john_graham3

Generally most people are concerned with a lens's corner performance as well as in the center, so it's an interesting article for whomever uses the RD-1 but even the upcoming M8 will use more of the image circle, let alone film.

Agreed! In fact a perfect example is having responded to you in the first place :*)

I said "I already gave 2 examples, one was a lens which was said to have "perfect glass" and the other a camera which was said to have had a "recent CLA". Two different sellers, both with 200+ auctions and 99% feedback. Both responded to my explicit "ask the seller" questions regarding the condition and stated definitively that in the first case there were no marks of any kind on the glass, and in the second case that the shutter had been serviced and was running to specs. The lens came with two albeit small scratches in the front coating and one on an INSIDE element. The camera's slow shutter speeds were hesitant."

 

You said: "But what I actually said was that if you've had multiple bad experiences, perhaps YOU'RE the one doing something wrong. Along the lines of the ol' Star Trek expression, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.""

 

I'm not too proud to admit I can learn something. So go ahead Capt. Kirk, elighten me as to how I could have avoided the second bad experience. How should I have determined that the guy (a repeated seller of camera goods with 99% positive feedback over 200 auctions)was lying in both the auction blurb AND in reply to my direct question?

"Beware. There are two grades of B+W filters. The more expensive grade is multi-coated and is designated "MRC". The cheaper grade is single coated.

 

Leica filters are multi-coated "

 

Nope. Leica filters are single-coated. In fact they're the same glass as the regular B+W, because they're made by them. The rims are Leica proprietary.

"'However, I can assure you already that the product we are creating is something really special and will give the company a lot of tailwind.'

 

What does that mean?"

 

It means we all better pray Leica finally found a CEO who knows heads from tails :*)

I already gave 2 examples, one was a lens which was said to have "perfect glass" and the other a camera which was said to have had a "recent CLA". Two different sellers, both with 200+ auctions and 99% feedback. Both responded to my explicit "ask the seller" questions regarding the condition and stated definitively that in the first case there were no marks of any kind on the glass, and in the second case that the shutter had been serviced and was running to specs. The lens came with two albeit small scratches in the front coating and one on an INSIDE element. The camera's slow shutter speeds were hesitant. Both defects were visible/audible to the naked eye/ear. Both sellers swore these items were perfect when they were shipped out (they stopped short of accusing me of lying or damaging them myself but their tone was such). In both cases I got my money back INCLUDING the shipping BOTH WAYS (both sellers had policies about non refunding shipping but by total luck it turned out one was in Redondo Beach and the other one in N. Hollywood and I gave them the option of refunding my shipping or spending a day in small claims court). The total I could've saved over buying from a dealer was about $500, and I don't know how to put this tactfully, but it doesn't take me anywhere near as long to make $500 as it did to repackage those 2 items, let alone exchange e-mails and get attitude from those two guys. Some folks might say it was "only" 2 bad examples, but for me that was 2 too many. And BTW someone with the arrogance to say that anyone who has a bad experience on eBay owes it to his own incompetence is a perfect example of the type of individual I explicitly would NOT want to ever chance to do business with.

IIRC Contax completely shut down their film camera line and Mamiya sold theirs to some company not know for being a camera manufacturer. Pentax is the only one with continuity. Whether that makes a difference in the future in terms of support and repair remains to be seen, but these are partially electronic cameras and not easy for some guy in a back room shop to reproduce some critical parts. Pentax is still rumored to be getting ready to debut their 645-Digital at Photokina this fall, but of course they could just as well suddenly announce they're closing up shop on MF.

Math slip there...$270 not $238. And I could've sworn you said chrome the first time, sorry about that :*(

Before you said chrome. KEH wants $1269 for a black classic in Excellent, which you would also probably call mint/mint-, so the diff is $238, for a 14-day MBG and 60-day warranty. I'd still go with them. If someone doesn't want to play Russian Roulette it's not necessarily because he's too dumb to figure out how to load a shell and spin the cylinder :*) BTW I agree with you about Samys, they're in La La Land in more ways than one :*)

KEH (currently): M6 Chrome EX+ (betcha anything it's in nicer shape than the eBay one marked mint): $1479

 

28 Elmarit-M V3, also EX+ with caps: $1079.

 

A knowledgeable and polite person on the 'phone willing to get them in front of them and answer/describe to me in every detail, then I still get 14 days to return no questions asked and 60 days warranty.

 

I don't need or want either of these but if I had to choose, I'd go with KEH. Then again everyone's financial situation is different. I know if I "saved" the $750 difference I'd eventually piss it away on something(s) of lesser value :*)

The 1/50 speed would have to be about 3 stops too fast for only the very edge of the frame to be exposed by the flash, in which case your non-flash shots at all the higher speeds (being on the same mechanism)would be severely underexposed, and you'd notice that even with wide-latitude print film. So it's either the synchronizing circuit in the camera, or the firing circuit in the flash, that's delaying the firing until the second curtain has almost closed (I doubt it's possible to fire too early while the 1st curtain is starting to open). So first try another flash (you don't need to load film, just open the back trapdoor and look as you fire, if things are right you should see the entire film area lit up by flash (I hope I don't need to say it, but don't point the flash at the camera while you do this!). Once you rule out the flash, the camera needs service.

