile of other stuff all for $100.
laboratory glassware, various items, free
miscellaneous safelights, free
miscellaneous books, free

Sadly, some stuff which came home will not stay here, such as the industrial power purifier which has a 50 db hum, and which must weigh 50 pounds. And I probably will never use the Polaroid digital-to-film recorder, formerly from a hospital imaging department, though I did find some NT4 drivers for it. Now if t would record to 6x7 that would be a good toy worth trying.

Thanks for the fun topic. I'll post anything new later.

Two Minolta 7000 cameras, a Minolta AFzoom 70-210 "beercan" , & a 50mm 1.7 Minolta AF lens all for $37 shipped. Everything appears to work fine