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AIIAZNSK8ER posted:Ok yea, I have no idea what how to even begin to fix my XA. Does anyone here actually want to take a shot at it? I'm thinking that if you can get it working you can give me cash for it and keep it. I think I'm just going to wait to get another one somewhere else. I'm a sad panda. I'm hate to bash them because they're such cool little cameras, but I'm gonna come out and say it: Olympus XA's are about as reliable as anything that came out of the Soviet Union, if not worse. Dr. Cogwerks posted:One of the local camera shops just announced that they're going out of business, and since I chat with the owner all the time and have shown work at their openings before, I've offered to help catalog and sort through their enormous collection of ancient and forgotten cameras. Place was in business for sixty years, they've got hundreds of cameras (mostly broken or in unknown condition) lining the tops of the walls as display pieces and the owner seemed too overwhelmed to know what to do with them, apparently there's a lot more in the basement too. Dozens of screwmounts, half-frame cameras, rangefinders, a couple Leicas, an Ikoflex (which I totally want), tons of old polaroid folders, super 8 cameras, etc. etc. Uh, yes!
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Feb 8, 2011 02:58
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Dr. Cogwerks posted:I'm gonna see if I can trade some of my time in identifying and grading that huge collection in exchange for a few things to keep. Might be able to post a few of them on the selling thread here to help her sell them online if anyone's interested. If you happen across any Bronica SQ lenses/backs/Waistfinders I would happily take them off of your hands 
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Feb 8, 2011 03:04
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8th-samurai posted:Looks over agitated or over temperature. Delta 400 should have roughly the same grainularity as T max 400. It's probably a mixture of both.. drat.
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Feb 8, 2011 03:33
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Pompous Rhombus posted:I'm hate to bash them because they're such cool little cameras, but I'm gonna come out and say it: Olympus XA's are about as reliable as anything that came out of the Soviet Union, if not worse. The one roll I did run through it was fun as hell. It's a great size with good controls. Is there anything else I should be looking at? Ebay's has some refurbed for close to $100 with shipping.
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Feb 8, 2011 03:55
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Dr. Cogwerks posted:She's already set aside a couple of Super Takumar lenses for me at ten bucks each. I've got everything I want for Minolta MD or MC mount, but I could be tempted by something like that, too.
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Feb 8, 2011 04:45
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I must be the luckiest guy ever, XA wise, I've had a fair amount of them go through my hands and I've only picked up one dead one. Only paid $2 for it from the Starvation Army and it was rough, I figured it would be a charitable contribution but had to pick it up anyway. One click and that was all.
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Feb 8, 2011 05:22
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Dr. Cogwerks posted:One of the local camera shops just announced that they're going out of business, and since I chat with the owner all the time and have shown work at their openings before, I've offered to help catalog and sort through their enormous collection of ancient and forgotten cameras. Place was in business for sixty years, they've got hundreds of cameras (mostly broken or in unknown condition) lining the tops of the walls as display pieces and the owner seemed too overwhelmed to know what to do with them, apparently there's a lot more in the basement too. Dozens of screwmounts, half-frame cameras, rangefinders, a couple Leicas, an Ikoflex (which I totally want), tons of old polaroid folders, super 8 cameras, etc. etc.
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Feb 8, 2011 15:31
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Put a roll of Portra 400NC through my M645 kit today. Hope to get the negs back by Saturday. 
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Feb 9, 2011 04:07
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You at least need to post a picture or two of the camera store. You could suggest a grab bag system, fill USPS large flat rate boxes, seal them up and send them out for a set amount, without revealing the contents. That could be fun and help them with their problem. I'll be first on the list.
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Feb 9, 2011 04:34
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Gnomad posted:You at least need to post a picture or two of the camera store. What kind of pricing are we looking at here? $50 + shipping (I'm in Canada) for a mystery box guaranteed to contain "interesting" camera bits? I would be down with that.
