[vrphoto]

My 6 year old Mac Mini died kind of on Friday morning. It wouldn't boot up, just kind of hangs with the boot screen. So, I just purchased a new one with the M1 chip and SSD drive. Got to say, it's incredibly fast. I can see all my files when in recovery mode on my old one but I still can't get the old one to boot so it's going to get repaired hopefully or I'll just remove the drive and put in in a enclosure and recover what I need. I have all my photos stored on an external so none of them are affected.

I was planning on getting a new one anyhow but I was waiting for the next model to arrive next year. Well, it didn't quite make it but so far, I happy with the new one. It's a pretty substantial upgrade from the 2014 Intel version. The down side is I'm now forced to but a new film scanner and new color calibration device because Canon has no updated drivers and neither does Datacolor for their Sypder which is why I was holding off on upgrades and still running Mohave.

Maybe look at Vuescan software for scanning - it copes with many many scanners that have out-of-date drivers. Much less expensive than new hardware!

[pepperberry farm]

My 6 year old Mac Mini died kind of on Friday morning. It wouldn't boot up, just kind of hangs with the boot screen. So, I just purchased a new one with the M1 chip and SSD drive. Got to say, it's incredibly fast. I can see all my files when in recovery mode on my old one but I still can't get the old one to boot so it's going to get repaired hopefully or I'll just remove the drive and put in in a enclosure and recover what I need. I have all my photos stored on an external so none of them are affected.

I was planning on getting a new one anyhow but I was waiting for the next model to arrive next year. Well, it didn't quite make it but so far, I happy with the new one. It's a pretty substantial upgrade from the 2014 Intel version. The down side is I'm now forced to but a new film scanner and new color calibration device because Canon has no updated drivers and neither does Datacolor for their Sypder which is why I was holding off on upgrades and still running Mohave.

funny thing - I've got a new Mini sitting here, waiting for me to do the install/upgrade thing.... maybe I'll have time this coming weekend....

(:

[BigMackCam]

Due to delays with our Royal Mail service, I'm still awaiting delivery of the Canon Demi I bought last week. I've a hunch the selenium meter in that Canon won't be in working order, though (it's a very common issue with this model). If it's OK, happy days - but I'm assuming the worst, and if my fears are confirmed I'll return it.

While waiting for the Canon Demi, being stuck indoors due to awful weather (constant rain, grey skies, winds - and another big storm on the way tomorrow) and between various house-hold DIY tasks, I've spent way too much time looking at other half-frame cameras for sale... and tonight I pulled the trigger on one that satisfies both my curiosity in the format and my interest in Soviet lenses... it's a BeLOMO AGAT 18K There's a wonderfully informative review of the camera by Mike Eckman, HERE. It's an all-plastic, odd little handful of a thing with strange semi-manual / semi-auto exposure that's simultaneously ingenious and confounding, and to cap it all, loading film into it requires some practice. It couldn't be any more Soviet if it tried

The one I've bought is allegedly a new / old stock example coming from Ukraine, and allegedly opened for the first time by the seller in order to check the condition and take photos for the sale. Is this true? With no disrespect to our members from the former Eastern Bloc, it's difficult to know for sure. The seller's description, claims, photos and the apparent condition of the camera have me wanting to believe it... but even if it's not really an unused new / old stock camera, it looks to be in pretty amazing condition with the original strap, lens cap, documentation, box and internal tissue wrapping. I gambled a little bit more than I should have for this one, hoping it will pay off with - at the very least - a much better than average example. I guess I'll find out in due course... but so long as the lens is clean and it's in full working order, I'll be happy

At present, it seems to be taking over a week for our domestic postal service to deliver things that would usually arrive in one or two days. Given that, I'm not too hopeful of this camera arriving before Christmas... but I'm in no rush. It'll get here when it gets here. Either it'll make a nice Christmas present to myself, or it'll be a nice New Year's surprise

Some of the seller's photos below...

[reeftool]

funny thing - I've got a new Mini sitting here, waiting for me to do the install/upgrade thing.... maybe I'll have time this coming weekend....

(:

Mine came with Big Sur. I will update to Monterey this weekend. I haven't installed Photoshop or Lightroom either. I going to do that after I upgrade. I'm kind of back to work right now. I've been semi retired but covid has hit our shop and only 2 of us were vaccinated and I just haven't had time to do more than the basic start things going stuff. All of my settings and bookmarks etc were saved in iCloud so that all loaded automatically. Most of my 99% of my photo library is on an external drive. Setting up my Lightroom catalog will be a bit time consuming.

---------- Post added 12-06-21 at 06:50 PM ----------

Maybe look at Vuescan software for scanning - it copes with many many scanners that have out-of-date drivers. Much less expensive than new hardware!

Thanks for the heads up. I'll look into that. I'm still hoping my old Mac is repairable at a reasonable cost.

[AgentL]

Due to delays with our Royal Mail service, I'm still awaiting delivery of the Canon Demi I bought last week. I've a hunch the selenium meter in that Canon won't be in working order, though (it's a very common issue with this model). If it's OK, happy days - but I'm assuming the worst, and if my fears are confirmed I'll return it.

