GAS GAS: Please Share your Latest Acquisitions Big and Small

It's a somewhat long story, but I'm trying one of these again. The 18-55 reminds me very much of the O12-45, and that's not a bad thing.
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Superb combination Darmok. I use it all the time. Be sure your camera and lens firmwares are updated to the latest versions:
4.4 and 3.24 respectively.
 
I accidentally bought an Olympus 14-42 EZ on eBay yesterday. Clicked to see my cart, and the purchase went through!

After my panicked going through the "CANCEL PURCHASE" procedure (why can't it just be a button to click?), the purchase has been successfully cancelled. Undoubtedly, my lovely bank will deduct two way foreign transaction charges ...
A) The refund came through all but immediately!! And;

B) It included a refund of the foreign transaction charge!!

I'm absolutely gobsmacked!
Being somewhat of a sceptic, bordering on cynical ...
 
Let me know what you think as you use it. My general impression of older Pentax zooms is that pixel peeping is a bad idea, but files are generally quite correctable. There's likely to be CA of a couple sorts, and softness outside of center. It's also likely that some focal lengths will look worse than others. There may be a color cast. But all of this contributes to a vintage look when handling the files correctly and not being too worried about their shortcomings.
I like this zoom actually a lot. On K200D it behaves very decently indeed. At closer focus, wide open, it has this most wonderful bokeh character. Very filmey.

I didn't get many keepers on my daylight stroll today but I blame the camera. When the camera succeeds, the results are very good. This is my best-behaving zoom for Pentax right now.

And despite that distinction, I decided it's a decent beater lens and last night I risked the lens and mounted in on Panasonic S1 and braved some terrible weather conditions.



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(Poorly composed, ever-so-slightly blurry shot, to warm me up.)

On Panasonic S1 I am able to extract everything the lens got. Well working stabilization, huge viewfinder to make sure I nail the focus. At slow shutter speeds I can't make definite conclusions about the lens sharpness but I had such a good feeling about the perf on the field, and the files on darktable don't disappoint for the specs and shooting conditions either.

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This lens doesn't have a real focusing ring but at least it is fluent and light to adjust.

Really happy with my copy, for the price I paid. The era of dirt-cheap used lenses is well past us, but since I got this as a pairing with the K200D it certainly didn't cost a fortune.




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Fairly certain this is wide open.


Not at all bad!
 
Sweet! Reminds me of the Zeiss Contessa 35 & Agfa Karat 36 I used to have. The Zeiss was prettier, but the Agfa was a more practical day to day shooter. Just handled better.

There are some similarities in shapes and features, much like Kodak Retinas of the period. But the Suprema is of course a medium format camera, also known as "Gulliver's Retina" ;)
 
A) The refund came through all but immediately!! And;

B) It included a refund of the foreign transaction charge!!

I'm absolutely gobsmacked!
Being somewhat of a sceptic, bordering on cynical ...
When it comes to financial things, it often helps to brace for the worst, and then you might get a nice surprise in the end. Glad it worked out for you!
 
Thanks, Randy.
eBay gets caned mercilessly all the time by many, but this was all done perfectly. I could not fault the entire process.

So long as you cancelled within one hour, ebay covered the transaction fee refund themselves (you can bet your bottom dollar that they don't incur a transaction fee until the funds are 'captured' rather than 'authorised').

After one hour, you still get all of your money back, but the seller has a transaction fee withheld from their ebay fee credit.
 
Thanks, Randy.
eBay gets caned mercilessly all the time by many, but this was all done perfectly. I could not fault the entire process.
eBay is really good to buyers, but sellers can get the shaft pretty hard sometimes. I think they have a strategy of not scaring away the buyers, and thus they make it too appealing for sellers to walk away. I think this is true for high volume dealers who can offer a more retail experience, but marking an item as “returns not accepted” is meaningless. If the buyer doesn’t want it, they can just say it’s defective and then you’re out shipping both ways, and then again if you find another buyer. I know, I’ve been there!
 
eBay is really good to buyers, but sellers can get the shaft pretty hard sometimes. I think they have a strategy of not scaring away the buyers, and thus they make it too appealing for sellers to walk away. I think this is true for high volume dealers who can offer a more retail experience, but marking an item as “returns not accepted” is meaningless. If the buyer doesn’t want it, they can just say it’s defective and then you’re out shipping both ways, and then again if you find another buyer. I know, I’ve been there!
Be sure to report the delightful buyer for abuse of the buyer protection programme and never give in to scammers.