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Feb 9, 2011 04:43
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Gnomad posted:You at least need to post a picture or two of the camera store. I don't think the owner would go for that. She says now that she's probably going to just put them on ebay. I'm trying to convince her not to sell all of them in one enormous "collection" lot as she's thinking of doing right now. Just to clarify, I don't control any of it. I'm not an employee there, just a friend/acquaintance of the owner. I'm trying to offer to help catalog some of the "not for sale, wall display" stuff for free so I can see what all is in there, and if possible, find buyers (including myself) for whatever she ends up not wanting to deal with herself. That would probably end up being the fairly undesirable or unknown things. I'm trying to be careful not to act like too much of a vulture about it, heh. Sadly, the Ikoflex I had my eye on is pretty busted. Dr. Cogwerks fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Feb 9, 2011 |
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Feb 9, 2011 10:16
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Dr. Cogwerks posted:I don't think the owner would go for that. She says now that she's probably going to just put them on ebay. I'm trying to convince her not to sell all of them in one enormous "collection" lot as she's thinking of doing right now. Listing a grab-bag of cameras as a "collection" is a pretty terrible idea, anything interesting won't get in the title so it won't show up in searches for people who are looking for them. The fees on eBay are pretty high to boot, she is much better off listing them on Craigslist or on a site like this first, then dumping the rest on eBay for what she can get for them.
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Feb 9, 2011 12:37
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It's here! Soft-touch shutter =  Eye-controlled focus = 
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Feb 10, 2011 01:22
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how much did you find the EOS 3 for?
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Feb 10, 2011 01:31
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Ferris Bueller posted:how much did you find the EOS 3 for?
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Feb 10, 2011 01:34
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MrBlandAverage posted:$240 shipped for EX on KEH. Not gambling on ebay and Craigslist sucks in my area. I got mine from PotN forums for $200, I think. EOS 3 + 50 1.4 + 430EX + Hitchcock viewing party = This
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Feb 10, 2011 04:57
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I need to be in the lookout for an EOS 3 deal like that. Nothing other then I couldn't afford one back when they came out, and it would be cool to have it now.
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Feb 10, 2011 12:06
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Hey film goons, I've never shot film before (well I had a P&S camera as a kid, but that doesn't count) and have been shooting digital for about a year now. My dad is giving me his old Minolta 35mm SLR so I can play around with shooting some film. What's a good starter/general film? I want to buy a few rolls to take with my on a trip to CA I'm taking next week so it'll mostly be outside during the day. My local camera store carries these: Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, Ilford, Adox, Fomopan, Arista, Rollei, Bergger. I really dig the look of the Kodak Elite Chrome 100 and Fuji Press 800 in the OP, so I'd like films that would get me that kind of look.
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Feb 10, 2011 15:16
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Cat Army
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Ouhei posted:Hey film goons, I've never shot film before (well I had a P&S camera as a kid, but that doesn't count) and have been shooting digital for about a year now. My dad is giving me his old Minolta 35mm SLR so I can play around with shooting some film. If you like the look of those two, buy 'em! Besides those, I recommend these: Color: Kodak Ektar 100, Fuji Reala 100, Fuji Superia XTRA 400 (Cheap), Kodak Portra 400 (Pro) Slide: Fuji Velvia for silly colors, Kodak Ektachrome B&W: Ilford Pan-F 50, Agfa APX 100, Fuji Neopan ACROS 100 (aka Arista Legacy Pro 100), Kodak Tri-X 400 (aka Arista Premium 400) Adox and Fomapan are both more of an old-school black and white emulsion, but if you want your trip to look like it happened in the 1950s, their stuff would be fun to try too. Don't buy everything there... look up some of those options and pick a few that seem interesting. I'd suggest getting a couple rolls of ISO 100 for bright outdoors stuff, 400 for all purpose, and perhaps that Press 800 or a high-speed black and white film for lower light. Links to see what some of them look like: http://flickriver.com/photos/tags/adox+50/interesting/ http://flickriver.com/photos/tags/afga+apx+100/interesting/ http://flickriver.com/photos/tags/kodak+ektar/interesting/ http://flickriver.com/photos/tags/fujifilm+superia+xtra+400/interesting/ and so on, change tags as needed
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Feb 10, 2011 15:54
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Dr. Cogwerks posted:If you like the look of those two, buy 'em! Besides those, I recommend these: I'll be back in this thread I'm sure once I have the camera and figure out I have no idea what I'm doing.
