[Marcus Rowland]

Just picked up my Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7. Not too happy with the packaging as it came in a box barely the height of the lens (no caps included which I knew in advance but expected better packaging) which was wrapped in a single piece of bubble wrap with a couple pieces of paper from one of those coupon spam mail papers that come in the mail to fill the rest of the box.

But the lens appears to be in decent order. The aperture ring was a bit stiff and didn't move very smoothly from 1.7 to 11 where it would stop. But after working it back and forth a bit, I got it to move past 11 all the way to A where I'll leave it. The focus ring is smooth though, so that's good. I'll have to try it out a bit, but it will probably replace my Pentax-M 50 f/1.7. Think I'll still stay on the lookout for a f/1.2, but I probably won't see one that I can afford for a long while.

I recently had a minor problem with one of these when testing it - with -A lenses there's nothing to tell the camera what the focal length is unless you set it in shake reduction, I took a load of shots then couldn't figure out why the metadata said it was 24mm. The REALLY annoying part is that this has undoubtedly happened before without me even noticing!

My last few days have not been good due to a really bad cold. Despite it nice weather this weekend I only went to one car boot sale, got there feeling like death, and didin't pay as much attention as I should to condition on the stuff I bought. The result - an Olympus E550 4/3 body that looked good externally but turned out to be full of fungus when I examined it properly, and a Cosina 70-200 AF for Canon that was optically pretty clean but has completely jammed focus. Fortunately I paid a tenner for the two so I'll probably break even anyway. I did better on the non-photographic stuff, a Psion Organiser II for a fiver - they're pretty collectible and it works well - and an old Apple keyboard for an iMac 3, blue from the days when everything Apple made had clear plastic casings with pastel tints.

[MikeyBugs95]

I bought a shirt and a 2.5 lb box of swedish chocolate candies from Amazon. Should be here in a few days.

[Gary H Perth]

Once again we head towards Australia Day, so how about this - a biscuit shaped like the map of Australia (missing Tassie) and flavour called Meat Pie. Last year's release was Vegemite and Cheese.

You need a good imagination to recognise meat pie flavour - like most of these snack foods, I think this new one tastes like salt and artificial flavouring

[Mike27613]

The long strap for the camera so it is more on my waist.

[Liney]

Once again we head towards Australia Day, so how about this - a biscuit shaped like the map of Australia (missing Tassie) and flavour called Meat Pie. Last year's release was Vegemite and Cheese.

You need a good imagination to recognise meat pie flavour - like most of these snack foods, I think this new one tastes like salt and artificial flavouring

I'm sure you can source a "map of tassie" elsewhere if you so desire.....

[ZombieArmy]

I got myself a Nikon Super CoolScan 4000 ED coming in, along with a Syba PCI-E firewire card. Can't wait to get my negs scanned!

[Racer X 69]

You need a good imagination to recognise meat pie flavour - like most of these snack foods, I think this new one tastes like salt and artificial flavouring

Try some catsup on them.

[Gary H Perth]

I'm sure you can source a "map of tassie" elsewhere if you so desire.....

A few look a bit like the Tasmania shape on the box, but scale is way wrong.

I will resist comment on the quoted reference.

[D1N0]

Two lenses in an auction (it was about the 24-50 to me, the 70-210 I already had though this one looks much better)

[Jonathan Mac]

I finally got my hands on the HD FA 35/2 I bought on cyber Monday.


2020-01-19_07-17-23 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr

I also got the K 35/3.5 that I got cheap to sell on for a profit (since I already have a copy).

[gatorguy]

Samsung T5 SSD, used from B&H. Excellent price (less than $60) and they make wonderful containers for photos. This is my 2nd one. Carry between the laptop and desktop too as needed.

[photoptimist]

Four feet of new sewer line to replace a segment of broken clay pipe.

They say "money = the root of all evil" but "evil roots = money," too!

[pepperberry farm]

one of the batteries failed in the old drill....

[Racer X 69]

one of the batteries failed in the old drill....

A 20 volt drill is a fairly recent thing, isn’t it?

[WPRESTO]

A 20 volt drill is a fairly recent thing, isn’t it?

I've had a 20v drill for a while, and it has impressive power. If you are driving a screw and it jams, the drill will really kick your wrist. But if you want battery power, I purchased a battery-operated weed whacker after getting frustrated - no, more accurately I was screaming epithets outraged - at a one-year-old four-stroke gas weed whacker that after 15 minutes I still could not get to sputter. The rechargeable battery for the new unit is 82 volts. Using a brush-cutting blade, it works as well as the worthless gas unit, but it is heavy. The battery lasts longer than I do using the tool.