Obviously anyone with a pair of common sense antennae can detect the outright scammers, that's not the issue at all. It's the little things: a couple small nicks in the coating of a lens that was described as having "perfect glass", or erratic shutter speeds on a camera that was described as "recently CLA'd". Sure most sellers will at least act ingenuous and apologetic and "make it right", after all that's how these guys manage to hold their high positive feedback percentages. No one sells new, mfr-warranty cameras and lenses on e-Bay for half the price of B&H and it's not worth the hassle for me for the few used items I've bought over the years. I'm in the business of brokering major liquidations, and so am used to professsional auction houses, so the penny-anty shenanigans of e-Bay just don't impress me like it does a lot of people. Obviously e-Bay is immensely successful, which would indicate that overall more people are satisfied than not, and that's hard to argue with.

If prefering to deal with legitimate brick and mortar establishments with warranties and dealer franchises is a sign of stupidity, I'll gladly cop to it :*)

Well if you'd rather pay half dealer price for an item you can't inspect and then spend time and aggrevation trying to get a refund once the thing finally arrives and has defects only a blind incompetent or a crook wouldn't have noticed, AND eat the shipping, to each his own. Which BTW has nothing to do with the the fact B&H sells film cheaper than local stores. But the point is mute because unless you live in a big city, it's mail-order or nothing. One of these days if Samys and Bel Air and a few others close their doors, I'll be up that creek too. But I'd still buy from someplace like KEH or B&H before I'd give my money to some yokel on e-pray. And BTW though its not their policy to refund shipping, if an item comes from KEH broken or mis-tagged or clearly mis-graded, they WILL credit the shipping.

"which are very color-accurate films used primarily by catalog photographers"

 

All our catalog photography (wholesale estate liquidations)is done with Canon 1DS-II and 5D.

...Or use whatever you've got, on a tripod, shoot multiple frames and stitch it in the computer with Panorama Tools.

I don't get it. The widest lens you can get on a Fuji 6x9 is 65mm which equates to the same horizontal fov of a 28mm lens on 35mm. It doesn't matter if you crop the vertical dimension so it's long and skinny like a pano, it's still a 28mm shot, not a pano. The 43mm on a Mamiya7 covers a wider view, as does the 40mm on a 6x6 or even the 35mm on a 645. If you want a MF camera capable of doing true panos as well as regular shots, get a 2x3 like a Horseman, Linhof or even an old Graphic, a 47mm lens with 4x5 coverage, a recessed lensboard and a 6x12 back.

"A lens that I had offered here was sold to a buyer on eBay."

 

Hmmm, nobody wanted to pay your asking price here, so you figured you could get what you wanted or more, on eBay, and now you're back here crying for sympathy. The problem with eBay is that everyone can be a dealer, without knowing the first thing about the realities of retail business or having to come face to face with the customer, having him screaming that you're a crook as a store full of customers hastens out the door never to return. The sad thing today is that the cesspool that is eBay has killed off the last profit center keeping camera stores alive and we're now at the mercy of mail order, and insane "policies" like not refuding shipping charges on a defective or misrepresented item. That can only happen when the buyer and seller are far away geographically. Try that here in the state of California (and probably any other state)and there's a better than even chance you'll end up in small claims court paying back not only the shipping charges but court costs too.

"These older leather cases are made of very hard dried leather and will create rub-marks on the back of your camera."

 

Not the black ones made in the last 25-30 years. They're around for $100 or less, don't require a screw to remove them for loading, and if you keep the camera in your briefcase or on the seat of the car the top half does offer protection from banging around but it snaps off completely. But I suppose if you're paying $3500 for a film camera, $250 for half of a case isn't out of line.

Gotta love the photo.net software with it's manual HTML switch :*)

For once Peter Pan is <i>not</i> in Neverland. There's something inconsistent with someone being comfortable taking expensive Leica gear to the beach but hesitant about paying $50 to have the sand cleaned out of the lens.

"Along with your 50 Summicron, take a look at the 28mm 1:3.5 V/C Color Skopar -- inexpensive, excellent build quality, sharp!"

 

I guess you forgot to add "if it's focused right and held steady" :*)

Yeah, imagine how long your arm would need to be to take self portraits with that :*)

I don't think anyone's sneering at Huw, rather at Roger's implication that Huw's prototype which AFAWK has the electronic guts on an external board tethered to the camera rather than self-contained within, and AFAWK has yet to produce an image file at all let alone speaking of quality, is grounds for condemning Leica for overstating the complexity of designing a viable digital M body.

"he has shown that the task was far easier than leica led us to believe"

 

How do you figure, unless his actually works, and works as well as Leica's?