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Feb 10, 2011 16:38
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Dr. Cogwerks posted:If you like the look of those two, buy 'em! Besides those, I recommend these: Someone put this in the first post please 8)
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Feb 10, 2011 16:47
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Flickriver is awesome for that. I also like using it to see what different film and developer combinations look like... http://flickriver.com/photos/tags/agfa+apx+rodinal/interesting/ APX + Rodinal (lovely combo) http://flickriver.com/photos/tags/tri-x+caffenol/interesting/ TriX developed in, say, homemade coffee developer http://flickriver.com/photos/tags/plus-x+diafine/interesting/ Plus-X in Diafine etc. It's so much easier to scroll through Flickriver than Flickr. Another useful thing is to pick pretty much any film and add "xpro" or "expired" and you can see how it'll look cross-processed or expired.
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Feb 10, 2011 17:19
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I'm taking my dad's prewar Voigtlander Bessa (Voigtar 6.3 lens) out and trying Sunny 16 with FP4 today. Wish me luck!
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Feb 10, 2011 18:42
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Dr. Cogwerks posted:http://flickriver.com/photos/tags/agfa+apx+rodinal/interesting/ Just to note that Rollei Retro, which is still available, is the same as Agfa APX.
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Feb 11, 2011 00:04
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Alright, so an update on my exploits with that going-out-of-business camera store... For about a hundred bucks cash, a day of volunteer cataloging and testing long-long forgotten equipment, and the promise of several days of more assistance, I've already picked up these items for myself: 1)Super Takumar 105mm f2.8 screwmount lens (slight mold, going to try sun-treatment) 2)Kodak Rapid Rectilinear lens/shutter assembly taken from a 116 skeleton (I have a project in mind for this) 3)Argus C-Four 35mm rangefinder with Cintar 50mm f2.8, works great, feels like a tank 4)Argus A, collapsible 50mm f4.5 anastigmat, WWII-era bakelite beastie 5)Certo Super Dolina II 35mm folder, Rodenstock 50mm f2 (shutter-release linkage is bent, but the shutter can be fired from the front and both the bellows and the coupled rangefinder are good. looks like an easy repair) 6)Olympus XA, body is scratched up but it functions just fine. $25 for this one. 7)Super Ricohflex 6x6 TLR. Pretty bad fungus in taking lens, shutter fires, focus is frozen at infinity - so it's slightly usable, it'll be a project to fix it up. 8)Aires 35 (V?) rangefinder, Coral 45mm f1.9. Lens is decent, body surface is badly corroded, leaf shutter is sticky for the first shot but then works pretty well at the higher speeds until you leave it alone for awhile again. Also a fixer-upper. 9)Probably the coolest thing: a Robot II camera. Supposedly can use 35mm cartridges as feed spools, but feeds into a "k-cassette" on the other side. Very clean Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 40mm f/2 lens. Made in 1938, absolutely beautiful little German contraption with a spring-driven motorized advance and a viewfinder that can flip 90 degrees to shoot around corners or something. Seems to all be working. Surprisingly heavy because it's made of stainless steel. Free*, in exchange for the promise of a few days more cataloging work. Combined with my dozen or so other old cameras, I think I have a problem. I brought my digital camera to take some photos in that store today - I'm working on resizing those now so I can post 'em in here as requested earlier. Is it okay to post a couple dozen images here? Dr. Cogwerks fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Feb 11, 2011 |
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Feb 11, 2011 21:40
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Here's the trip report from today's digging. If these are too many images to put in here, let me know and I'll edit this post down.  That's the current owner back there in the processing area. Today was the last day for this store's sixty-year run.  The glass cases and regular-height shelves are all things that are actively for sale, mostly various Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Minolta, and Pentax stuff from the 1960s through '80s. The top shelves are all "display / not for sale" stuff, lots of broken stuff and dead formats, but a surprising number are still working or just need some cleaning. That's what I've been volunteering my time to sort through, testing and tagging as I go.  