A complete waste of time and fuel, I thought,

<p>and then instead of leaving in disgust I looked in a box of odds-and-ends that I'd passed by earlier 'cos there was an extremely wide person in front of it. Bingo! Two 2x3 Pacemaker Graphic lens boards, one drilled, the other not (even better), for all of $10.</p>

<p>Second Sunday Camera Show in Wayne, NJ. Still staggering along, still surprising. Intermittent reinforcement still works.</p>

<p>Years ago at a flea market, I bought a Speed Graphic with lens for $20! The seller claimed it was old, and film was no longer available. And did I mention it was a 5x7? I played with it for a few years, and sold it to a teacher of mine for $250. I could now kick myself for selling it.</p>

<p>Dan, you can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need. Good to see you took away something useful from the firehouse.<br>

I went down to Sandy Hook area this morning and snagged a 2x3 Speed Graphic and white SX-70 from a nice lady who posted them on craigslist. <br>

EVery time I threaten to go to the show on Alps Rd, something always comes up. How many vendors were there today?</p>

<p> </p>

Nothing like a few lens boards to make it worth your while? Gabor you didn't mention what the 2x3 SG cost... duly noted!

<p>Gabor, a small mob from Brooklyn, a smaller mob from Cambridge, and at most 5 others. Fewer and fewer vendors and for the most part the same old junk month after month. Still and all, if one doesn't look one won't find.</p>

<p>Chuck, I had four spare boards, not counting the ones with lenses that I don't use. Now I have six. One can't have too many boards, especially blank ones. I've sworn off acquiring more lenses for my Graphics and trying to use the ones I have that I haven't tried, but who knows? I've sworn off before and changed my mind, it might happen again.</p>

<p>The show was small but I had fun and got a bunch of interesting items: Minolta XG-1 body which seems to work, 28/2 Vivitar in Konica mount, Star D 2X teleconverter in Konica mount NOS, 50/1.8 Canon New Fd in excellent condition, original hard leather case for the pentax Spotmatic with the Honeywell name, 200/3.5 Sigma Mini Tele in Konica mount NOS, original Pentax K 49mm Reverse Adapter, 28/3.5 chrome front Canon FD in perfect condition with the E-P marking on the back of the ounting ring, 2 step-up rings, 3 step-down rings and a Series 7 to 52mm ring and 2 books. Other interesting things that I saw but did not buy include a 24/2.8 'K' Nikkor, a 55/1.2 Porst lens in Pentax K mount, a 90/2.5 Vivitar Series 1 macro in Nikon AI mount, a 500/6.8 Telyt squeeze focus lens in M mount for the Visoflex and a Miranda Sensoret. The 200mm Sigma lens I got is a real oddball. It has internal focusing, focuses to 4.5 feet, focuses in the Nikon/Pentax direction, not the Konica/Canon direction, takes 58mm filters and is quite small. I think I will enjoy experimenting with it. </p>

<p>Interesting finds. Never any camera shows anywhere near my home and the flea markets in the area only have items like cheap 40 piece socket sets, cheap cell phone cases, bird houses, homemade tables, etc.<br>

Jeff- I have a couple of Sigma 135mm f3.5 mini teles and they also focus in the Nikon/Pentax direction. I think my Sigma 90mm f2.8 macro does as well, but its been a while since I've used it. I may have to check it out.</p>

<p>Chuck, if you must know, a cool Ben Franklin for everything, which included some movie cameras, another P'roid, flashbulbs, flash gun, 2x3 holders, Magic Flash for the SX-70, and best of all...<br>

New In Box 3-pack of PicPac 620 film, Made in Italy especially for Two Guys Dept. Stores ! That'd for my wife - she collects anything <a href="http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com/2007/10/tale-of-two-guys.html">Two Guys</a><br>

Plus, a really cool 1966 book on enlarging and darkroom techniques by fellow Hungarian, Joseph Foldes. <br>

Jeff, I used your favorite Vivitar 28mm f/2 to shoot this photo of my Sunday loot :</p><div></div>

<p>when I lived in Gl;en Ridge ( poor peopes end)<br>

I wentr to the show ONCE./<br>

the nasty russian ? dealers were a big turn off.<br>

they acted like everything that had was aplatinum and you could not even look closely.<br>

Not like the computer shows ayt that time.<br>

I never went bacl. instead looking in old camera stores.<br>

That gradually turned into dissapointment.<br>

Now I am 100+ miles away.</p>

<p>Say, is there an index of camera shows online? I see you guys finding cool stuff, but I've had no luck with googling for a list.<br>

