What is the oddest peice of equipment you have?

[Links_147]

I was visiting an old friend in my hometown recently and was astounded at the many odd things he had collected (mostly for free i might add) over the years. As an example i think his crowning piece would be a disk processing machine, we both had used it for years as a temp stabilization bath and never thought to ask if it could do anything else.

So what is the oddest bit of equipment you have?

 

[nick mulder]

hmmm,

not too fancy but my Lomo 100' 35mm daylight developing tank is pretty cool - the boxes (I have more than one) are very colorful and erm... 'Russian'

Some of the alt process gumph that one ends up with look like props for Whose Line is it Anyway

 

[jp80874]

The camera operator.

John Powers

 

[Q.G.]

A wire remote release for the 1000-series Hasselblad cameras.
It consists of a reel, on which a thin wire is wound, with one end of it connected to a spring driven plunger.
The plunger screws into the cable release socket, and is primed. A tug on the wire trips a catch and the plunger does the business.

The weirdest i would like to have was one thing (Hasselblad again) that wasn't put into production. It is a pistol grip with built-in mechanical generator. Every time you press the trigger, you not just release the camera, but also generate the tiny amount of electricity the camera needs.
Great idea! Too bad it never went into production.

 

[DBP]

An Autoknips for a cable release.

 

[Q.G.]

The Gitzo air piston self timer/shutter release.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Focorect by H. Schneider & Co., Hamburg. It clamps onto any uncoupled rangefinder camera with a lens that takes 32mm slip-on accessories and by means of its own focusing elements and rangefinder turns the camera into a coupled rangefinder camera. The camera lens stays focused at infinity. It works, but the optical quality of the focusing lenses leaves something to be desired. If speed of operation takes precedence over absolute optical quality, though, it has its uses.

http://www.klausschicht.de/focorect_e.html

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Polaroid 4x5" End Cap Width masters

I dont know what this is for but I acquired a custom made wooden box from Polaroid. On the top it reads 4X5" END CAP WIDTH MASTERS
with an ID number of ID9636

There are 3 lower labeled markers .100 LOW LIMIT , .110 NORMAL and
.120 HIGH LIMIT

When the box is opened there are 3 metal items enclosed which also bare these numbers only on their tops to mark which one goes into which appropriate bay.

In the top right hand corner of the boxes top it reads POLAROID CORPORATION FILM DEVISION INSTRUMENTATION IT. NO 001096

There is also a calibration sticker which reads
date 10-6-98
due 10-6-99
ID 9636


The metal plates/blades inside each weigh 305 grams and measure 2inchesx4.5inches by 0.35 inches thick (at their thickest end)

The plates also revealed an odd property when being weighed they revealed to be highly magnetic being able to support their own weight.

ONE ADDITIONAL NOTE. it may be important that there is one difference in the 3 metal items and it isn't really able to be shown via photographing them and posting it on apug. but all three of these metal items have the metal cut in the same way but the final ridge on the metal where it tapers off to a point varies and it varies by the o.1 of a millimeter. It is an ultra precise variant in the way the metal is shaped.
it required very careful and close observation for me to notice this.

 

[David Brown]

I have a daylight developing tank made by Kodak for 35mm film. It was given to me years (decades) ago. It is designed so that even the extraction of the film from the cassette and loading onto the reel is done in the daylight. I've never actually used it, since I can see several points where the process could fail.

 

[paulie]

i owned a french900mm boyer apo lens that would cover 20x24" negs and weighed 18kg



here it is next to a 135mm takumar

 

[David Brown]

David, if it is one of these, they work pretty well as long as you follow the instructions.

Greg:

That's exactly what it is! I guess I just never had a need to try it. Maybe I'll put it on Ebay as a "rare collectable" and start the bidding at $500.

 

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

A 30" Roll paper easel. It automatically rolls paper from one side to the other, variable length, completely light-tight on wheels, with a 30" roll of colour paper in it that I've never been able to use...
$1, pickup-only ebay auction not sure why I own it. Currently in storage

EDIT: Okay, I lied, I own a lot of weird stuff.