While waiting for the Canon Demi, being stuck indoors due to awful weather (constant rain, grey skies, winds - and another big storm on the way tomorrow) and between various house-hold DIY tasks, I've spent way too much time looking at other half-frame cameras for sale... and tonight I pulled the trigger on one that satisfies both my curiosity in the format and my interest in Soviet lenses... it's a BeLOMO AGAT 18K There's a wonderfully informative review of the camera by Mike Eckman, HERE. It's an all-plastic, odd little handful of a thing with strange semi-manual / semi-auto exposure that's simultaneously ingenious and confounding, and to cap it all, loading film into it requires some practice. It couldn't be any more Soviet if it tried

The one I've bought is allegedly a new / old stock example coming from Ukraine, and allegedly opened for the first time by the seller in order to check the condition and take photos for the sale. Is this true? With no disrespect to our members from the former Eastern Bloc, it's difficult to know for sure. The seller's description, claims, photos and the apparent condition of the camera have me wanting to believe it... but even if it's not really an unused new / old stock camera, it looks to be in pretty amazing condition with the original strap, lens cap, documentation, box and internal tissue wrapping. I gambled a little bit more than I should have for this one, hoping it will pay off with - at the very least - a much better than average example. I guess I'll find out in due course... but so long as the lens is clean and it's in full working order, I'll be happy

At present, it seems to be taking over a week for our domestic postal service to deliver things that would usually arrive in one or two days. Given that, I'm not too hopeful of this camera arriving before Christmas... but I'm in no rush. It'll get here when it gets here. Either it'll make a nice Christmas present to myself, or it'll be a nice New Year's surprise

Some of the seller's photos below...

This totally has me wanting one, what a cool, quirky thing!

[degral]

A GoPro Hero 3+ silver with lots of extras for $50. In 25 years of skiing I have only one picture of myself so I figured I could at least get something before I am too old and decrepit to hit the slopes.

[AgentL]

Ordered an i5 10400f to replace my aged 6600k. Benchmark scores are about double.

[WPRESTO]

And I thought only the French were quirky with their engineering.

[Mbaez]

A Benro GX25 Ball Head for my hiking tripod.

[disconnekt]

The BG-10 battery grip I got from a forum member came in today, attached to the MZS. It's suffering from the "melting plastic" that's been reported on the reviews here, otherwise it's it good condition.

[BigMackCam]

I went to a camera fair a few days back, and in one of the junk boxes I saw a very rough "Cosmic 35" camera (an export version of the Soviet-era "Smena 8"). I'd never handled one before, and rather liked it - but it was in very poor condition... so I picked up this domestic Soviet model from eBay. It's in surprisingly nice condition... just needs a good wipe down, really. The lens looked a bit rough initially, but a quick clean of the front and rear elements got it looking perfectly clear again. The viewfinder is nice and clear, too. The shutter works fine at all speeds from 1/250 to 1/15s, but the timer is a little hesitant. When I have time, I'll probably remove the shutter mechanism and give it a thorough clean - but for now, it's quite usable

[lmd91343]

I just bought a solid state 4TB and 2TB drives for my computer's c and d drives to speed up booting, Photoshop, and Lightroom.
I got the smaller one. Amazon is running late on the big one.

Now I need to learn how to clone a drive.

[Kobie]

Some incredible surprises came my way. As such, I'm incredibly humbled...
Pentax DA* 16-50 PLM, D FA 150-450, Benro Bat series 2 travel tripod with Benro VX ballhead and Benro Carbon fiber gimbal. Godox V1 P with AK-R1 kit, Godox X-Pro P, Pentax adventure gadget bag, 2 Pentax D Li90 batteries, Panasonic Eneloop Pro AA and AAA batteries. Battery storage box, and Pentax HD 1.4x rear converter.

[pepperberry farm]

one K-10D with battery grip....

[Marcus Rowland]

My only car boot this weekend yielded a Sigma 70-300 4-5.6D AF macro (actually 1:2 magnification so technically close focusing) lens for Nikon - paid £20 with caps and a UV filter and rubber hood and works perfectly, so I'm pretty pleased. If I get nice weather this week I'll take it out for a walk and some test pictures, I don't seem to have done a full set for this model before.

Also bought a job lot on eBay that includes a 50mm f2 series E Nikkor, an Adaptall 2 28/2.8, and some extension tubes that may be Minolta AF - the pictures aren't clear. About £31 including postage so hopefully a good deal, I'll know when I get them.

Received the job lot today - the Nikkor and the 28/2.8 Adaptall are very nice - the seller also threw in an 28-200/2.5-4 Adaptall lens which has slight fungus. I didn't think there were mounts, but both turn out to have Nikon mounts which is very good news. The tubes are for Minolta AF but don't actually autofocus although they do have the contacts for focus confirm, open-aperture metering etc. That's the second or third set of tubes in this mount I've seen like that - not surprising, since manual focusing is often easier with AF lenses and extension tubes. VERY pleased.