One of the most common current scams is "Oh, I've opened the box and there only appears to be a quarter of my order. When can I expect the rest of it?". Their feedback left for sellers often includes a string of "Super seller resolved my problem quickly" comments. I had two within a week of each other and I told both of them to get lost and try somebody easier. No feedback left or disputes opened because they know that too many of those on their buyer account is a red flag.
 
Not exactly a purchase.

In the middle of an important process, Adobe decided to shut down Acrobat X Pro with an error message that I needed to purchase the software that I purchased in 2012 ... It came included with my copy of CS6 Adobe Design and Web Premium.

31 days after initial installation in early 2013, Acrobat X shut itself down in a similar manner. Adobe sent me a "fix", which has worked to recover Acrobat X each time this has occurred in the intervening 10 years ...

Yesterday, both the program and the "fix" stopped working. An hour yesterday, and over an hour today wasted on the phone to Adobe before Mujeeb downloaded and installed Acrobat 11 Pro onto my main PC, along with the executable and a new serial number.

This kind of "fix" is unnecessarily complex, and shows that Adobe never fixed the original Acrobat X Pro, even though they had 10 years to do so!!

No charge, but I made it very plain that Adobe had, and continued to, break so many consumer laws in Australia that they were dead in the water, legally speaking.
 
One camera pr month, he said...

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This little trio has found there way here in January.

The Canon G15 is nice, and finally I managed to get a "G". I have been hankering for one of those since 2006 where I ended up buying a Canon Powershot S3IS instead of the G7 that I really wanted. So much for not keeping track on the different series and variables and trusting shop staff. Later the G9 and 10 was high on the agenda, but ended up with the Pentax K7 instead of the G10 after the 10 was replaced by the 11, which I found fugly.

Internally, I think it fits in between the S95 and S120, probably closer to the 120, which I already have. 17 years of Itching scratched, and that feels good.

The LX3 is more or less some sort of "the price is right" kind of thing, combined with curiosity about the forebearers to the LX7.

The Olympus one was driven by what is inside it, a XD adapter for Micro SDs, which I can use in the Oly 400/410s, as well as a rather ridiculous low price, the postage to get it sent was more than the camera. I had some initial hopes that the charger could be used on the later TG5/6. Could consider getting one of those again, if the price is right after cracking the Oly menu code, which made me sell off the TG6 in disgust after 6 months of owership.

Adding a Nikon of the P7*** (7700 or 7800 probably) series is on the itinerary, with one of those onboard, I think I will have a somewhat representative little collection of 10-12MP high-end and/or special compacts from around 2012, give or take a couple of years.

All in for those 3 cameras, with chargers, sundries and with OEM carry cases for the Oly and Canon, as well as 3 batteries for the LX3 with 2 battery cases: €110 inc postage.
 
If you can't find that one part of a set separately, you just buy another set right?
I only needed the focus tube and lens for a Kodak Portable Miniature Enlarger for my US Army enlarger set.....So I bought another Kodak Portable Miniature Enlarger.
At least I've got a few more spare bulbs and another Kodak Dayload Tank now.

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So instead of getting another lens I really didn't need, I got a nice old camera that I really didn't need...

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A beautiful Canon 7 for only $85 (!) at a local camera shop/lab. They do all my film processing and scanning and this was on the shelf this morning. With my Canon 50/1.4 & Jupiter 12 35/2.8 in hand, I'm going to go burn a test roll.
 
The marks have to be enormous to make a real difference in my experience. That should be a glorious lens. Enjoy!

Thanks! My friend Eric currently has the lens in hand and he says they're not as bad as that photo from the seller made them out to be.
The seller, according to my friend, is usually pretty conservative in the condition rating.

I have a skylight filter that should fit it, to prevent any further coating damage.
 
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