GAS GAS: Please Share your Latest Acquisitions Big and Small

[DeeJayK]

... I used to prefer FedEx over UPS before Covid, but now it is the other way around. And, because of this delivery failure by FedEx I hesitate to order any more expensive items from BH.
...

Exact same experience here. A few years back if I was shipping or receiving something that to quote an old ad, "absolutely, positively has to be there" on schedule, I would've chosen FedEx. But I literally can't recall the last package I've received via FedEx that arrived without some delay. And most have had some other farkakte routing (like Tim's) or other unexplainable pause. When I've bothered to call FedEx to inquire/complain I've gotten the same sort of blasé non-response from a rep with access to apparently no more information than the sparse tracking information available online; it always boils down to basically "it will get there eventually, and there's nothing I can do."

I've experienced no similar hiccups with either UPS or USPS. I've come to the conclusion that FedEx is basically a failed company at every level.

- K

 

[DeeJayK]

...
I believe this Olympus will be my very last camera as it can do much more than I could ever need, or want.

- K

 

[agentlossing]

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- K

Geez, Keith, I resisted the urge. I was trying to be nice.

 

[AndyH44]

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- K

Didn't mean to wad your panties but it's truly how I feel. Don't much care what suits anyone else.

 

[DeeJayK]

Didn't mean to wad your panties but it's truly how I feel. Don't much care what suits anyone else.

I really didn't mean anything by my facetious little GIF response. I fear you interpreted it as laughing AT you, which was not my intent. If anything my reaction was based as much on projection of my own seemingly eternal fight with GAS as on anything else.

I'm sure your assessment of the E-M1.3's capabilities is accurate. Hell, my own E-M1.1 has features and abilities I've never used to their full effect, but that hasn't stopped me from gazing with anticipation at the next shiny item.

Anyway, sincere apologies if I have upset you, Andy. I guess I need to learn to take a page from Andrew's book and keep my thoughts to myself.

- K

 

[JensM]

It may or not be the right place for it, but since it is part of my latest acquisition and not a review as such, I will drop a some lines of follow-up here.

If you are a (Lumix) M43 user and don't have the 14-140 f:3.5-5.6 yet be it MkI or MkII, make it your next acquisition. It is an incredible lens and should be in every M43 shooters lens inventory.

I must admit not being overly fond of the super zooms, and have looked down my nose on several of them, even to the tune of being somewhat acerbic in my commentary towards the fellow in the brick and mortar shop I bought my GX7 and hence into the M43 universe, that suggested I should have a look at it.

Sorry bout that, I was wrong, you was right.

I have used the second hand copy I bought three weeks ago quite a lot (about 1200 exposures) and am rather fascinated with it. It sings whilst mounted on the GX9 and that combo is a proper matched pair, at least if you are like me and am more of a long end shooter than a wide shooter.

Am not sure what it is, but if it performed as well on the GX7 and I had been open to the suggestion from the sales clerk, I would most likely have called it a day, maybe added the 100-300 and one fast prime, and been content shooting that combo for its duration.

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[MiguelATF]

It may or not be the right place for it, but since it is part of my latest acquisition and not a review as such, I will drop a some lines of follow-up here.

If you are a (Lumix) M43 user and don't have the 14-140 f:3.5-5.6 yet be it MkI or MkII, make it your next acquisition. It is an incredible lens and should be in every M43 shooters lens inventory.

I must admit not being overly fond of the super zooms, and have looked down my nose on several of them, even to the tune of being somewhat acerbic in my commentary towards the fellow in the brick and mortar shop I bought my GX7 and hence into the M43 universe, that suggested I should have a look at it.

Sorry bout that, I was wrong, you was right.

I have used the second hand copy I bought three weeks ago quite a lot (about 1200 exposures) and am rather fascinated with it. It sings whilst mounted on the GX9 and that combo is a proper matched pair, at least if you are like me and am more of a long end shooter than a wide shooter.

