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Post by paulhofseth on Mar 26, 2015 17:21:35 GMT -5
Sounds reasonable. I am off to the mountains soon (peculiar Norwegian annual easter habit following the retreating snowline), but will look at this when I return. This thread deserves continuous input.
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Post by paulhofseth on Mar 26, 2015 17:07:24 GMT -5
Judging from a Financial Times piece on car prices, collectibles gradually leave the realm of users, history buffs and private museums and join whomever needs to stash cash away. Artworks, classic cars, high end watches, whatever keeps your Euros (etc) discreetly safe from quantitative easing and other monetary uncertainties.
Generational effects do occur, they may influence prices(and while the mechanical creations still work in 2030, most of the electronic marvels will have died possibly influencing their price), but the historically knowlegdeable collectors in 2030 will not be able to afford the "Picassos" and "Rembrandts" of the camera world. They will be employed as curators.
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Post by paulhofseth on Mar 26, 2015 2:50:06 GMT -5
Aha.
Thanks for helpful advice, but I do not store photos outside my own NAS and only share per email,partly from distrust of cloud reliabilty, partly from a firm conviction that my snaps do not command a wider audience. That precludes illustrations then.
Also I notice that I have renamed the Zeiss, it is of course Ultron.
I will, however continue to enjoy this thread (and had intended to relaunch the B ox Tengor under G since mine is among the ones labelled Goertz from before they were totally integrated into Zeiss.).
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Post by paulhofseth on Mar 25, 2015 14:29:39 GMT -5
I just discovered this excellent thread, and since I came late to the party, tried to catch up through uploading the last letters plus start a new round. (Concave front-element Z eiss U ltragon on an Icarex Pro, The V oigtländer Prominent and Dralowid with Minox W etzlar lens plus a scan of an ad for the AAA camera: Alpa Alnea with Alfinon lens then preparing to snap the B ox Tengor. BUT the website claims that the quota for attachments is full even when I tried to upload the first (small sized) picture. I give up for now.
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Post by paulhofseth on Jan 9, 2015 14:59:49 GMT -5
Maybe a glut of images will satiate the users as time goes by, so that only a select few matter enough to conserve.
Whatever happens, selection and storage will remain. The tiny memories of iPhones are quickly saturated. Then deletion and finally transfer to storage of the surviving must-have pictures is needed.
As old phones are bypassed by fashion, get dropped or drowned , the storage business will thrive. WIth enough pictures hijacked, cloudsites broke, broken or orphaned, even personal storage systems may thrive.
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Post by paulhofseth on Dec 30, 2014 10:53:53 GMT -5
Sensible lubrication advice.
My proposal above for rejuvenating slow speeds, by using them, is based on a user attitude rather than the white-glove approach.
I have used this method to rejuvenate a Rollei 35 and a Retina IIc that had beeen resting too long (not seized up due to grit), but since then they were not used for more than perhaps 20 films each. For the past few years they have been resting again. To do precision mechanics justice and ensure long life I agree that shutters should be professionally cleaned.
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Post by paulhofseth on Dec 16, 2014 15:09:26 GMT -5
............all my leicas have lenses on them, sadly my alpa has not. I've found a adapter for the alpa to match it to some cheapo lens so at least the body is closed now, but i can't say i'm happy with it and i'm still waiting for a nice alpa mount killfit 50macro to come along wich hasen't happened for the last 30 years and i suppose will never happen either. ------------------------------------ Unfortunately the Alpa macro 50 was the Kern Switar, so the Kilfitt will not arrive anytime soon. Their shorter focal length 40mm though should be available -at a price. You already have a stopgap lens solution, so do not despair. Alpa never made any optics, - their quality obsession did ensure the best contemporary lens crop, and the genuine ones are usually engraved "Alpa" beside the makers name, so that is part of the image, but they were not produced in Switzerland (apart from the Kern and the Spectros) . The handmade clockwork-cogwheel-factory Alpa cameras, however, are rarer than most other camera bodies, so enjoy your posession. p.
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Post by paulhofseth on Dec 3, 2014 4:12:42 GMT -5
Or try Westlicht. I have only bought from them, not sold, but was totally stisfied. They have fairly thorough listings and publish the prices achieved so that you can compare with Ebay provided the descriptions are equivalent. They do not just sell rare prototype Zunows, but also appeal to more serious collectors of fairly inexpensive stuff.
Years ago I sold some duplicates at Christies. High fees, they disregarded one or two of my reserve prices and put a lower quality rating one one item than I would have done.Fees can be justified by the cost of their excellent expertise and glosy catalogues (at that pre-internet time), ignoring reserve -not by much- is inexcusable, rating: matter of opinion.
So with 400 ? pieces where you wish to weed out some, it might be worthwhile to split your efforts and test camera fairs v\s websales v\s webauctions.
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Post by paulhofseth on Nov 17, 2014 14:49:05 GMT -5
Agree with GPS,WiFi etc., useful for a number of non-pictorial purposes, but not essential for what comes out on your memory card. AND will be another gizmo to stop working and bring the whole system down in a year or five.
BUT have you considered whether you really NEED a mirror and a prism to frame and focus? If you use autofocus the viewing method is irrelevant. If you go the manual way, the screen will place a limit your capabilities.
Do try a (relatively) less expensive second hand EVF. It might perform better than a SLR. Adapter rings may take care of your optics if you are used to manual focussing and can set the aperture.
