[aslyfox]

"But it's a dry heat..."

Chris

so is an oven


dry heat you can keep it

[Wasp]

I treated myself to a Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM. I will have to create a profile for it in Darktable to correct the barrel distortion at the very wide end, but I am very happy with it.

This picture was taken at the shopping center where I purchased it. It is a big step up in wideness up from my 18-55mm kit lens.

[SSGGeezer]

Nice manual focus old school Sigma, Not perfect smoothness of zoom-wise but the optics are perfect and on initial testing, the IQ is good. From the Forum. Image probably closer to 35mm than 28 but 28 is what I set the SR at.

[hangman43]

[cyberjunkie]

After I found that my Sankyo Kohki Komura 2.8/135mm is one of my most amazing vintage lenses, I went for two more Komura lenses.

Sankyo Kohki Komura 2.5/105mm



Sankyo Kohki W-Komura 3.5/28mm




The first one is the fastest tele available in standard UNI mount (the super-fast ones, that fetch crazy prices, have two different UNI mounts made specifically for them). It is in questionable conditions, with little scratches, and needs to be cleaned.
The second one is less desirable, and much less expensive, but it comes in M42 UNI AUTO mount. If I will ever buy another UNI AUTO lens with another mount (most seem to be in Minolta SR bayonet), I will have the right mount to use it on my Pentax cameras...
The comments I have found online are positive, the 3.5/28mm will hopefully prove its worth.
I will try it as soon as it arrives

[Jome]

Just arrived this morning...

Was not OK , batteries had leaked I cleaned the internal contacts and...Yesss! It works!

[Canada_Rockies]

Just arrived this morning...

Was not OK , batteries had leaked I cleaned the internal contacts and...Yesss! It works!

Lucky you! Some people ...

[Jome]

Lucky you! Some people ...

Thanks, I tried (not bad for 44$ with shipping)...

[gaweidert]

FedEx arrive a few minutes ago. Just before SWMBO came home. In the two boxes of goddies were:

Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ1000. Great sale on these at B&H and I want to play around with video a bit. Does 4K video too. Since i know nothing about video other than to push the record button, maybe this old dog can still learn a few new tricks.


Extra Watson batteries for it.


A Watson dual battery charger. Normally about $80 but depending upon the plate they come with the prices vary. I got mine for $49. Plates are only $1.99. Currently it is charging one battery for my Panasonic and one for my K1. I got three different plates for it.


A second Pentax O-ME53 viewfinder. The first one worked so well I am going to installed it on my K1 too.


The free holster bag that came with the Lumix.

Three Delkin 64GB SD cards.

One Sandisk 32GB Extreme Pro card that was free with the Lumix too.


Tomorrow a custom built gaming laptop will be arriving. A Christmas gift to me from da boyz. It will make post processing K1 files much faster..


Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Canada_Rockies]

FedEx arrive a few minutes ago. Just before SWHBO came home. In the two boxes of goddies were:
Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice haul! But shouldn't it be "SWHBO" SWMBO????

One of my favourite shows.

[Kerrowdown]

Quickly reporting back as promised... I'll get into more detail later, when I've had real chance to put it to work.

Does all... "as it says on the tin" and when used with the silicone pad it is amazing solid on slippery surfaces.

It's truly great for low level work, unlike me... it's the getting up that's not so good, as the ground seems to be getting further away all the time.

I'm possibly going to pair it up permanently with a RRS BH-55 Pro ball head/B2 Pro II Clamp, which I think will make for a fine combo.

[gaweidert]

Nice haul! But shouldn't it be "SWHBO" SWMBO????

One of my favourite shows.

Oooops! Corrected.

[Marcus Rowland]

A nice clean Sony Alpha A100 with an 18-70 lens. Don't know if it works yet, there's no battery charger, but I paid £45 with free P&P for it as untested, and I think it looks worth the gamble. The lens works anyway, I tested it on a 35mm Minolta body and AF etc. is fine. The charger is a fiver including postage, should get it by Saturday with luck. If this works it will be my fifth DSLR, which is a bit silly, but I'm definitely going to sell my Sigma in the new year, I just don't see enough Sigma gear to warrant keeping it. I use the Nikon, Canon, and Pentax enough to justify keeping them, hopefully this will apply to the Sony too, it's got to be a better way to test Minolta lenses than adapting them to my Canon, and if it's OK I will sell the Minolta to Canon adapter too.

One more car boot sale before Christmas, after that everything shuts down until mid-January, but I have enough stock to keep me busy.

[cyberjunkie]

The Sankyo Kohki Komura 1:2.5 f=105mm, whose pictures were recently posted on this same thread, has finally arrived from Japan.
The W-Komura 1:3.5 28mm is on its way.
As soon as I picked up the lens from the post office, I couldn't help myself... the first thing I did was to open the lens and try to clean it.
The 2.5/105mm is not one of the super-fast short tele for which Komura is famous, but it's quite desirable and not exceedingly expensive.
I paid mine a very decent price, because it looked pitiful in the pictures, and all the defects were disclosed (well... more or less).
In reality the lens was even worse than expected. There are two tiny scratches on the front glass, and the lens was so hazy, dirty and fungus infested that I could barely see through it!
The good news is that the scratches are not going to affect the optical performance, and that I could clean the objective... I'd say with a success ratio of about 70%.
The surfaces in front and behind the diaphragm could not be cleaned cause I didn't find a way to do it without completely dismantling the objective.
Even after freeing (and sliding back) both the diaphragm ring and the preset ring, I could not remove the third lens (group?) from the front.
I didn't want to try too hard cause it's valuable lens, at least to me, so I will use it the way it is (much, much better!) until it goes in the expert hands of my friend/repairman.
I got su frustrated by my lack of understanding of how the Komura is built, that today I decided to give me another chance.
I had a Soligor C/D 5.6/400mm with a broken diaphargm mechanism, that was hastily repaired with the tip of a wooden skewer
I reopened it, trying to replace the little wooden pin with something more resistant, that would not come loose inside the lens. I got into a number of problems, seriously tested my patience, but in the end I solved the problem with some thin iron wire. Now the lens works a charm in auto, with the diaphragm lever doing what it is supposed to do!
It was not dark, so I went for another lens, an SMC Pentax 3.5/24mm with haze and some fungi, that was bought with the hope to clean it.
I cleaned all surfaces of each and every group. The usual cleaners were not enough, so I used a touch of hydrogen peroxide... and now I have a lens that is 99% clean.
It seems I can't find a way to get rid of each and every particle of dust... but it's cleaner than most of my vintage lenses, so I called it a day.
Three lenses done in two half afternoons. I feel satisfied

Here is the Komura after the treatment. Compared with the pics I already posted, it looks another lens!

[MJSteele]

Awaiting Arrival of a Tokina Made Soligor 200 2.8 Fd mount Lens

Offered an amount that brought it to a total of $100.25 with the shipping on Ebay
Listed as great condition no fungus haze or scratches minor possible dust
Supposed to arrive on Christmas Eve...

Also awaiting the FD to PK adapter so i can use it on My K10D Body
Already Have The FD to Canon Adapter that works great on my other FD lenses