GAS GAS: Please Share your Latest Acquisitions Big and Small

So B&H strikes again! They had a like new Sony 16-35 f4 PZ lens for $200 off the new price. I have the Tamron 17-28/2.8 but I like the 16-35 range better so I figured I will give it a try. So far it seems very sharp and it is shorter than the Tamron. My guess is the Tamron will be sold off. I don’t have to have f2.8 in a wide zoom since I usually carry my Voigtlander 21mm prime for lower light. A couple of quick iPhone pics. The Tamron has a vinyl skin on it.
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Ye plastic fantastic arrived today. A little more beat up than what I would call "Excellent," MPB, but the glass is clean. I forget how much I like this focal range. Prerequisite cat photo to start with, of course. She turned 20 sometime this summer. Kids threw her a party.
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Ye plastic fantastic arrived today. A little more beat up than what I would call "Excellent," MPB, but the glass is clean. I forget how much I like this focal range. Prerequisite cat photo to start with, of course. She turned 20 sometime this summer. Kids threw her a party.
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Congrats to your dear little old lady cat, Randy.
20 y.o. is doing well, and she looks good for her age.

The plastic fantastic is amazingly good optically for a dirt cheap kit lens. It, and my 14-42 EZ always remind me of my first dSLR - an E-510 plus its two kit lenses, 14-42 and 40-150 MkII. Took some of the best photos I have ever taken in my life with them.
 
Congrats to your dear little old lady cat, Randy.
20 y.o. is doing well, and she looks good for her age.

The plastic fantastic is amazingly good optically for a dirt cheap kit lens. It, and my 14-42 EZ always remind me of my first dSLR - an E-510 plus its two kit lenses, 14-42 and 40-150 MkII. Took some of the best photos I have ever taken in my life with them.
She has some arthritis and doesn’t always digest so well, but she still gets around okay and is still good with the kids. I suspect she’s more content because she has so many people to give her attention. She sleeps a lot, but what cat doesn’t? Her feline instinct to try to get on the lap of the person who want her least is still in tact, too.
 
Well then, on a "winning" streak... I have been oogling the Oly 17 f:2.8 for a while and a sudden flash of the obvious had me ask a friend that shoots Oly if he had one in a drawer, he had the 1.8 and 1.2 but no 2.8. What he did have was hardcore knowledge of the second hand Oly classifieds, so I ended up with one from there. Yet another package deal, so this time around the 17 mm comes with a EPL-3, a 14-42 Mk II kit lens, a flash and a red camera bag...
OLY EPL3 full pakke.jpgOLY EPL3 17mm 2-8.jpgOly EPL3.jpgOLY EPL3 kamera bag.jpg

All in, with freight for $/€159

Thats me spent for a while...
 
Well then, on a "winning" streak... I have been oogling the Oly 17 f:2.8 for a while and a sudden flash of the obvious had me ask a friend that shoots Oly if he had one in a drawer, he had the 1.8 and 1.2 but no 2.8. What he did have was hardcore knowledge of the second hand Oly classifieds, so I ended up with one from there. Yet another package deal, so this time around the 17 mm comes with a EPL-3, a 14-42 Mk II kit lens, a flash and a red camera bag...
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All in, with freight for $/€159

Thats me spent for a while...

Congrats, Jens! Nice haul, so to speak.
I've owned and shot with the tiny Olympus 17mm f/2.8 lens on several occasions - and find it simply to be one of the great underrated and insanely affordable Olympus lenses. It seems to work really nicely with most of the rather small digital Pen bodies, including both the E-PL series as well as their siblings, the E-P series - and I suspect you are going to both enjoy using it, and enjoy the results you get with from it.
A worthy purchase!
 
