[steamloco76]

That's what I said.... about 25 cameras ago.....

I made the mistake of buying three or four Pentax Screwmount camera lots just to acquire the lenses. Well, two of those had nice bodies, a low serial number Spotmatic and an H3v. I started collecting Asahi/Heiland/Honeywell Pentax M42 bodies and lenses from there. AP,S,K,H2,H1a,H3,H3v, Spotmatic, Spotmatic SP, Spotmatic II, Spotmatic SP500, Spotmatic IIa, Spotmatic F, ES, ESII along with K2, K1000, MX, ME Super & Super Program. All Chrome.

[TwoUptons]

Nitto, Asahi, Zunow, or Deep-C lens?

Asahi, though I came close to buying a Deep-C variant once.
It showed up today. A little smudge in the lens, but not bad for its age, and likely cleanable.

I’ll try it out tomorrow to see how it works with film...

-Eric

[tuco]

I prefer a TLR as a travel companion, and except for the slight loss in speed (f3.5 on mine vs the f2.8 of the Hasselblad), I’ve no complaints in terms of image quality. But if you want a system, Hasselblad made all kinds of cool stuff to stick on their cameras...

-Eric

F2.8 vs F3.5 is so insignificant for my style of shooting with medium format film gear. And, yeah, hot-swapping backs on the System V is a cool feature if you are still shooting a lot of medium format film. I still do; more than my digital. Size/mass doesn't hold me back. I only handhold my medium format gear with lots of light. And that is only a small fraction of the time because often the better light is more subtle and that means a tripod if you want a reasonable amount of DOF.

[goatsNdonkey]

I consider this gear, a page from the Kodak Master Photoguide AR-21 --



Spiratone f3.5 Flat-Field 75mm T-mount bellows lens on K10D. Handheld at slight angle to the page to limit glare from artificial light source, and therefore not a test of the lens's flat-fieldness.

[cooltouch]

I have a couple of those old Kodak guides. Wonderful bits of photographic history.

[stevebrot]

I have a couple of those old Kodak guides. Wonderful bits of photographic history.

I have a Kodak B&W Darkroom Guide dating to about 1984 and still consult it for arcane information.


Steve

[tuco]

Yes, useful data guides. I consult the Professional Photoguide often for various things.

[goatsNdonkey]

The page I photographed is handy when one wants to get a hyperfocal distance setting estimate for a lens that has no depth-of-field lines for various apertures on the lens barrel.

I also have a darkroom data guide, but it's been some decades since it got use.

[ismaelg]

My jewelry:


Thanks,

[cooltouch]

I'd like to revisit the topic of field guides, because on further analysis I also regard them as necessary photographic tools -- thus they can be considered "gear."

I know I have at least a couple of Kodak field guides, but I could only find one. However, I found a couple of others that are worth noting, so here's noting. You'll see what I pulled from my stack of camera manuals a few guides in the photos below. The Kodak guide is called the Master Photoguide, copyright 1962, first printing apparently. It has several different calculator dials, a couple of pages of which I've shown below. I know I have at least one more of these Kodak guides around here somewhere -- I just don't know where offhand. I also found a National Geographic Photographer's Field Guide, copyright 1981, second printing 1983, revised edition 1988. And the coup de gras is a Wellcome Photographic Exposure Calculator Handbook and Diary 1924. This latter document is in remarkably good condition. It contains pages where the photographer can input data, and a previous owner input data in pencil on only a single page. The rest of the guide is in amazingly pristine condition for being 96 years old. It has over 140 pages of encyclopedic discussions on development and exposure, all from a 1924 perspective. When you open the guide, there's a photo. It is of a Mount Everest Expedition and shows what I can only describe as a hill, so this must be a base camp. The photo is labeled Scenery in the Chislung Valley between Tinki and Shekar. This guide was published by Burroughs Wellcome and Co. and something I discovered because it is referred to early and often is that the term "Tabloid" was a made-up word, trademarked by Burroughs Wellcome and Co. It would appear that the word "tabloid" has made it into the common lexicon through frequency of use the way "aspirin" did and the way Kimberly-Clark is fighting hard to prevent "Kleenex" from doing likewise. It would also appear that, back in 1924 Burroughs Wellcome Co was one of the premier suppliers of photo chemicals, as this guide points out in various locations. The guide has a blotter in the front and an exposure calculator wheel in back. I've had this guide for years most probably and I have no idea where it came from.

[WPRESTO]

This guide was published by Burroughs Wellcome and Co. and something I discovered because it is referred to early and often is that the term "Tabloid" was a made-up word, trademarked by Burroughs Wellcome and Co. It would appear that the word "tabloid" has made it into the common lexicon through frequency of use the way "aspirin" did and the way Kimberly-Clark is fighting hard to prevent "Kleenex" from doing likewise.

VAV brands or trademarked product names that have become common language words, see the TRIVIA thread.

[Jonathan Mac]

Pentax SFXn & Tokina 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 AF Aspherical by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr

[Baard-Einar]

This kit arrived today (less camera). Always wanted a macro rig, not sure why....
It is the Pentax Auto Bellows (what Auto about it?) with Slide duplicator (why copy a slide to uh another slide?) and the angle viewer. The Takumar bellows 100mm f4 was also included in the kit long with a lens hood for the 100mm. The rulers with the scales were missing in the parcel.

Has anyone tried to use one of these on a digital APS-C camera?

[TwoUptons]

I've used one on APS-C, though I'll admit to a great deal of frustration...

Everything works, of course, and the magnification ratios are the same, but the smaller sensor makes things very inconvenient when you want to fill the frame with something rather than just matching a reproduction ratio...

There's a macro guide floating around the forum somewhere... that I'll try and find and edit in a link...

I've found the 100mm bellows lens to be quite good, though obviously a little weird to use.

-Eric

[K-Three]

what Auto about it?

If memory serves, this bellows should have a cable release socket on the lens board, when an auto aperture lens fitted, the double ended cable release that came with the original kit would have stopped down the lens and fired the shutter with one push. Hence, Auto!
Looks like that lens is a preset, (the double aperture rings gives it away), so no auto stop down with it.
Looks like a fun bit of kit to play with,