Regular stock. That four-lens thing is pretty weird.  Kodachrome movie film stocks and other old kodak schwag on the junk shelf  I reaaaally don't need another screwmount 35mm SLR, but something about this thing is kind of adorable. Functional and cheap too, fifty bucks, possibly less now. It's still tempting me, but if anyone here wants to throw down for it, let me know and I'll see if I can middleman it to ya. Same for anything else you see (if I didn't already grab it.)  Lots of Yashicas and Canonet QL-7s up there, some of them seemed to be in good working shape too.  Quite a few 8, super-8, and 16mm movie cameras. Found an enormous crank-operated Kodak home movie camera from around 1916 too, a bit corroded but surprisingly functional. I think that one was 16mm, will examine it more closely next week.  Anachronism ahoy. The Dasco and Pony are both 828 format, I think... 35mm supposedly works if you add a paper backing strip and respool it as rollfilm.  Pretty things with some sort of film advance issue, still definitely out of my price range unless I felt like being homeless for awhile.  Functional 3x4 Crown Graphic chillin' with a Duaflex II and a bunch of junk. And guess what was hiding in a leather case up behind a bunch of five dollar Kodak junk?  As far as I can tell, this is a ~1930 Leica I Model A, f3.5 collapsible Elmar lens. Ratty shape, cloudy lens, shutter *sounds* like it's firing but I can't see it. If it was in better condition, this silly thing would be worth like $3k-7k. Probably still worth quite a bit as a parts/display camera. The store owner was pretty thrilled that I found this, she's never looked up there. Onto the next "display only" shelving area...   Some pretty neat rangefinders in here. Some work, some don't.   D'awwww.    A bunch of various Voigtlander and Zeiss-Ikon gear in here too. Some worked, some sorta work and need a little fixing.  Those little white tags with notes instead of prices are my doing.  Found this in a leather case hiding behind a bunch of old boxes, it's a pretty rad little 8mm movie camera that was still working great. It can take stills too by rotating the shutter buutton to S. By the weight and the footage-length counter moving, there seems to be at least a 25 foot roll of film still in there. Felt weirdly satisfying to let it record for a few seconds after winding it. If I have any spare cash next week, I might come back for this or aircraft-gun mountable Kodak.  Yoink! Mine for $20. Works well.  Robot II, also mine now. Feels like a clockwork tank, tiny but weighs almost as much as my dSLR. Seems to work well too.  Empty, alas. There should be some pretty ancient unexposed film kicking around in the drawers I haven't reached yet though. If I'm able to keep any, I'll try to distribute some to other dorkroomers too.  Some weird "Memo" format, it's got a sprocketed leader that looks like 35mm but it comes out of a metal cube instead of a cylinder. And my spoils from the past two days... (not including my k1000 that snuck into the shot by accident)   Time to start burning through my film now... Dr. Cogwerks fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Feb 12, 2011 |
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Feb 11, 2011 23:45
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Robot's are cool as hell, the Robot II is still 24x24, right?
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Feb 12, 2011 00:02
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Robot's are cool as hell, the Robot II is still 24x24, right? From what I've read about it so far, yes, but it's supposedly the first version that could accomodate 35mm too. Hopefully that site was correct.
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Feb 12, 2011 00:06
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Woah, how much is the Rolleiflex? I'm kind of interested, particularly if I can sell some more of my stuff in the Dorkroom Photo gear buy/sell thread.
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Feb 12, 2011 00:11
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Rednik posted:Woah, how much is the Rolleiflex? I'm kind of interested, particularly if I can sell some more of my stuff in the Dorkroom Photo gear buy/sell thread. Are Rolleiflex's really worth it? It seems like the Mamiya TLR's are a much better bang for the buck.
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Feb 12, 2011 00:37
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Are Rolleiflex's really worth it? It seems like the Mamiya TLR's are a much better bang for the buck. I looooooove my Rolleiflex. It's a little tough to find the right focus, but when you do it's so sharp.
