GAS GAS: Please Share your Latest Acquisitions Big and Small

Didnt expect it untill next week, but the K10D found its way here today.

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Along with the OEM sling, a Lowepro Slingshot 100 AW, charger and an assortment of cables. It lacks the rubber seal for the battery grip-port, so I need to source one of those and the lens is not an AW variety, which I hadn't thought of, as those AW ones came with the K7 when I bought that upon release, so I may have a look around for something weathersealed.

It produces photographies like these ones:
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So first impression on the output is good, all are SOOC, the dog one has gotten its colour temp balanced.

Body has 26,413 shutter actuations and was produced in 03-27- 2007 according to that Pentax Forums.

All in all, fifty bucks well spent, or spent on some sort of gateway drug - I am oogling some sort of AW glass for it at the moment and reading @MiguelATFs KP tread was truly a terrible, terrible idea. Especially as the impression when handling the K10D along with the G90 and GX9 was "By Jove, that Pentax is a chunky one, isnt it".... :drinks:
I really liked the K10D CCD sensor!

There are a few things to keep in mind though: not good at high ISO and not that much dynamic range. That is, compared to what we are accustomed to nowadays.
It's especially susceptible for blowing out reds and as far as I remember yellows as wel. Not a bad idea to use average weighed or even spot metering in scenes with very bright reds or compensate.
Me, I never liked using EV compensation buttons but many do.
 
A GF1 in mint condition (with 14-45 that I may or may not keep) and a Lumix 14mm/2.5...
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Congratulations, Martin!
The GF1 is one of the great all-time smallish micro four thirds bodies.
And - the lens on it looks (to me, at least) rather like the diminutive 14mm Lumix pancake, another great small lens (and one which truly 'plays nicely' with small Lumix camera bodies, like the GF1).
Looking forwards to seeing what you capture with it.
 
It's been a long while since I've been on the forum, had some issues. But in the interim I purchased a very nice emd1-3 from a fellow on the old m4/3 site. Love the camera, but as for the quirky menu and hidden conflicting menu items, not so much. The menu is a bit less intuitive than the em1-2. But with the help of several very helpful on-line folks and an Olympus phone agent, I have it all scoped out-for now. Cheers to all. John
 
Ordered the following:
  • Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN
  • Panasonic 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6
This should complete the m43 setup for tiny, affordable, amazing lenses.

They are joining:
  • Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R
  • Zhongyi Mitakon Speedmaster 25mm f/0.95
I think it will be a joy to use these lenses on the Pen-F.

There is also the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 that I might snatch at some point, but its FOV might be too close to the Speedmaster..
 
All in all, fifty bucks well spent, or spent on some sort of gateway drug...
It may be a gateway drug if you haven't cured your GAS yet, haha. Couple that with the abundance of K-Mount lenses, the GAS gets kind of way up there but when you start shooting, it should go away.

I am oogling some sort of AW glass for it at the moment and reading @MiguelATFs KP tread was truly a terrible, terrible idea.
Reading well-written gear threads from passionate people, such as @MiguelATF ,can be either good or bad, depending on GASsness.

Ozekikoki's channel won't help either:

Among Pentaxians, the K10d still enjoys its (well-deserved, I believe) reputation for generating generally fantastic colours from its old-school CCD sensors, long regarded by those who know these things, as one of the best.

I really liked the K10D CCD sensor!
There truly is something in those sensors. The elephant in the room is the fact that the original Pentax Prime imaging engine uses a 22-bit ADC!!! 💥💥💥 That explains a lot as to why those images are like that. It's hard to explain, but the warmth, the feel, it's like one can actually feel what the photographer felt when he/she took the photo.

Thanks...I must say I very much like the way the camera feels and sounds, and it has a refreshingly simple set of menus.
I like that camera, too. I coupled mine with an Olympus VF-1 for go get that optical feel.
 
This was at my desk at work today, so I took it home for a bit 😂

I’ll bring them back, I swear. Just gonna play with them this weekend for a bit.
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This was at my desk at work today, so I took it home for a bit 😂

I’ll bring them back, I swear. Just gonna play with them this weekend for a bit.
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I clicked the Like button because there's no green-with-envy emoticon. All of them great lenses as per the reviews, especially the 1.2/50 and 2.8/70-200 excite my GAS.
 
Just ordered the Olympus f/4 8-25, 72mm Hoya HD filter, plus a VF-4 for my E-PM2 today ... Pick up in 8-10 days time.

From my local Ted's Camera store, as DigiDirect have stopped stocking the VF-4, and didn't offer to get it in for me.
So they lost the entire sale ...
Short sighted ...

Ted's even gave me a member's discount off RRP, even though they could not find a record of me. Excellent service by Tony.
 
Where do you work? do they have any vacancies ... ?!
I work at the headquarters for a major retailer and I support the digital imaging business, and work with all the major vendors. So I have the fortune to play with lots of photography goodies, and have vendors that let me borrow their toys long term, and have even on one occasion been allowed to shoot for a couple weeks with a preproduction camera. No vacancies at the moment, but I haven’t screwed up yet today, so who knows?!
 
Not really something I bought but I did acquire a new home work place.
New table with electrical height adjustment.
New office chair.
2 new 27" monitors from Dell.

So now I have a new home office set up.
It is my work from home office that the company I work for provided.
Works great, I can have my work laptop connected to the screens via USB-C and can have my email on the laptop and 2 different desktops on the other monitors one for the laptop and one for a remote desktop to the lab-PC I use.
My stationary home PC is now connected to the screens and calibration is done, so now I enjoy processing or watching pictures on 2 x 27" monitors in 2560x1440 resolution on each.

