[Marcus Rowland]

Marcus,perhaps you can answer a question for me.I was at Secondary School in the mid 1970s and have a memory of a physics teacher demonstrating the qualities of mercury by rolling beads of it around in an open tray (?).Some of it spilt onto the floor and he scooped it back into the tray.Was that a potentially hazardous situation?

Not very. Mercury vapour is toxic, but you'd have to have a lot more exposure than that. Apart from anything else it's a very heavy molecule so the gas doesn't spread much. Ideally someone should have come in with a mercury spill kit and cleared it up, but that tends to disrupt lessons so it's usually done after the lesson if someone reports the spill. The real problem with mercury is when it gets into the food chain as organic mercury compounds, they can cause neural damage, or when people are exposed to it on a daily basis - the Mad Hatter in Alice was mad because mercury was used in the 19th century hat-making process, and hatters were exposed to it throughout the working day and frequently had problems.

[timb64]

Not very. Mercury vapour is toxic, but you'd have to have a lot more exposure than that. Apart from anything else it's a very heavy molecule so the gas doesn't spread much. Ideally someone should have come in with a mercury spill kit and cleared it up, but that tends to disrupt lessons so it's usually done after the lesson if someone reports the spill. The real problem with mercury is when it gets into the food chain as organic mercury compounds, they can cause neural damage, or when people are exposed to it on a daily basis - the Mad Hatter in Alice was mad because mercury was used in the 19th century hat-making process, and hatters were exposed to it throughout the working day and frequently had problems.

Thanks for that thorough and informative reply.It occurred back in days when we weren’t so Health and Safety conscious/obsessed so it was just passed over!

[aslyfox]

just sent a " kit " lens

SMC Pentax-DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL

that I wasn't using to a new forum member who is looking for equipment for his kids to use as they get started in photography

he agreed to pay shipping and insurance charges

I got good karma [ I hope ]

_____________________________________

I find myself unbalanced now

5 primes vs. 4 zooms

I wonder what the odds are that the issue of balance would convince my wife that I really need to add either

a SMC Pentax-FA* 250-600mm F5.6 ED [IF] or

a SMC Pentax-DA* 60-250mm F4 ED [IF] SDM

to my collection of lenses

strictly for the purpose of balance and harmony of course

[aslyfox]

just sent on another lens

SMC Pentax-DA L 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED

to a new member who paid for the shipping

it should arrive next Thursday if nothing goes wrong with UPS

I am convinced the good karma I have achieved by doing this has helped me collect some nice glass at good prices

the latest being an " experienced " SMC Pentax-DA* 300mm F4 ED [IF] SDM

scheduled to arrive tomorrow

[timw4mail]

I traded for an Adaptall lens:

• Pentax Program Plus
• Pentax A 50/2
• Super-Takumar 55/2

[pepperberry farm]

I traded for an Adaptall lens:

• Pentax Program Plus
• Pentax A 50/2
• Super-Takumar 55/2

which Adaptall?

[timw4mail]

which Adaptall?

CZ/QZ-210M (85-210mm 1:4.5)


Which I realized when I looked at my list afterwards, that I already have one .

But the one I just got looks like it just came out of the package. Bright white lettering, unblemished grips, and most amazingly, what seems to be the original top cap. So I guess I'm glad the second copy is nicer.

Still, I have quite a few bodies and lenses that are probably going to somewhere like Goodwill.

[Jonathan Mac]

I finally sold my Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 M42 lens, which has been up for sale for over a year. So that leaves me with 105mm as my longest M42 lens, but I so rarely use anything longer that it's no problem at all.

I find that selling gear locally here in Spain takes time - 95% of people that get in touch are time-wasters either offering absurdly low offers or asking me if the lens will fit their camera. Shouldn't they check that themselves??? I've even been asked if lenses will fit cameras that don't have interchangeable lenses.

Selling stuff to serious people happens fast, usually first contact to sale within 24 hours (assuming we're both free to get together within that timeframe). No silly questions, no ridiculous offers and a pleasure to deal with.

[K5_Ltd_User]

K3 Prestige
15 mm F4 Ltd.
35 mm F2.4
Sigma 17-50
Metz 58 AF- 2


Disappointed in the current road Pentax is taking as far as FF goes (not a competitive camera for what I desire to improve) .

Hope to get back soon and with a proper and competitive Pentax FF.

