Saturday garage sale and thrift store run

<p>Well, today wasn't to bad. Not much on the to do list so I went out to take some photos and stop by some thrift stores. Listening to music and not paying attention resulted in me exiting the highway one exit to early from where I wanted to be. No biggie I thought, I will just take the first left and cut thru the residential area. It was through a Latino part of town and turns out there were 4 garage sales on that one road alone. That wrong turn netted me the Canon AE-1 ($25) and the Argus with the two roles of 127 film ($5). BTW, can anyone identify the green film? All it says is 127 Black and White, Made in Belgium, Safety Film.</p>

<p>After that it was a couple of thrift stores, the second of which resulted in the acquisition of the Pentax ME Super with the Sigma zoom ($35), the Tamron adaptall zoom with M42 mount attached ($10) and the handy little Canon FD lens reference guide (49 cents).</p>

<p>The Canon and Pentax seem to work ok, metering to within a stop of each other. The FD 50/1.8 did not have a cap and I thought surely there would be scratches galore when I cleaned off the decade of fingerprints that covered it. I was pleasantly surprised as I wiped away the years that it was not scratched at all. The back glass was mint looking as though nobody had ever removed the lens before. Over all the AE-1 Program is in amazing shape, although it has the characteristic Canon A series squeak. The ME Super is in great shape as well. A solid and clean little machine just as ready now to expose film as it was all those years ago when somebody walked out of a camera shop all excited to try out their new toy. To bad it didnt have a tasty little prime on it. But I'm not complaining. There was also a Spotmatic with an SMC Takumar 50/1.4 gracing the front. "Yummy!" I thought, until I went to unscrew it and part of the front of the lens detached itself. Oh well, no reason to be greedy.</p>

<p>Most of this will be going up on my Etsy shop for resale, but I think I am keeping the Argus. I bought it thinking it was broke since I couldn't get the shutter to fire and planned on using it for decoration. But when I got home and spent a while tinkering with it I realized you have to cock it with the little lever on front. Once that was going I started running it through its paces and as far as I can tell everything is working great. The shutter seems to fire as different speeds as I change the dial and I think I get how the film counter and winder works. The rangefinder is tiny and dim as all get out but I can make out the two images moving. And the little 50/3.5 lens has 10 blades which was a pleasant surprise. I can see now why these things had such a long production run. For a cheap mass produced camera it's very classy. Almost steampunk by todays standards. I am definitely going to run some film through it and see what happens. I guess the Sunny 16 rule is now more then just theory for me.</p>

<p>To top it off I also stopped twice for some macro photography and got some decent photos as well. All in all, a really nice Saturday. :)</p>

<p> <em>the haul</em><br>

<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8389/8626117487_f3d827fcd4_c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="534" /></p>

<p>A nice haul. I still have an ME Super (and the 50 / 1.7 prime) and I have a fondness for Adaptall lenses - there are some real beauties in the range. Which zoom is this, and is there a number in square brackets somewhere? The <a href="http://www.adaptall-2.org/">adaptall-2.org</a> is your friend for these lenses.</p>

<p>I read that Agfa is or was a Belgian company so it seems likely that film was made by them. Which one it is is another matter of course. Some information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_discontinued_photographic_films#Agfa</p>

<p>Green film like that is Walgreen's pharmacy film. I have a three pack of it on my shelf but only two rolls were in the pack when I got it. Belgium film is made by Gevaert of Agfa-Gevaert.</p>

<p>Great finds David! Spring is coming late in my neck of the woods, so spring cleaning yard sales won't start for another month. You have inspired me to go hunting them again.</p>

<p>You did good. Around here, taking a wrong turn gets you mugged :) I'm glad you go to Etsy. I love that site. The ME Super is a neat little camera, but those *$x!% buttons and no exposure lock didn't work for me. Interesting that someone was selling 127 film w/ a 35mm camera, but that's how those type of sales go. </p>

<p>It does seem to be a lovely haul and I hope you would put a roll through each and test them out before selling on the auction site!</p>

<p>WOW what a haul! Man it seems that one can never have enough cameras.</p>

<p>I suppose I should be happy we don't seem to be a large enough community to have much of this sort of thing, or maybe I just miss it.<br>

Congratulations on a good haul.</p>

<p>Howard, thanks for the link. According to the site it is the Model 44A and appears to have decent image quality, if an all plastic build. I should be able to pass this one on to someone on Etsy. Thanks for the film link as well.</p>

<p>Tom thanks as well for the film identification.</p>

<p>Get out there as soon as you can Steve B. I have always loved rummaging thru garage sales and thrift stores since you never know what someone is getting rid of. But ists really special when you find old unused film gear languishing and you know you can use it and get it back in circulation.</p>

<p>Steve M, I know about the mugging part. One of the thrift stores I frequent is in a pretty bad part of town. On the way back from there I noticed a large grown up parking lot that had been abandoned. There were plants and flowers everywhere and that means bugs for macros. I pulled in and starting shooting when I noticed I was being watched by some unsavory types parked way in the back, maybe 100-150 yard away. Cars would routinely pull in and drive back to them, then drive away again. Most likely they were dealing drugs. They seemed to watch me for a while so I tried to make it obvious I was taking pictures of flowers. I think they sent up 3 young boys to scope me out and I was also asked by a prostitute walking by and homeless guy on bike what I was doing crouching down in the weeds. Just taking pictures I said.</p>

<p>As for Etsy, I have watched it for a while. Its a great place. I opened a shop a couple of months ago but only just sat down and stocked it gear, adding pictures and descriptions. If you or anyone is interested just do a search for fotogear and you should see my shop. I made my first sale the other day, a like new Pentax M 28/2.8. I have never seen such a clean vintage lens. Anyway, its a really fun place to sell and shopping there is great. Such a variety of goods. Nothing at all like the auction site.</p>

<p>Starvey, I always run film thru anything I sell on Craigslist or Etsy. I want to be sure it works so I can advertise it that way. :) As a matter of fact, I will be picking up the developed film for the Pentax and Canon in just a bit.</p>

<p>Kris, you can never have enough cameras but you can have to many. :)</p>

<p>There is much to be said for living in a small community JDM, not least of which is less time spent looking for gear is more time spent making photographs.</p>

<p>Nice haul, <strong>David</strong>. The Argus is just about the most infuriating camera I've ever used, but with perseverance it can produce good results. I suspect it was designed by an octopus...But every collector should have at least one. What's the name of your Etsy shop? Occasionally, in the long dark nights, I browse that dangerous site...</p>

<p>Just fooling around with the Argus Rick I can see where you are coming from. It's a different animal for sure. You can find my Etsy under <strong>fotogear</strong>. I am based out of Sacramento, Ca. It says I dont currently ship overseas but for you and other pnetters I would make an exception.</p>

David, Dang... our yard sales have old plastic Imperial 127's that need black tape to be light tight. Nice stuff. Envy, envy.

<p>Haha, thx Randy. :)</p>