[aslyfox]

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I have to be sick! . . . Otherwise I will need professional help.

be aware paying for professional help might cut into more important expenses

like camera gear

[Marcus Rowland]

A fairly crappy weekend - nothing on Friday or yesterday, and only got an Apple keyboard and a Zenit 11 today despite going to three car boot sales. On the other hand the Zenit has the first Helios lens I've seen this year, and I got it for £15 - unfortunately the body died the second time I fired the shutter and there is a little fungus on one of the inner elements of the lens, so it isn't going to make me rich! But it's nice to see a Helios again, they must be coming out of hibernation. Maybe a sign of spring!

Two of the three boot fairs I went to today had a lot less traders than usual, despite really nice weather, as did Portobello Road yesterday. Someone I spoke to thought that it might be coronavirus scaring the traders away, but I don't think it's likely.

[degral]

I will be curious in regards to how it stacks up against the ES and Electro.


Steve

Me too! I keep reading about how well built the Minolta is but I honestly find my new Spotmatic F to be a jewel and no plastic anything.

[steamloco76]

I was sniper-bot outbid on three eBay auctions this week. I don’t mind being outbid by someone who is buying an item to use, but these professional resellers with the bots really burn my backside. Two Tamron-F 1.4X converters and a Tamron 80-200/3.5 CF SP. However, I decided to snoop KEH and found both items for a significant amount less than my eBay bids! Also scored the Tamron Adaptall-2 2X BBAR converter for my 400/4. If that 2X works as well as the 1.4X BBAR, I will have a useable waterfowl birding lens. We shall see.

[edom31]

I was sniper-bot outbid on three eBay auctions this week. I don’t mind being outbid by someone who is buying an item to use, but these professional resellers with the bots really burn my backside.

Please provide more info on this - how do you know / how can you tell.... same seller, any trends? info is the most valuable weapon out there.

[degral]

I will be curious in regards to how it stacks up against the ES and Electro.


Steve

Both the Electro and ES arrived. Upon inspection, the Electro is like new! The ES is definitely used. Both, seem to function at all speeds and respond to different lighting conditions on auto. Funny that the battery goes in plus side first on the Electro and plus side out on the ES. Only running film through will be the definitive test.

[tim60]

Please provide more info on this - how do you know / how can you tell.... same seller, any trends? info is the most valuable weapon out there.

Steamloco is probably referring to those times when the price goes up by double of more on a bid made in the last minute. Obviously not a person manually bidding over their home internet service. When I was buying this way I bid towards the end of the auction and put int he price I really wanted to pay - usually a fraction of a bid tick above an integer number of bid ticks above the price current at the time I placed the bid. The bid tick is only a limit for a new bid placed above whatever the current price is, to avoid unreasonably slow price bidding growth.

[steamloco76]

Steamloco is probably referring to those times when the price goes up by double of more on a bid made in the last minute. Obviously not a person manually bidding over their home internet service. When I was buying this way I bid towards the end of the auction and put int he price I really wanted to pay - usually a fraction of a bid tick above an integer number of bid ticks above the price current at the time I placed the bid. The bid tick is only a limit for a new bid placed above whatever the current price is, to avoid unreasonably slow price bidding growth.

I bid $75.91 for one of the Tamron converters which had $9.75 postage. My bid was $17 higher than the other five or six who placed bids. With two minutes left in the auction a bidder with over 10,000 transactions bid five times and got the converter for $79. I bid in the last five minutes on the Tamron 80-200 f3.5 SP CF $45. This was countered by a previous bidder so I rebid $56.99, with two minutes left four bids from another eBay member with 8,000 transaction won it for $60.01. The final Tamron converter was for auction by Seattle Goodwill. Several buyers had bid back and forth with me in the final hour of the auction. With two minutes left I bid $25 above the highest bid, which was mine. All of a sudden, a flurry of bids and the final one clipped me by $3 with no time for me to place another bid. Lost it for $79 plus shipping to a bidder with over 15,000 transactions. I’m sure the two Tamron TCs will be for sale as Buy it Now for $149 to $179 soon. Fortunately, KEH had one in EX condition for $52 and the 80-200 in BGN for $61 and free shipping, so I came out ahead thanks to losing the auctions-this time.

[WPRESTO]

I was sniper-bot outbid on three eBay auctions this week. I don’t mind being outbid by someone who is buying an item to use, but these professional resellers with the bots really burn my backside. Two Tamron-F 1.4X converters and a Tamron 80-200/3.5 CF SP. However, I decided to snoop KEH and found both items for a significant amount less than my eBay bids! Also scored the Tamron Adaptall-2 2X BBAR converter for my 400/4. If that 2X works as well as the 1.4X BBAR, I will have a useable waterfowl birding lens. We shall see.