Am not sure what it is, but if it performed as well on the GX7 and I had been open to the suggestion from the sales clerk, I would most likely have called it a day, maybe added the 100-300 and one fast prime, and been content shooting that combo for its duration.

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I have to say, Jens, that based on the totally random and subjective 'How does it look' test, this looks like a very cool lens. Plus it seems well-suited, size-wise, for your GX9. And thank you for your thoughts and mini-review... I may have to put it on my short list.

 

[MiguelATF]

My latest inexpensive (under USD $50) acquisition: a relatively ancient fixed aperture (f/8) manual focus-only Spiratone Minitel 500mm catadioptric mirror lens, which I acquired on a lark. To make it function on my Olympus E-M1.1, I also picked up a lightly used Viltrox EF-M2 adapter, which also functions as a de facto 'speedbooster' (and focal-length-reducer), turning this into a 350mm lens with an effective f/5.6 aperture. (Of course, let's not forget that with the 2x 'crop factor', this lens has an effective Field-of-View equivalent to a 700mm lens on a traditonal 35mm or modern FF camera.) The lens is astoundingly small---

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And surprisingly lightweight and well balanced. It also (to my surprise) has Macro-focusing capabilities that actually work, although rotating the lens all the way from infinity to macro focus takes several turns.

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One of my first (experimental - on the closer side of the focus range) attempts with the lens (of one of the small monsters on my DVD bookshelf)--

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It's still a work in progress so only time will tell...although definitely the price was right. And in terms of weird fun factor, it deserves a high score.

 

[JensM]

I have to say, Jens, that based on the totally random and subjective 'How does it look' test, this looks like a very cool lens. Plus it seems well-suited, size-wise, for your GX9. And thank you for your thoughts and mini-review... I may have to put it on my short list.

It is a very cool one, size-wise it is approximately the size of the 12-35 F:2.8, if anything it is a fraction slimmer.

The 14-140 shares the 58mm filter tread with the 12-35/35-100 combo, and in the picture, it sports the polarizer that came with the package, so it may look a bit long in the nose. I have a OEM sun hood inbound, what came with it, was some sort of cheap, generic non-reversible one so I do without for the moment.

I would say go for it. I snagged mine second-hand, for about what they normally goes for over here, about $300ish, but got quite a lot of added value in the deal. The new weatherproofed MkII version is somewhat eyewatering priced over here, at between $900-1000 and that is a tad on the steep side. Just adding the weathersealing seems to almost double the prices here in Norway, the only one that kept their price point somewhat, in its MkII iterations is the 12-35/35-100s

 

[MountainMan79]

My latest acquisition arrived today. Taken with my other latest acquisition; an iPhone 13 pro. The camera is much better than my old Xs. None of my album artwork is correct any more, which is super annoying and apparently a known issue that apple has been ignoring for 6 months, but otherwise it’s a great phone. Real sexy in the alpine green too. And I’m definitely liking the 256gb of storage over the 64gb I had on my last one.

Edit: IPhone 13 exif doesn’t show?

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Second edit - changing the default camera file option from heif to jpg apparently restores exif info.

 

[NoTan2]

Last Wednesday, our 6 year old grandson had a day off school as it was closed. It was a nice day (despite the fact that we're heading for Winter) so we took him to the beach. He's a super keen swimmer and loves anything to do with the water.
There were a few people on the beach so I decided to keep my phone in my pocket as I didn't want to be distracted watching our bags instead of watching our grandson. I remember jumping over a wave and then realised that my phone was missing. We found it under a foot of water. It was a Galaxy S9 and supposed to be waterproof (water resistant?) but no such luck. It started getting very warm so I put it on some dry sand and stood well clear.

My daughter had just retired a 12 month old Galaxy S21 Ultra which she had dropped. There was no apparent damage but after a few weeks, it developed two bright horizontal lines and a curious black oval on the screen. She replaced it with a Pixel 6 Pro.