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Feb 12, 2011 00:40
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Dr. Cogwerks posted:9)Probably the coolest thing: a Robot II camera. Supposedly can use 35mm cartridges as feed spools, but feeds into a "k-cassette" on the other side. Very clean Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 40mm f/2 lens. Made in 1938, absolutely beautiful little German contraption with a spring-driven motorized advance and a viewfinder that can flip 90 degrees to shoot around corners or something. Seems to all be working. Surprisingly heavy because it's made of stainless steel. Free*, in exchange for the promise of a few days more cataloging work. Is that this sort of thing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb5tmAWalVs
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Feb 12, 2011 00:53
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Are Rolleiflex's really worth it? It seems like the Mamiya TLR's are a much better bang for the buck. They absolutely are. I used a Mamiya C220 for a year and loved it. For $200 you can get a body, WLF and an 80mm f/2.8 if you search carefully. That having been said, I have a strongly spergey side that likes collecting cameras, and a Rolleiflex would be awesome to have (also, it's lighter and smaller!).
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Feb 12, 2011 01:07
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Dr. Cogwerks, has the owner of the store decided on how she'll sell the regular stock? If she has an ebay account, please let us know - I'd be happy to help out somebody like that, especially if she's selling any decent Pentax or Minolta MD stuff. Also, I have a stupid question: Is Kodak TX the same thing as Kodak Tri-X?
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Feb 12, 2011 01:35
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Rednik posted:They absolutely are. I used a Mamiya C220 for a year and loved it. For $200 you can get a body, WLF and an 80mm f/2.8 if you search carefully. That having been said, I have a strongly spergey side that likes collecting cameras, and a Rolleiflex would be awesome to have (also, it's lighter and smaller!). I completely agree! I have a c33 and it is a beast, true, but it's awesome to have something that could easily kill someone, and the bellows are pretty sweet, especially if you like doing closeup stuff.
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Feb 12, 2011 01:43
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Beastruction posted:Is that this sort of thing? Yes, the Royal is a later version. On mine, the windup spring is that big black round thing on the top. ExecuDork posted:Dr. Cogwerks, has the owner of the store decided on how she'll sell the regular stock? If she has an ebay account, please let us know - I'd be happy to help out somebody like that, especially if she's selling any decent Pentax or Minolta MD stuff. http://myworld.ebay.com/sdgoodfoto/ Nothing on there at the moment, the doors locked today so the next couple weeks will be for sorting and posting things. I'm going back on Tuesday to help with that process. I'm trying to keep an eye out for things that dorkroom folks might like, and she said she's be cool with arranging direct paypal sales as well. I'll personally test a bunch of the things I grab for myself, then keep whatever I like the best and then give some things to friends or toss 'em on here for cheap too. At least I should, if I can overcome my horrible packrat tendencies. And yes, 400TX is just the box code for Tri-X.
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Feb 12, 2011 02:53
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Not that it matters, but I tried to visit that store the last two times I passed through Portland - closed both times. From your shots, looks like I would have had a lot to ogle.
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Feb 12, 2011 03:19
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nonanone posted:I completely agree! I have a c33 and it is a beast, true, but it's awesome to have something that could easily kill someone, and the bellows are pretty sweet, especially if you like doing closeup stuff. It's a blast with the 180mm for portrait. Get the 80mm Black if you do buy a Mamiya, as it is generally accepted as the better lens over the chrome version.
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Feb 12, 2011 03:31
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If you happen across another Olympus XA I'd love to pick it up! Or alternatively, if anyone has an Olympus XA for sale lets work something out! I don't have plat but my email is omgtam.vu(@)gmail(dot)com.
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Feb 12, 2011 19:40
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I know it's not the same but there is a Olympus XA2 on shopgoodwill.com. http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=7418015 I have to stop late night "browsing" on auction sites. I end up make low bids on items and then I win them! Which is both good and bad: Cool to have picked up something inexpensive but I really don't need it or to spend the money.
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Feb 12, 2011 19:50
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