So B&H strikes again! They had a like new Sony 16-35 f4 PZ lens for $200 off the new price. I have the Tamron 17-28/2.8 but I like the 16-35 range better so I figured I will give it a try. So far it seems very sharp and it is shorter than the Tamron. My guess is the Tamron will be sold off. I don’t have to have f2.8 in a wide zoom since I usually carry my Voigtlander 21mm prime for lower light. A couple of quick iPhone pics. The Tamron has a vinyl skin on it.View attachment 326234View attachment 326235
If you happen to find the time and energy to do it, it would be great to see a comparison between those two. I've been eyeballing the new 16-35 to replace my Tamron, but so far I haven't seen it as a worthwile upgrade. I'm not convinced by the higher native distortion and that power zoom thingy, but I've seen reports that it's actually quite a sharp thing. Then again, so is the Tamron...
 
If you happen to find the time and energy to do it, it would be great to see a comparison between those two. I've been eyeballing the new 16-35 to replace my Tamron, but so far I haven't seen it as a worthwile upgrade. I'm not convinced by the higher native distortion and that power zoom thingy, but I've seen reports that it's actually quite a sharp thing. Then again, so is the Tamron...
Just shooting some sample pictures around the house, they are both very sharp. I don’t worry too much about graphs, charts etc. With real world shooting I don’t think you will see a difference, at least I won’t. I bought it for the extra range. 16 on the wide end is nice but the 35 on the long end is much nicer than 28. Now I have some overlap with my Tamron 28-200 and Sigma 28-70. The “zoom thingy” is different but it does have a manual zoom ring. There are no hard stops on the manual zoom however which will take some getting used to. All in all, the Sony is very nice, typical G build, sold and sharp at a reasonable price. If you don’t want or need the range, then no I don’t see it as a worthwhile upgrade. The Tamron is really a fantastic zoom, I always just wished it had more range. I was tempted by the Sony 16-35 GM but that is much bigger and heavier. A friend of mine has it but all of his lenses are big but that is what he likes. Me, I prefer small, light and compact with excellent quality and both the Tamron and the Sony deliver that.
 
Took receipt of my last piece of equipment for my London trip, a foot for my monopod. Seems sturdy enough with the monopod at height suitable for my eye height, even with my Olympus 50-200 f2.8-3.5 mounted to it. This will be my travel tripod set up for a moonset shot in London (if everything works out... including the weather!)


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Had my eye out for a used M10 Monochrom since the camera was first announced. After a long wait for the used market to mature, I was surprised when my seemingly low offer was accepted on the bay. An unexpected plus, it turned out the seller lived close enough for a local delivery! Like new with about 3 months of little use on it.
Updated the firmware tonight and it’s ready for some B&W fun.
Already had the 50mm summicron.
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Took receipt of my last piece of equipment for my London trip, a foot for my monopod. Seems sturdy enough with the monopod at height suitable for my eye height, even with my Olympus 50-200 f2.8-3.5 mounted to it. This will be my travel tripod set up for a moonset shot in London (if everything works out... including the weather!)


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I've been looking at that one for a while. The plastic parts are putting me off...
 
Bought a nice leather strap that uses peak design style anchors…something I’ve been looking for awhile to find. About a 2 week wait time currently.
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They have a few styles, and I chose this adjustable one in the color pictured. I found some online discount code that actually worked, and saved me 10% without having to give them my first born. Use SCHULTZ if interested.

Adjustable Anchor Strap (Peak Design AL)
 
A replacement rather than an acquisition, for my F-mounts.
I had a very good Vivitar 28mm MC Close Focus Wide Angle f/2.8 - built by Komine. OK, of somewhat less mechanical quality than the "big" names but optically remarkably good and extraordinary small. And relatively very "cheap".
Last time I used it, I managed to scratch the rear element (don't believe Larry Niven when he writes that the utterly self-confident way of moving is an indication of age :rolleyes:)
To me it feels that the rate of becoming more clumsy is exponential to the rate of aging :oops:
I started looking for a replacement. No such lenses to be found unfortunately. These are pretty old and probably even when they were new not well enough appreciated by their owners.
Probably often even simply disposed of.
Tip for those interested: keep an eye open for this lens. Be careful though: the number of variants of this lens produced, is staggering. That's why I wrote the full name.

