Today's boot fair stuff

[ffutures]

After a couple of not particularly exciting weekends, this is shaping up fairly well.

On Friday I got an old 35mm rangefinder camera similar to a Canonet for a fiver - working well except for the meter, which senses light but for some reason isn't connecting to the camera controls. But I have a cheapo exposure meter I can throw in with it, should sell OK.

Today was interesting:
A Zip 250 drive (with a 250 disk) for a fiver, working well.
A Praktica 29mm lens (why 29mm? Damned if I know) in M42 fitting for £7
A Praktica M42 screw body with a 50mm lens, a zoom, and a flash for £18
And a bit of a gamble - a Sony Nex 5 body and zoom lens with flash, unfortunately without battery or charger, for £30. The seller swore it worked (but he would, wouldn't he), so I've spent another £8 or so on a battery and charger, we'll see what happens. If it works it's a very good price, and I will have to decide it I want to add yet another digital SLR to my collection...

Ebay are giving me a "maximum seller's fee £1" deal this weekend, so I think I'll also be selling off my Lensbaby fisheye - it's an interesting lens but I've used it twice in the last year or so, and it's a bit of a pain to use compared to my other lenses, since it uses their "swap out the stop disk" system. I think that one will be a fixed price item, not an auction.

Comments

[history_monk]

If that's a Pentacon 29mm, the optical design probably dates back to the days when focal length conventions were less well established. Also, in pre-computerised-design days, if you stumbled on a formula that was good and easy to make, you tended to go with it.

[ffutures]

Almost certainly - plus it's half the focal length of the Helios 58mm lenses, and looks pretty similar apart from fewer iris blades, so there may have been reasons there.