stindphoto

Hi Olga! Do you have a hand-held lightmeter? TLRs with build-in lightmeter seems to be higher priced than ones without - maybe just because the ones with a lightmeter are newer. Anyway, if there is a lightmeter it can probably not be trusted - if it works at all that is. Also consider that a camere in the price range you are looking at will most probably need a CLA (Cleaning, Lubrication, Adjustment). Did you check with your friends, relatives, neigbours if anyone has an old cam lying around?

Pliebond has been mentioned as a good way to fasten leatherette - and contact glue should be fine too as it stays flexible and is easily to remove when the camera is serviced.

Oops - to make things right - I didn't get a 1.4 mm Planar for 16.- bucks - it was "only" a 1.7 Planar - but nevertheless new.

Its hard to make a prophesy - especially about the future! Digital is just IT right now. Remember when the CD-player came out in 1983 - soon the LPs disappeared - but they had a cult following, and today we see a much larger interest in LPs than 10 years ago and new releases on LP too. I think the same will happen for analog photo equipment and especially for medium format. Competition is fierce - Hasselblad has cut away several models from their line, Bronica is dead and so is Contax, Leica has big financial problems and Olympus is reducing staff and cutting costs. In Europe the 2nd hand market has moved away from dealers, as they now have to offer 2 years warranty on al items sold including used stuff, making it hard to make money on 2nd hand. Here in Denmark I have noticed 2nd hand shelves in the photo stores disappear over the last 2-3 years. Here 2nd hand is a private market and mostly a byers market. A Nikon 2.8 80-200 AF-D cant sell for USD 400.- and I just picked up a mint new-in-box Contax Planar 50mm 1.4 for USD 16.- !! and a Contax 159MM for a little less than USD 100.- I think a large amount of medium format gear awaits new owners as a lot of especially wedding photographers have switched to digital SLRs. And for the future - it think there will be a cult for all analog produced fine art B/W prints in a near future - and what better gear to produce that than medium format? And right now I am expanding my Hasselblad system - and getting ready to sell a 6MP back for a Nikon N90s/F90x as well as most of my other Nikon gear. Lets keep medium format alive!

Check out the magazine "LIVING ARCHITECTURE" - its a Danish publication, but should be available worldwide - ask your library - as far as I know ALL editorial architectural photos in that mag is made with the latest version of the 38mm Biogon SWC. I promise you - you will LOVE what you see! But the way - check out the ALPA too - that camera uses the same Biogon lens from Zeiss, but has shift!

One good argument was missed so far as to why to use pre-release or lock-up of the mirror. If you shoot landscapes you can use a lighter tripod when the mirror is pre-released. Even when using very good tripods vibration from the mirror lives on as resonance and vibration long after the mirror has moved. If my tripod can be maybe 2kg/4lbs lighter because I use the pre-release I can carry an extra lens or enjoy the lighter back-pack or carry supplies for a longer stay in the field. And its nice to get 2-3 extra stops of depth of field as an added bonus. In generel, central shutters cause a lot less vibration than focal plane shutters. This is the main reason why I wont buy a Hasselblad 200 series but instead will get a 503CW and use my 500CM as backup.

Mirror pre release is higly adviseable to use with both long and macro lenses when possible (when photographing static objects - no reason NOT to use it). I used lock-up quite often with my Nikon F5 and use the pre-release funktion on the Nikon FM/FM2 and FE/FE2 too.

If the small plastic parts are app 2 x 7mm and loose, they came from the Polaroid film pack, where they make sure the individual films/pieces of paper dont touch the others. I dont know if they are in all types of Pol packs. Just throw them away!