Lou_Meluso

<p>I stirred anxiously in my seat at work Friday afternoon wondering if today my new camera would arrive and be waiting for me at home. I rarely buy a camera brand new. I prefer to wait a year or two to pick up a better deal on used gear. However, this past year I was at Photo Expo in NYC when the camera was introduced, and after playing with it at the show, I developed a powerful urge to get one. I rushed home to discover....dang...not yet.</p> <p>The Sony A7 seemed to embody everything I wanted in a new camera. A compact size, light weight, a full frame, high quality sensor and a mount that would allow me to use many of the good older lenses I've acquired over the years. Years of carrying heavy medium format cameras have left lingering issues to my neck, back and shoulder areas. Combined with normal age-related entropy, I found myself gravitating toward smaller and lighter gear the last five years or so.</p> <p>The Sony NEX 5n was my first entry into the Sony mirrorless family and it changed everything for me. With it I found a small system that I could carry and use both for traveling and day-to-day use. The camera was so light and the image quality was fantastic. A full frame solution, I imagined, would be similar yet be lower noise and let my wide angle lenses work without additional optics.</p> <p>Saturday morning the box finally arrived. Although short-lived, there is a special feeling in unboxing a brand new camera. Something akin to a new car experience overtakes one. Immediately, the sensations I felt at the camera show came flooding back. The small camera feels so well made and instantly comfortable in my medium-sized hands. I attach the supplied Sony 28-70mm kit lens and was amazed at the light weight of the pair. After about twenty minutes of fiddling with the menus, I was ready to shoot. </p><div></div>

<p>This is a <strong>Russian Kiev 4 rangefinder camera with Jupiter-8 lens and original case</strong>. It is a desirable early 1954 example with serial number 542770. This Contax copy is in good cosmetic shape. The shutter works (charge the shutter before adjusting speeds), the film advance is smooth and positive. The lens is reasonably clean and a take up spool is included inside. The meter does not respond to light and the rangefinder, in fact the whole camera, would benefit from a good CLA.</p> <p>To assist you in that effort I am also including a copy of Isaak Maizenberg’s book “All You Need To Know About Design and Repair of Russian Cameras”. This fine tome is a hardcover edition and in near mint condition. It’s has over 300 pages of information and is chock full of wonderful, detailed illustrations. A must have handbook for the Russian camera collector or repair fan.<br> <br /> They are free to <strong>any</strong> photo.net member that wants them. I hope they will go to someone who will really use them. I will mail them to you, free of charge, wherever you are in the world. I will ship after New Years.</p> <p><br /> To keep it interesting and fun, <strong>don't post your request in this thread</strong>. Send me an email, through photo.net, with <strong>your name only</strong>. I'll take the 8th email as the winner. If I don't get 8 requests, the last person to request it will get it by this time next week.<br /> I will bounce back an email to the winner and you can give me your shipping info. Have fun and good luck! I'll announce the winner in this thread when the group is taken. One email per member, please.</p> <p>Let me take this opportunity to wish all Classic Manual Camera Forum members a wonderful holiday season. Thank you all for your sharing, camaraderie and good humor.</p><div></div>

<p>This is a re-post of a thread I started a few days ago. Everything was uploading fine until I suddenly could not upload any images. This occurred, just as I was getting to the results section. I am re-posting now and will include the entire front matter for continuity sake. Thank you to those that tried to post comments on that thread.</p> <p>I recently received a wonderful gift of an entire Leica R system which consisted of four bodies (a pair of Leicaflex SL's and a pair of R4's) and a pile of Leica R lenses. The bodies didn't interest me much but the lenses were pretty cool. I immedially adapted them to my digicams and started to enjoy those nicely made primes. However, amid the 'Crons, 'Luxes and Telyt's, was this wooden box covered in soft, burgandy leather. </p><div></div>