I did a factory restore on the S21 and set it up and tried to live with the screen issues but they were covering the most used part of the screen and eventually another two lines appeared and then the whole screen started flashing yellow and I couldn't even turn it off.

I hadn't bought a new phone for years as I kept getting top of the range "hand-me-up" phones from my daughter but this time the process fell apart.

I've never bothered with the cameras in my phones (despite friends and relatives telling me how great their iPhone photos were - "Yeah yeah but try them in low light") but I had a play with the S21 Ultra (while it was still working). Uploaded them to my PC and pixel-peeped and had to reluctantly admit that they weren't completely horrible.

I almost decided on a Pixel 6 Pro until I read about the absence of manual control over the camera (at least in the default camera app). So I started researching the S22 Ultra and picked one up on Saturday. (Unfortunately much more expensive than the Pixel.)

Haven't played with it very much. I installed "Expert Raw" and uploaded a couple of .DNGs to my PC. It seems to confuse Affinity Photo which thinks they are badly underexposed. I found out that LR for Mobile is free so I've installed that but haven't even touched it yet.

It's not going to replace my Oly's but it might fill in the gaps when I don't have a "real" camera with me.

Since I was on a roll and the phone came with a $200 gift voucher, I spent up and also got a Galaxy Watch 4 (I think it might be able to remote trigger the phone?) and a pair of Galaxy Buds (I don't think they have any photographic capabilities.)

 

[MountainMan79]

Just bought an multi card reader that can do smartmedia cards
My old one wasn’t old enough apparently.

 

[RichardC]

An Olympus OM to M42 adapter ring.

 

[agentlossing]

Ordered a cheap but clean (at least appears to be) Pentax-M 50mm f1.7 for $39. As long as it's in good shape it will probably replace the 50mm f2 on my K1000, as I understand the f1.7 model is supposed to be better optically. I haven't had a complaint with the f2 version the few times I've used it, but the extra bit of light will help in the viewfinder as well.

 

[MountainMan79]

I’ve just inherited from my late father, a very lovely OM1 MD with a pair of lenses and a pretty awesome case. I’ll be keeping this one forever.

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It does need new seals, but no biggie. I don’t know yet if the light meter is ok, but I have a battery and adapter for a watch cell style en route. I love it already, and so long as it all works, I imagine I’ll be selling my OM 2.

 

[agentlossing]

I’ve just inherited from my late father, and very lovely OM1 MD with a pair of lenses and a pretty awesome case. I’ll be keeping this one forever.
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It does need new seals, but no biggie. I don’t know yet if the light meter is ok, but I have a battery and adapter for a watch cell style en route. I love it already, and so long as it all works, I imagine I’ll be selling my OM 2.

Such a lovely camera! As much as we love cameras as things in themselves, add some emotional value to one and it elevates it to something almost spiritual.

 

[RichardC]

I’ve just inherited from my late father, and very lovely OM1 MD with a pair of lenses and a pretty awesome case. I’ll be keeping this one forever.
View attachment 310244
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It does need new seals, but no biggie. I don’t know yet if the light meter is ok, but I have a battery and adapter for a watch cell style en route. I love it already, and so long as it all works, I imagine I’ll be selling my OM 2.

Sorry to hear about your dad.

 

[Brownie]

I’ve just inherited from my late father, and very lovely OM1 MD with a pair of lenses and a pretty awesome case. I’ll be keeping this one forever.
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It does need new seals, but no biggie. I don’t know yet if the light meter is ok, but I have a battery and adapter for a watch cell style en route. I love it already, and so long as it all works, I imagine I’ll be selling my OM 2.

Sorry about your dad. I have my dad's Minolta SRT-101 and some nice lenses. It's a great way to remember him. My daughter has already spoken for it.

 

[JensM]

Sorry for your loss, @MountainMan79

I have my late fathers OM1, got it in the same way.

 

[Simonix]

Got me one of those “radioactive” lenses, so I can take photos in the dark….

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