And if I stay with the company at least 3 more years I get to keep the equipment.

I guess I found Narnia too! :D
 
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My NONS SL660 has arrived :) Here's the whole kit: the camera (already with an adapted Nikon lens on it), the kit lens (a 50mm, apparently - more on that later) and the two adapters, one for Nikon AI, one for Contax/Yashica; stupidly forgot to get one for Minolta MD as well, but that can be arranged shortly (if the need arises). There's also a first shot of the camera that took *this* shot, the D750; slightly underexposed, but this is "first light" ...

The NONS SL660 uses a Canon EOS mount, which means that pretty much every other SLR(!) mount can be adapted; in order to fill the frame of the Fujifilm Instax Square, the camera has a 2x focal reducer built in.

Curiously, the viewfinder is rectangular and only shows the very center of the frame - so framing can be a bit of a challenge, but you'll certainly not end up with something missing you actually saw through the mirror system. So, the SL660 is a SLR for all intends and purposes - but metering is external (there's a metering window on the front of the "prism") and certainly something to first get the hang of - depending on your lens choice, it's not the most accurate reading, so I'll use an external meter for critical exposures.

Focusing is sufficiantly accurate so far - the viewfinder may show the whole frame, but the focusing screen is pretty good (at least as good as I've seen in medium format film cameras of yesteryear ...). This being a fully mechanical device as far as the lens is concerned, you can (and should) focus at working aperture - it's a dim view, but you'll not have to bother about focus shift; it's workable down to f/11 at least (I've not used smaller apertures so far ...).

The adapters are just that - thin mount adapters; the Nikon adapter has a lock that strikes me as less than robust, and it's really fiddly to unlock (yes, it *does* have a lock), but it works. To be able to use all my F mount lenses that have a manual aperture ring is really intriguing - imagine being able to shoot macro on an instant camera!

The kit lens is a curious beast - it looks very familiar, but I can't put my finger on where I've seen that construction before; what it *isn't* is properly aligned - not in terms of focus distance, but in terms of markings; it's about 15 degrees off center - so much that it looks almost intentional. The fact that the lens sits on a screwed-on aluminium mount plate makes this even stranger - surely, this could have been avoided? And what's more, the lenses on the adapers *are* properly aligned. Now, the lens is really very cheap (way less than 100$) - I'll put it through its paces soon, but I suspect the formula it is one we've seen in other inexpensive Chinese 50mm lenses from Meike or Yongnuo before. That's not actually a bad thing - I don't expect miracles; my first frame shows that sharpness is okay stopped down, but it's way too early to say more.

Shooting is interesting because it's kind of an uncanny combination of the old and the modern: There's an electronically controlled leaf shutter (with full flash synchronisation) and a meter with a small, yet modern panel. However, the mirror isn't auto-return: There's a lever to flip it down - you can't release the shutter if the mirror is up, but you won't see anything through the viewfinder either, so no risk of that going unnoticed. The finder isn't in any way on par with what we're used to from modern SLRs; that said, I'd rate it as smaller, but otherwise at least as usable as the one on my Pentacon SIX TL, a camera that it resembles in other ways, too. For instance, the shutter button is also placed on the front plate; however, this being a metered camera, it supports half-press - but beware, it's really quite easy to trip the shutter inadvertedly, there's not a lot of resistance. If the camera is switched off, that's not a big deal (because the shutter will not actually open even though the mirror will flip up), but if the camera is live, you have to hope that you have the lens cap on - because this camera has a frame eject button, so you won't waste a frame (and of course, it means that you can do multiple exposures to your heart's content). This button is also well thought out - a short press will not do anything, you have to press it for about two seconds for the frame to be ejected. Shutter speeds range from 1/250s to 1s and B, with a handy counter that lets you know how many seconds have passed. A very neat detail: You can unscrew the metal shutter button - and use a standard cable release: Great, and something more manufacturers should do!

The whole package is somewhat bulky, but not actually big as such - it's smaller and lighter than most medium format cameras while exposing a similar area, and with a small lens on it, it'll even fit (just!) in my daily bag, the ONA Bowery which is one of the smaller EDC bags on the market. It's only marginally bigger (deeper) than the D750 and about the same weight. The wooden grip is a nice touch and works well, too. Even though the camera is made out of plastic, it feels pretty sturdy and handles well. Not-so-funny story here: The package it arrived in was severly beaten up - in spite of the fact that there was a large "Fragile!" label on it; thankfully, everything was sufficiently well padded, so the inside was mostly unscathed. Postal service - a contradiction in itself.

Finally, first results show that this is - by some margin! - the most capable instant film camera you can buy new; while you need to learn how the meter works, it's no big deal (I've seen much, much worse on much more expensive cameras!), and the fact that you can put good glass (actual glass, different focal lengths) on it is just fantastic. What's more, the in-built focal reducer isn't bad at all - it only muddies the extreme corners, but not in a way that's easy to see without a magnifying glass ;)

I'm glad I took the jump and went for this camera - it's a way more satisfying experience than my last big instant purchase that, while being a nice concept, felt way overpriced for the quality provided. That said, I wouldn't want to miss my MiNT InstantKon RF70 - it's a nice take on the old folder theme, and if you know what you're doing, you can get nice results from it, but the NONS SL660 makes the whole process much more straightforward and appears a lot more reliable and clearly better made.

Sorry for the long write-up - I'll share images from the camera once I'm out of the testing phase (soon - but probably not before or during next week's journey to Berlin ... but you never know ...).

M.
 
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