Will</p>

<p>I've not been an a few months, but selection can vary widely. First trip, I wasn't sure I'd be back,. but gave it another try, and there were almost 2x the # of vendors. I think the only way to really get a feel for it is to go every month...</p>

<p>That said, I've picked up a few neat things there. Filters, caps, a brand-new Canon backpack, a $10 Minolta XD-11. You never know what'll show up week to week...</p>

<p>Walter, there are (or were) camera shows and then there are (or were) camera shows. Second Sunday, which is just in reach – 100 miles away – is strictly lower class bargain basement junk, with a little good equipment too. Less and less of everything each month. It is fading away. And then there are shows where the dealers have good stuff priced fairly, i.e,. much too expensive for the likes of me. They're fading away too, nearly all gone. Funny thing is that I've found real bargains at both types of show.</p>

<p>Every so often there’s a Photorama show in reach. Sam Vinegar is still a pirate. His vendors are also fewer and fewer and the interesting (to me) stuff rarer and rarer. There may be stuff of interest to some of you, though.</p>

<p>Jeff, good haul. I take it you’re a generalist – Konica, Minolta, Canon FD, Pentax 42 mm and K, and who knows what else. I’m a narrow specialist with too much gear that I don’t use. So our views of whether there’s much of interest at a show can easily differ a lot.</p>

<p>Will, try looking at the “trade shows” section in shutterbug.com. shutterbug.net is and has the same.</p>

<p>Larry, did you mean month to month?</p>

<p>Dan,<br>

Thanks for the tip, that helps a lot!<br>

Will</p>

<p>Dan, I'm sure I have seen or met you at a show. Someone at Sunday's show asked me what I was looking for. That's a typical question. My answer? "I'll know when I see it." I didn't really start collecting until about 1988. That was a time when many small camera stores were still in business but when they wouldn't last past the next lease renewal or the death of the owner. I had a friendly relationship with the owners because I knew or knew of people in the industry from my summer job at Camera Barn in NY in the 1970s and my part-time school job at General Photo in Boston. I would get to look through drawers of old stuff which few people were still interested in and I could pretty much name my price. Things like reversing rings, close-up lenses, auto rings, helicoids, cable releases and the like would show up. This was in the pre-eBay days. At that time I would also look at the classified ads in Shutterbug and later CameraShopper.<br>

Since about 1998 I have bought more equipment from eBay sellers than from just about anywhere else. Still, I enjoy looking at and handling something in person. Without the shows there just aren't very many other places to do this. Some people frequent yard sales or estate sales and hope to find something valuable for a modest price. My favorite show used to be the Meadowlands show off of Route 3 in Secaucus, NJ. They advertised that there were 100 tables. There usually were. From what I can figure I am at the young end of the age spectrum when it comes to people who took an interest in picture taking and film developing in 1971 and who are still using film cameras. I met a person at a camera show in Fort Washington, PA in 1987 or 1988 and he has been a good friend since then. I hope camera shows can hang on a while longer. There is a group of much younger people which has taken an interest in film photography. I don't know whether they will be able to sustain camera shows. </p>

<p>Jeff, we probably <em>have</em> set eyes on each other. I'm a pretty generic graybeard.</p>

<p>I'm still not a collector. I’m a user.</p>

<p>I started going to camera shows in 1986. My camera bag vanished in Haiti -- long story -- and after the insurance company paid off I discovered Shutterbug and then, through Shutterbug, camera shows. I quickly became hooked, and within a year was selling cine cameras via Shutterbug. I had a project, had a main camera and a backup, kept getting better cameras for the backup at shows …</p>

<p>Photorama is still running shows at Fort Washington. Not much fun, but as I said who doesn’t look doesn’t find. Also doesn’t waste time, fuel, and tolls.</p>

<p>I stumbled across eBay in ’97, still browse it but it isn’t as much fun as it used to be. I've got some wonderful lenses at absurdly low prices through eBay, but all that’s pretty well dried up even though a couple of Apo-Saphirs sold very low last week. I didn’t need either, otherwise I’d have bid. Last fall I got a 900 Apo Sapir via eBay.de for $200 delivered, still haven't put it to use. The first mount adapter SKGrimes made for me was a mistake. Mine, not theirs, but rework is needed.</p>

<p>I have the same policy for eBay and camera shows as you. I usually don’t look for anything in particular, sometimes spot something that reaches out and grabs me. </p>

<p>Cheers,</p>

<p>Dan</p>

<p> </p>