what waS your last photography related purchase?

[cjbecker]

4 more bottles of Adox neutol eco.

 

[Paraframe]

A Nikkormat ft (no N) so my 28mm has a place to live/so my 50mm can have its home back on my Nikon F. My logic, why carry two lenses when you can carry two cameras? Haha.

 

[Tel]

A new/old set of closeup lenses for my Minolta autocord (complete with a parallax correction lens). I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the test shots. I’ve had a few such closeup sets in the past (for other cameras and mostly aftermarket stuff) with mediocre results. But Minolta hit one out of the park….

 

[baachitraka]

Fixer and Stop bath salts from fotoimpex.

 

[Kino]

A hardback copy of "Photographic Materials and Processes" by Leslie Strobel, John Compton, Ira Current and Richard Zakia, Focal Press 1986.

 

[ivan35mm]

Linhof T-Lock shutter release cable

 

[FriedLouisStudio]

I recently got an Olympus Zuiko OM 50mm/f3.5 Auto Macro lens for my OM-1 and OM-2. I'm still shooting a test roll with it.

I'm not really a 50mm guy - I don't think I've mounted the 50/1.8 I got with my OM-G/OM20 back in 1983 since the day I bought it - I prefer using the 35/2 as my normal lens. But I was intrigued by the macro aspect, and this lens was only $60 from UsedPhotoPro. It was rated Good, not Excellent... but it looks like it came from the factory yesterday, not 40 years ago... there's not a mark anywhere on it, the aperture click-stops are tight, the focus smooth. (Probably a classic case of the original owner just letting it sit in a gadget bag or drawer for decades.)

I gotta say: if this pristine, seemingly perfect lens is only rated Good, then how could an Excellent or Mint sample be better?!?

 

[MattKing]

I recently got an Olympus Zuiko OM 50mm/f3.5 Auto Macro lens for my OM-1 and OM-2. I'm still shooting a test roll with it.

I'm not really a 50mm guy - I don't think I've mounted the 50/1.8 I got with my OM-G/OM20 back in 1983 since the day I bought it - I prefer using the 35/2 as my normal lens. But I was intrigued by the macro aspect, and this lens was only $60 from UsedPhotoPro. It was rated Good, not Excellent... but it looks like it came from the factory yesterday, not 40 years ago... there's not a mark anywhere on it, the aperture click-stops are tight, the focus smooth. (Probably a classic case of the original owner just letting it sit in a gadget bag or drawer for decades.)

I gotta say: if this pristine, seemingly perfect lens is only rated Good, then how could an Excellent or Mint sample be better?!?

It's a fun lens - and the deeply inset front element means you hardly ever need a lens hood

 

[Stolk]

This one just shipped to me, off eBay.

I look forward to trying it out. I don’t know the focal length nor aperture at this point. I assume it is a Petzval portrait lens with approximately 8cm front glass.

And the name “Charles Korn” is very obscure. Does anyone know anything about that Parisian opticien?

 

[Ian Grant]

More Mahogany/Sapeke.

Just started making an adapter to use my £20 Sinar Copal shutter with my 10x8 Agfa Ansco Commercial View. Last week I made some lens boards and adapter, the one below came with a second 10x8 Agaa Ansco, it had been made to take Pacemaker Graphic lens boards, with very slight adaption, then refacing with veneer it is now dual purpose, Linhof/Wista, as well as Pacemaker, lens boards. The Aluminium top slider came with the adapter board, but I made a new bottom fitting to accommodate both types of lens board.

These 2 images were made before final matte black painting.

One of the boards I made was for my £30 Dallmeyer 2B Petzval portrait lens. I found I had a better flange and it needed a new lens board.

Ian

 

[GregY]

More Mahogany/Sapeke.



Just started making an adapter to use my £20 Sinar Copal shutter with my 10x8 Agfa Ansco Commercial View. Last week I made some lens boards and adapter, the one below came with a second 10x8 Agaa Ansco, it had been made to take Pacemaker Graphic lens boards, with very slight adaption, then refacing with veneer it is now dual purpose, Linhof/Wista, as well as Pacemaker, lens boards. The Aluminium top slider came with the adapter board, but I made a new bottom fitting to accommodate both types of lens board.





These 2 images were made before final matte black painting.

One of the boards I made was for my £30 Dallmeyer 2B Petzval portrait lens. I found I had a better flange and it needed a new lens board.



Ian

Sapele ?

 

[Ian Grant]

Sapele ?

It's a sustainable hardwood, very similar to Mahogany in all its characteristics. Mahogany like Ivory is on the CITES prohibited list for International trade. A friend sold some British book-form plate holders to someone in the US on eBay last year, because of the Mahogany description they were seized by US customs, despite being pre-WW2, and long before any ban.

I buy what is called Mahogany, but other suppliers say "Mahogany/Sapele". I have genuine Mahogany from a friend's timber yard, but as Fred Gadolfi says in a video there are various grades, he was on a double-decker London bus to the wood yard. Low grade Mahogany is similar to cheap box wood, and this is what Graflex and other manufacturers used when wood work was covered by leather or imitation leather.