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Post by paulhofseth on Nov 7, 2014 15:41:04 GMT -5
The compur shutters sometimes were revived just by operating them 10-50 times. Usually the faster speeds are OK, 1sec. particularly problematic. Cock the shutter, release and shake the camera about a bit if it does not start. Do the delay mechanism at the end. (V X M lever set to V= vorlaufwerk).
I vaguely remember that at least the IIc would not close unless distance was set at infinity, but the Butkus info should tell all. Do remember to leave some cash in his account.
The front element of the xenon\heligon comes off in order to acommodate the wide and tele front elements, but no point in dismantling unless it is urgantly needed for cleaning.
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Post by paulhofseth on Nov 5, 2014 15:52:11 GMT -5
No idea of IIIG\M3 or Leica copy prices, but I will keep advising on an M3 rather than a IIIG for practical use, let the Leica collectors park the IIIGs in a glass cupboard. It is stylish and reliabe, but not as usable as the M3. Both versions seem able to take some rain and being dropped without ill effects.
The M-LS adapter makes all m-39 optics usable on the M3, while the viewfinder allows you to keep both eyes open so that you see the entire surroundings with a clear frameline projected onto it. Yes, you can put a Voigtländer "Kontur" VF on any camera and get almost the same effect, but then you cannot focus at the same time.
Threading film is always a bit fiddly in Leicas until you get the hang of it (and the film tongue must be cut properly), but the rear flap of the M-series does make it much easier.
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Post by paulhofseth on Nov 4, 2014 15:27:35 GMT -5
WW2 photo equipment history:
The Swiss reputedly decided that they needed the Alpa in case Leitz supplies dried up.
Your quest:
If you are collecting Leicas, the IIIG is the last of that mount and is a must-have. Its ,contemporary Visoflex attachment can, occasionally, also be found cheap from sellers with no idea of what it is. The prism on it is the brightest SLR I have ever used as is the "chimney".
If, however, you will be using it, my experience from the distant past when I retired the f for a g counts against.
Yes, coupled with the collapsible Summicron 50 and Panatomic-X (and later, FP-3 + Microphen), they gave entirely satisfactory pictures. However, the viewfinder is not too bright and not very large and the focussing is fiddly. More important though, no adapter will enable you to use M-mount optics - which will give you access to faster apertures, higher contrast & sharper pictures.
I gave up the g in favour of the M3, and later, to avoid carrying a Metrawatt or using the bolt-on light meter, changed the M3 for an M6 (- which nowadays sits on a shelf and is only occasionally used with XP-2).
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Post by paulhofseth on Oct 24, 2014 14:42:12 GMT -5
This gets me off on a photo-technology rant.
About a decade ago, it was a question of whether to give up the darkroom and the slide projector. Reluctantly, yes. Chemistry, primarily developer, always got stale, possibly also the fix. Also, I never had time for developing and printing, and setting up for viewing was laborious.
For digital the question was, what would provide crop leeway and not more than FP4+Hyfin grain, and for colour, (relative) permanence, such as Kodachromes -although Agfachrome colours were more like the visual world.
I tried various digital solutions. They gave more leeway for errors. Digital also provided new opportunities for improving (and faking) selected aspects of images. In exchange we are all receiving sharply reduced archival permanence .
Yesterday I took some 150 year old family photos out of a frame where the glass had cracked and put them in with a new glass. Remember DOS, 5-inch floppy discs? Even the more recent varieties used today, formats as well as media, not to speak of "cloud companies" may be going out of business or not bothering about small customers in the years to come. They may even all become extinct the next 150years. How many Micro-andro-nux snaps will be physically and technologically readable in 2164 ? ----------
Back to the present; yes, rear screens get washed out by the sun, unless you always shoot against it. Also, holding the camera out to see the screen, is a recipe for wobbly snaps.
For catching the fleeting moment, the SLR view ,or the eyelevel electronic view, is preferable to the screen- view. With manual optics, the digital SLRs will only be suitable IF the groundglass is made for focussing and on FF cameras. Usually, even FFs, are made for AF optics, but on some cameras the screen can be replaced. Still not as good as the old Contax or Leicas.
Some available digital bodies have electronic viewing ancillaries that work better than optical viewers (Olympus) and some have it built in. Unfortunately Sonys FF e-view products use an ugly and volume-greedy SLR-like bump. Fuji has had the sense to incorporate it into their body, but their body is still not down to Olympus size.
Combination and disabling of currently fashionable abilities would be excellent.
Full-format type pixel count and dynamics. Fuji type eyelevel finder and physical, rather than faff-about menu-controls, as well as easy central frame-within frame focussing & enlargement (& spot metering invariant while reframing). Touch screen and wifi disablement option - to prevent involuntary operation and to save battery power.
As for archival permanence, I would like the option of saving say 40 frames for the next 150 years.
My conclusion so far, has been to use FF digital in the SLR form (with MF screen),rather than mirrorless for FF, since the system, including lenses, is huge and cumbersome anyway. For hiking and travelling, the mirrorless + Novoflex adapters must serve.
Archives: yet unsolved.
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Post by paulhofseth on Oct 9, 2014 13:35:10 GMT -5
Mr. Fazalali;
no need to get an Alpa 7 to use accessories. Any of the later large bayonet mounts will do. BUT they are all fairly scarce. The largest production run of one Alpa type is about the same as the numbers of one of the smaller production runs of Leicas (IIIG). The smallest production runs of models were in single figures.
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Post by paulhofseth on Aug 15, 2014 13:52:38 GMT -5
Thanks for the ICE reference. It works.
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