what waS your last photography related purchase?

Donald Qualls

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cost and installation of the charging station.

Aw, come on, when I was looking at whether I could afford a Model 3 (no!), I seem to recall it was only going to cost about $2000 to get a second meter (house panel is at capacity) and charger on a post in the yard on top of the cost of the car. That's barely noticeable if you're buying a Model Y (and you likely have the 240V amperage available and a garage to install in).

If I can't charge at home, even a single motor Model 3 (at slightly more than twice what I paid for my Ford) would cost me more to operate than my 2015 Fiesta, and I'd have to drive several miles, fifteen minutes near enough, out of my way twice a week to charge up (instead of having literally a dozen choices within two minutes of my daily commute to fill up on unleaded, and at least three to get E15, which I only need once a week).
 

VinceInMT

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Not to go too far OT (but this could apply to darkroom updates too) several years ago we had our home, and the house we own across the street that we use as a rental, upgraded, electrically. In the rental we had a new service from the pole bought in to a new 200A panel on the garage, a separate 220 panel in the garage, replace the main scary panel in the basement, and do a bunch of new wiring in the kitchen (which I was remodeling.). When they were done there they did much the same on my house, new wire from the pole, new 200A panel on the house, leave existing house sub panels, but add 220V and 110V outlets in the garage and run 110/220 to my new hot tub. I believe the total cost for both places was about $5,000. When we had them come in to put the outlet for our EV charge, the wire pull was less than 3 feet so only $247.

Regarding the other costs, we pay about .15/kWh here. The power company is transitioning to new meters that might allow for off-peak rates in the future. My wife (a CPA) has crunched the numbers and said that charging at home costs about 1/3 of what it costs to ”fuel” our ICE cars (we have 6) over the same distances. The cost of the car itself was really not much considering that the last car she bought was 24 years ago and it was not chosen for any other reason than she just wanted one. (GAS attack!!!)
 

gordrob

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A 16x20 Saunders 4 blade easel in like new condition with extra Spring Lift replacement parts. Couldn't pass it up for the price.
 

Donald Qualls

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charging at home costs about 1/3 of what it costs to ”fuel” our ICE cars (we have 6) over the same distances.

That's close to what I calculated too (obviously varies with electric rates; North Carolina is paying for a bunch of solar farms and coal ash cleanups at present). Comparatively, if you have to charge at a charging station, you'll pay more per mile even with a Leaf (never mind any flavor of Tesla, Ford Lightning, or Rivian) than an economy gasoline car. Like buying 35 mm film in 100 foot (or 1000 foot) rolls vs. already rolled in 24 exposure cassettes...
 

VinceInMT

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Both my kids drive Teslas and get free charging where they work. My wife told me that many chargers in Canada are free. That would sort of like buying film with free developing.
 

Donald Qualls

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sort of like buying film with free developing.

Closer to buying a Hasselblad and getting free film (until they cut it off). Tesla buyers here in the US got free Supercharge access from market introduction until sometime in 2022 -- and then had to pay the same price as everyone else...
 

AnselMortensen

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Closer to buying a Hasselblad and getting free film (until they cut it off). Tesla buyers here in the US got free Supercharge access from market introduction until sometime in 2022 -- and then had to pay the same price as everyone else...

That's how 'pushers' work.
 

abruzzi

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I was considering a plug-in hybrid a year ago, but since I park my cars about 150ft from the nearest 110 outlet and 200 ft from the the main circuit breakers in my house, the cost didn't add up. (+$10k for the hybrid version vs the gas version of the same car, and probably +$5-7k for the electrical installation.)
 

Donald Qualls

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It's been broke out, so I haven't bought anything photographic in several months. Things are starting to improve though (hopefully that won't jinx it). First on the list will be a Minox and a few cassettes (I'll buy film strips or build a slitter and cut my own). I'll start a thread to ask about which model to look for...
 

Disconnekt

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Got a propack (5 rolls) of Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 in 120 (expired in 2008) off evilbay.
 

Yashica

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Contax G1 green label. Finally pulled the plug, Firmware "hacking" my silver G1 didn't worked out,
too much time waste and frustration about that shit, so another 500 quid. Some unplanned extra cost,
but i want to shoot my fine Planar 35/F2 again.

And the G2 is out of question - simply being too expensive nowadays, for what it is, after all, it's
gear from 1996. And the G1 turned 30 this year.
 

Kodachromeguy

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A Nikon Coolscan 5000 is on the way. I hope it is fully functional. Coolscans may have dropped a bit in price compared to 4 or 5 years ago, when I last looked. I will try to load NikonScan on my 32-bit Dell computer running Win 7.
 

Dustin McAmera

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I have just paid for (don't have it yet) a second-hand tripod; almost the same model as the one I think I left out on a hill, or possibly in a car park, a year or so ago. What an idiot. It wasn't an expensive one, and mostly it served as extra luggage (that is, even after carrying it all day I often didn't bother to use it when I should have done), but I liked it and have been pining for it ever since I realised it was gone. The one I'm expecting now is three sections not four, so it will be a little longer hanging off my bag.

(just watch me find the old one now...)
(actually, I would be delighted if that happened)
 
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benjiboy

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My most recent purchase was a Canon Power Winder FN for my Canon New F 1's, it came in the original box and instructions and seems like brand new.
 

Donald Qualls

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Kino

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3000g scale to 0.01 accuracy for chemical mixing. My old one was only good for full gram measurements.
 

chuckroast

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I don't think even Vuescan will run on Win7 any more.

Vuescan still runs on XP running in a VM on my Linux machine

That is to say, there is still a functioning 32bit version of the product, so I'd guess the W7 support is still likely since it is a considerably new OS.

Obviously, I use the native Linux version for everything, but I wanted to use VueScan with a scanner that has no Linux drivers.
 
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koraks

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3000g scale to 0.01 accuracy

I'm skeptical. That's effectively around 19 bit resolution. Getting that sort of resolution from a mass-manufactured load cell system is nigh impossible. I'd estimate the real-world resolution at around 15 bits on a good day. That would be around 0.1g real world accuracy - which is still very respectable. For weighing out stuff below 10g or so I'd recommend getting one of the smaller scales with a range up to 50g or so.
 

chuckroast

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That was my conclusion as well, claims to the contrary notwithstanding. I use one scale for 1g resolution (which claims to be correct to 0.1 g), another for 0.1g resolution (which claims to be correct to 0.01g). The latter is a small jeweler's scale.
 

Kino

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Ye gods! Close enough for me; at least it gives me some indication of what portion of a gram I am weighing.

If it's consistently incorrect, then its correct enough for me.
 

koraks

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I'd have no issue trusting it down to about 0.5, so for larger weights it's perfectly fine. Just keep it in mind in case you ever need to weigh out something like phenidone etc where you're dealing with (1) small weights and (2) significant effects of relatively small errors.
 
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