So, I looked at the new Voigtländer 28mm SLII-s, 2nd hand Zeiss 28mm ZF.2, Nikkor Ai-S 28mm f/2.8 and f/2.0 2nd hand obviously.
Since the Zeiss is a really specialty lens and I saw the Voigtländer being trumped by the Nikkor Ai-S 2.8 - at least on the parameters that are important to me, it boiled down to a choice between Nikkor 2.8 and 2.0.
I decided on the f/2.0 since the "common experience" indicates this one is ever so slightly better at long distances, both stopped down of course.
I found a clean copy and that's on its way now - already passed our customs.
 
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I already had a Pentax-F 1.7/50mm which I got in a lot of mostly fungus filled cameras a while back. It had fungus on the inside of elements both front and back. I took it apart and gave it a rather blunt-force-trauma cleaning, I was trying to be careful but not unduly so as it's not a particularly valuable lens. Anyway, I cleaned the fungus but added some scratches and some dust that I couldn't quite get rid of. I found another copy of the lens on eBay which was missing its focus ring, but otherwise worked. I messaged the seller to query about the possibility of free shipping and they agreed, so I have another parts lens on its way for $30 out the door. As long as the optics look good and it autofocuses without issue, I'll probably add the focus ring from my beat up copy and call it good.
 
A replacement rather than an acquisition, for my F-mounts.
I had a very good Vivitar 28mm MC Close Focus Wide Angle f/2.8 - built by Komine. OK, of somewhat less mechanical quality than the "big" names but optically remarkably good and extraordinary small. And relatively very "cheap".
Last time I used it, I managed to scratch the rear element (don't believe Larry Niven when he writes that the utterly self-confident way of moving is an indication of age :rolleyes:)
To me it feels that the rate of becoming more clumsy is exponential to the rate of aging :oops:
I started looking for a replacement. No such lenses to be found unfortunately. These are pretty old and probably even when they were new not well enough appreciated by their owners.
Probably often even simply disposed of.
Tip for those interested: keep an eye open for this lens. Be careful though: the number of variants of this lens produced, is staggering. That's why I wrote the full name.

So, I looked a the new Voigtländer 28mm SLII-s, 2nd hand Zeiss 28mm ZF.2, Nikkor Ai-S 28mm f/2.8 and f/2.0 2nd hand obviously.
Since the Zeiss is a really specialty lens and I saw the Voigtländer being trumped by the Nikkor Ai-S 2.8 - at least on the parameters that are important to me, it boiled down to a choice between Nikkor 2.8 and 2.0.
I decided on the f/2.0 since the "common experience" indicates this one is ever so slightly better at long distances, both stopped down of course.
I found a clean copy and that's on its way now - already passed our customs.
I have my eyes set on this exact lens as my next purchase. Ideally one or two of my lenses up for sale will go before I buy this one. I have several saved on ebay. Let me know your thoughts, it looks like a gem. Congrats.
 
Got both cameras in the mail today.

Celebrated by buying this one for €50, all in... :doh:

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Comes as shown with charger, cables and some sort of Lowepro Sling bag.

10 MP CCD, never had one such before, cant say its anything other than a very side-oriented project, for those illustrious glowing indian summer days (fingers crossed for the latter, wet and cold summer so far).
 
Got both cameras in the mail today.

Celebrated by buying this one for €50, all in... :doh:

View attachment 327171

Comes as shown with charger, cables and some sort of Lowepro Sling bag.

10 MP CCD, never had one such before, cant say its anything other than a very side-oriented project, for those illustrious glowing indian summer days (fingers crossed for the latter, wet and cold summer so far).
I grabbed a k200 with the 10mp CCD, and have been very impressed with the images. Enjoy!
 
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