8" Automatic roll paper cutter, you set the length of the paper you want, load the roll, and it cuts the paper to size and leaves it in a neat pile at the end. Takes about half a second for each sheet and has a very satisfying slice noise. $1.

Ilford 2150 Automatic RC paper processory, maximum width is 20" (? I think), didnt come with the dryer attachment, but I havent had anywhere to plumb it in to try it. $20 (still had the $950 price tag attached)

A Noritsu C41 film processor & and a Fuji analogue minilab. Plus spare parts for pretty much everything - an entire second minilab in boxes. Roll paper cartridges for the minilab, about a dozen, each with paper from 4"-8". The thing I like about the minilab is that it's just an automatic enlarger, it prints optically - load the negative, it focuses automatically and does all the exposure based on your inputs, then it shoots into the processing unit, then out the other end as a finished optical print. $2.70. Currently in storage for lack of space.

 

[Dave Pritchard]

...
Currently in storage for lack of space.
...

Yes. I see.

 

[photomem]

I have a Kodak Hotshoe to Flashcube adapter. I have no use for it, but it is kinda neat looking.

 

[DKT]

we have five of those 2150 machines where I work. one works, but is largely unused. another works, but is mothballed. the rest are parts machines, on top of a whole slew of new parts, the tools and field manuals. we were set and ran our lab into the dying days--where we are now. nobody seems to want those 2150s. the surplus lot doesn't want them. none of the local photo schools or arts centers want them. it's a real shame. this is like a stockpile of ilford parts, and the value is like zero or less than zero. like a burden almost.

I don't consider it to be "esoteric" though. I used it every day for almost ten years. same with wing lynches.

the oddest piece of equipment we have is our 1 mp Nikon dslr we bought back in 1995-96. It draws the oddest looks from the photo students who tour our studio. built on an F4 body, but the size of an RB67, no LCD screen, uses a tiny tv screen that slips on the hot shoe and runs on 2 AAs. shot to PCMIA cards. I tell them--your cell phone has higher resolution than this. They love the 2150s though, anyone who takes a darkroom class loves that machine. Too bad nobody seems to actually want one.

 

[cmo]

- a Leitz AUFSU accessory finder, great for street shots
- a Zeiss Sonnar 1.5/5cm in Leica (!) threadmount (original, made in 1943 or so), and it's not a russian fake
- a Zeiss Biogon 4.5/21mm, made for Zeiss-Ikon Contarex, with an extremely rare M-Leica adapter

 

[MattKing]

My Koni-Omegas?

Matt

 

[Jim Edmond]

I suppose it would be the Instoscope extinction light meter, complete with Scheiner scale.

 

[Curt]

A Hollywood tripod.

 

[Vaughn]

If I knew what it was, I'd tell you.

 

[Dennis S]

Mine happens to be an AGFA Isolette 6 x 6 folder

 

[Laurent]

Might be the piece of Velcro I found on the beach. It is 2 inches wide and perfectly secures my tripod on the backpack. Until I found it, the tripod was dancing on my back (the bungee cords provided by Lowepro are clearly not suited for "real" tripods).

 

[gandolfi]

I have a lot of old strange stuff.

these two are a fingerprint camera... and a couple of darkroom lights, made for petrolium..

Beautiful stuff
.

 

[Steve Smith]

Might be the piece of Velcro I found on the beach.

I found a large glass thermometer on the beach about twenty years ago. I used it for measuring my film developer chemistry until last year when I broke it.

I have no idea how it managed to find itself on the beach and in one piece.


Steve.

 

[Laurent]

I found a large glass thermometer on the beach about twenty years ago. I used it for measuring my film developer chemistry until last year when I broke it.

I have no idea how it managed to find itself on the beach and in one piece.


Steve.

I found a glass with red wine on the beach last year (still have to print the neg, by the way ;-). Not sure it came by sea though !