What really matters is I can match what's sold as Sapele/Mahogany to Victorian/Edwardian cameras, in terms of colour and wood grain, I do a lot of restoration work. I experiment when making my own lens boards.
The funky one at the front is actually plywood, ebonised with Iron Acetate, and some help with Tannin from billing up old tea bags and applying to the wood surface.

I might be older, but I'm still learning.

Iam

 

[GregY]

It's a sustainable hardwood, very similar to Mahogany in all its characteristics. Mahogany like Ivory is on the CITES prohibited list for International trade. A friend sold some British book-form plate holders to someone in the US on eBay last year, because of the Mahogany description they were seized by US customs, despite being pre-WW2, and long before any ban.

I buy what is called Mahogany, but other suppliers say "Mahogany/Sapele". I have genuine Mahogany from a friend's timber yard, but as Fred Gadolfi says in a video there are various grades, he was on a double-decker London bus to the wood yard. Low grade Mahogany is similar to cheap box wood, and this is what Graflex and other manufacturers used when wood work was covered by leather or imitation leather.

What really matters is I can match what's sold as Sapele/Mahogany to Victorian/Edwardian cameras, in terms of colour and wood grain, I do a lot of restoration work. I experiment when making my own lens boards.
The funky one at the front is actually plywood, ebonised with Iron Acetate, and some help with Tannin from billing up old tea bags and applying to the wood surface.


View attachment 404621

I might be older, but I'm still learning.

Iam

Ian, I know what sapele is..... I was trying to point out that you had mis-spelled the name as 'sapeke'....

 

[Don_ih]

I was trying to point out that you had mis-spelled the name as 'sapeke'.

I was going to ask, but you asked first. It's a nice wood but the sand in the grain dulls tools.

 

[abruzzi]

This one just shipped to me, off eBay.

I look forward to trying it out. I don’t know the focal length nor aperture at this point. I assume it is a Petzval portrait lens with approximately 8cm front glass.

And the name “Charles Korn” is very obscure. Does anyone know anything about that Parisian opticien?

View attachment 404612

No idea, but trying to make out the script below the name and I see "opticien" and "120", but in the middle of the second line it looks like "d'enfer". So "Opticien [unreadable] d'enfer" is "optician [unreadable] from hell"?

 

[Stolk]

No idea, but trying to make out the script below the name and I see "opticien" and "120", but in the middle of the second line it looks like "d'enfer". So "Opticien [unreadable] d'enfer" is "optician [unreadable] from hell"?

Opticien Breveté sans garantie du gouvernement.

rue d’Enfer 120 Paris is the address.

but google has no info on Charles Korn.

 

[cjbecker]

1 - 50 sheet box of Foma 400. The scratching issue I had with Foma will probably not happen now that I develop dip and dunk. The price has finally called me to try it vs hp5. If I like it enough I will use it as my normal film.

2 more bottles of Adox Neutol Eco. Pretty sure I’m going to be using this as both my paper and deep tank film developer.

 

[murdockhendrix]

Yamasaki Tele-Congo 240mm f/6.3 Lens

2 packs FPP Frankenstein 200 25 sheets

 

[koraks]

Some spare cable releases. I don't lose them often, but to my frustration, I lost one of the particularly nice ones in a field about a week ago.

 

[abruzzi]

Some spare cable releases. I don't lose them often, but to my frustration, I lost one of the particularly nice ones in a field about a week ago.

I occasionally lose cable releases but a few years back I bought some cheap fabric tape measurers to measure bellows extension. They were like 99 cents each so I bought 10 of them, and now I can't find a single one. I rarely ran into the need to adjust exposure on my 4x5 cameras, but 8x10 requires it far more often.

 

[Disconnekt]

I occasionally lose cable releases but a few years back I bought some cheap fabric tape measurers to measure bellows extension. They were like 99 cents each so I bought 10 of them, and now I can't find a single one. I rarely ran into the need to adjust exposure on my 4x5 cameras, but 8x10 requires it far more often.

You lose stuff when you need it, then find said lost stuff when you dont

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

A few 120 rolls of Fomapan 200...

 

[MCB18]

does a trade count?

Got a Nikon AI-S 105/2.5 as trade for my last pack of 1443 Aerochrone. Considering I sold those packs for $80, I think I got a good deal. Apparently those lenses are worth like $150-200!

 

[chuckroast]

does a trade count?

Got a Nikon AI-S 105/2.5 as trade for my last pack of 1443 Aerochrone. Considering I sold those packs for $80, I think I got a good deal. Apparently those lenses are worth like $150-200!

Fantastic lens. I have owned one version or another of the 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor nearly continuously since the mid 1970s, landing on my current like new AIS.

 

[MCB18]

Fantastic lens. I have owned one version or another of the 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor nearly continuously since the mid 1970s, landing on my current like new AIS.

I have heard a ton of good things about it, and I’m pretty excited about trying it! I don’t do a ton of portraits but I have heard it’s also a great general photography lens. Mine looks like it is almost brand new still, beautiful condition.