[timw4mail]

Cameras

• Miranda DR
• Minolta SRT-201
• Minolta Maxxum 5000i (A mount)
• Pentax PZ-10

Lenses (Mount):

• Focal MC Auto 28/2.8 (M42)
• Focal MC Auto Zoom 1:4.0 f=80-200mm (K)
• Minolta 50mm 1:1.7 (A)
• Minolta 70-210 (A)
• Minolta AF 35-70 (A)
• Auto Rikenon 1:2.8 f=135mm (M42)
• Quantaray 1:4-5.6 f=75-300mm (A)
• Soligor Miranda 1:1.9 f=5cm (Miranda)
• Tamron Adaptall QZ-210 (Adaptall)
• Vivitar 70-210mm 1:4.5-5.6 (K)

Flashes

• Minolta Program 2000xi
• Popular 30TB-D

[Tonytee]

Sad, but true that last Christmas I donated my Pentax K100D Super body to Goodwill.

Yes, I am remiss at doing so and I miss the camera. It had less than 4,000 shutter clicks and was in excellent condition.

What can I say? It is tough being stupid. (

TT

P.S. I did not take any tax credit for the donation.

[aslyfox]

Sad, but true that last Christmas I donated my Pentax K100D Super body to Goodwill.

Yes, I am remiss at doing so and I miss the camera. It had less than 4,000 shutter clicks and was in excellent condition.

What can I say? It is tough being stupid. (

TT

P.S. I did not take any tax credit for the donation.

IMHO

you were not stupid

you gave the " gift " of Pentax to another

[rod_grant]

Just sold my K-5 body. (replaced by KP at Christmas. - well I bought it on special in November, but wasn't allowed to even look at it until the approved day!)
I offered the K-5 on the marketplace and eBay and made a quick sale on eBay.
It has gone 1400 kilometres from Wangaratta to Brisbane Qld. I hope it has gone to a good home!

[IgorZ]

Not a recent de-acquisition, but a nice story. I sold a Jupiter 2/85 lens a few months ago. It must have been October or late September. Shipped it to a guy in Thailand. The lens was supposed to take about 4-6 weeks to arrive. On week 6 the guy sent a question through EBay about the lens' whereabouts. EBay generated a message suggesting that I refund the lens. At that very time PayPal withdrew the money I received from the guy. How do I know that? I had $0 in my PayPal account, and then it went negative. The guy was nice and patient, so he agreed to wait a little more. A couple of weeks later we agreed that the lens was probably lost and I should issue a refund. The only thing I asked the guy was to give me a day or two to sort the refund with EBay, since they already withdrew the money. He said not to worry, EBay has refund guarantee, so they will take care of it. And he went and asked for a refund through Ebay. At which point they withdrew the funds from my PayPal account. AGAIN. I appealed, saying they withdrew money twice. They replied saying they could not do it as there was no money in my PayPal account the first time. Anyway, I accepted losing the lens and twice its cost and forgot about it. Two days ago the guy from Thailand writes to me saying he received the lens and will send me the money. I must admit I didn't expect that.

[Marcus Rowland]

That's good - Paypal are still idiots though, and you should chase that up as much as you can, if you're sure they definitely took the money twice.

My story on these lines is a weird one, and less satisfactory in some ways although I eventually ended up OK.

A couple of months ago I sold a horrible lens - rare, but horrible, and the defects I listed included severe fungus and generally poor condition, and I said I would not take returns on it.

Lo and behold the buyer claims that the lens was also scratched (which it wasn't) and demands a full refund including return postage. When I requested proof of the damage (e.g. a photo of the scratches) he did nothing. Eventually I asked ebay to resolve the case. They told me I'd have to pay for the return, but at the same time froze the case (no idea why) so that I couldn't send a normal returns label. Instead I had to send the buyer money via PayPal. He then starts claiming I hadn't sent enough - since it weighed 300g and the postage would have paid up to two kilos I somehow doubt that.

A couple of days later eBay reviewed the case and gave the guy his refund, but did not take it from my Paypal account - basically, they knew that the customer was being totally unreasonable, but decided to give him the relatively small amount of money to shut him up. All well and good - except that I'm still out £3.90 postage.

So I remind the guy that he should either return the lens or the money and he does nothing. I send him a PayPal request for the money and he does nothing.

Three phone calls later I managed to speak to someone human at PayPal, and pointed out that I'd paid for a service that hadn't been supplied. And PayPal eventually gave me my money back. But so far as I can tell they didn't take it from the customer, it came from the same sort of "get rid of the idiot" pot as the money that was paid to him.

So this guy now has the lens, his original payment (including postage), and an extra £3.90 - I haven't lost anything, but it annoys me that people get away with gaming the system to that extent. Needless to say he will not be buying from me again, unless he gets another PayPal account, he's on my list of blocked bidders.