I used both 1.4XL and 2XL Pentax converters on the Tamy 400mm f4 I had for many years. The 1.4 worked well, the 2X was OK. When I experimented with both systems with a digital d=body, it was easier to compare the IQ. My impression: an image taken with the 1.4XL and cropped had pretty much the same IQ of an image with the 2XL not cropped. In other words, you do not gain detail by using a 2X converter compared to cropping an image taken with a 1.4X converter. Going all the way back to when teleconverters were first introduced (I purchased my first Pentax before such devices existed), it has always been the opinion and test-result that 1.4X converters can be useful and 2X converters are really only good for chromes where cropping is essentially impossible. To put it another way, there is no advantage to using a 2X converter that justifies losing another stop/shutter speed.

[steamloco76]

I used both 1.4XL and 2XL Pentax converters on the Tamy 400mm f4 I had for many years. The 1.4 worked well, the 2X was OK. When I experimented with both systems with a digital d=body, it was easier to compare the IQ. My impression: an image taken with the 1.4XL and cropped had pretty much the same IQ of an image with the 2XL not cropped. In other words, you do not gain detail by using a 2X converter compared to cropping an image taken with a 1.4X converter. Going all the way back to when teleconverters were first introduced (I purchased my first Pentax before such devices existed), it has always been the opinion and test-result that 1.4X converters can be useful and 2X converters are really only good for chromes where cropping is essentially impossible. To put it another way, there is no advantage to using a 2X converter that justifies losing another stop/shutter speed.

I agree regarding experiences with 2x converters. I got the Tamron Adaptall 2X really cheap so if it ends up being another dust collector, I won’t be too upset. I will say the 1.4X 140 unit is now permanently attached to the 400/4. Images are very sharp starting at f11(8 indicated).

[photoptimist]

I bid $75.91 for one of the Tamron converters which had $9.75 postage. My bid was $17 higher than the other five or six who placed bids. With two minutes left in the auction a bidder with over 10,000 transactions bid five times and got the converter for $79. I bid in the last five minutes on the Tamron 80-200 f3.5 SP CF $45. This was countered by a previous bidder so I rebid $56.99, with two minutes left four bids from another eBay member with 8,000 transaction won it for $60.01. The final Tamron converter was for auction by Seattle Goodwill. Several buyers had bid back and forth with me in the final hour of the auction. With two minutes left I bid $25 above the highest bid, which was mine. All of a sudden, a flurry of bids and the final one clipped me by $3 with no time for me to place another bid. Lost it for $79 plus shipping to a bidder with over 15,000 transactions. I’m sure the two Tamron TCs will be for sale as Buy it Now for $149 to $179 soon. Fortunately, KEH had one in EX condition for $52 and the 80-200 in BGN for $61 and free shipping, so I came out ahead thanks to losing the auctions-this time.

Interesting!

Unless there's some widespread scam going on, it suggests that these eBay prices are well below the retail value of the items. No professional reseller would stay in business for long if they didn't expect a decent mark-up on whatever they bought.

Either that or there are some crazy hoarders out there amassing thousands of the lenses.

[ivanvernon]

Interesting!

Unless there's some widespread scam going on, it suggests that these eBay prices are well below the retail value of the items. No professional reseller would stay in business for long if they didn't expect a decent mark-up on whatever they bought.

Either that or there are some crazy hoarders out there amassing thousands of the lenses.

I just set my bid at the maximum amount I am willing to pay for the item and don't worry if someone wants to pay more. Some I win and some I lose, but when I lose it is because someone is willing to pay more than I am willing to pay.

[timb64]

I just set my bid at the maximum amount I am willing to pay for the item and don't worry if someone wants to pay more. Some I win and some I lose, but when I lose it is because someone is willing to pay more than I am willing to pay.

That would seem to be the eminently sensible approach!

[Lord Lucan]

Unless there's some widespread scam going on, it suggests that these eBay prices are well below the retail value of the items. No professional reseller would stay in business for long if they didn't expect a decent mark-up on whatever they bought.

They do expect a decent markup and will probably get it eventually. Because they are content to let the item sit on Ebay for as long as it takes for someone uninformed about the general going price (or has a "must have it at any price" attitude) to come along and buy it. WIth interest rates currently low, and with the price of used film cameras actually rising at present, they can afford to have stuff sleeping.

Close to home, K1000s on Ebay are an example of this. We've been having a discussion over in The worst of Craigslist/Shopgoodwill/eBay etc. - Page 72 - PentaxForums.com about some K1000s being over-priced even beyond normal K1000 over-pricing. This one for £325 has been sitting there for some time for example :-

Serviced Pentax K1000 35mm Film SLR Camera Pentax 50mm F/1.7 SMC Lens+Case/strap | eBay

[Marcus Rowland]

I just set my bid at the maximum amount I am willing to pay for the item and don't worry if someone wants to pay more. Some I win and some I lose, but when I lose it is because someone is willing to pay more than I am willing to pay.

I'm afraid that sniping will always be a fact of life because of the way that ebay works, with a fixed end time. If you bid the maximum you're prepared to pay in the last few seconds, and nobody has entered a higher bid, there's a good chance that people won't have time to enter a higher bid before the auction ends. I've won three auctions that way today - but I lost four yesterday because other people had already entered higher bids. If the end time of the auction was extended by e.g. 10 seconds every time someone bid sniping would be a LOT less popular!