Bruce from Western Colorado: Hello all, I am in my mid-70's and have always been some sort of collector. I have been retired for 28 years from my software company doing analytics for...

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Bruce from Western Colorado

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Sep 7, 2017 11:51:22 #

bkebbe

Hello all,

I am in my mid-70's and have always been some sort of collector. I have been retired for 28 years from my software company doing analytics for Wall Street traders.

My start in photography was with a Minolta rangefinder in about 1955, but I had been doing newspaper 4x5, high school 2 1/4 x 3 1/4, astronomy from my homebuilt 6 inch, and a B&W darkroom. In '60 I got a Honeywell Pentax. My most important photo was a Milwaukee airport stop by candidate R.M. Nixon along with his G-Men. I will post it some day.

I am grateful to Ted Pappas, the owner of Marshall Camera in South Milwaukee. He mentored me even though I was 14 with no money. I did finally buy the camera he showed to me: A Voigtlander Vitessa.

This year I began to acquire and use, but sometimes re-sell cameras I would have liked to own 59 years ago. And I bought a DMC-ZS50 plus a Nikon 1 to have some digital experience.

One of my acquisitions was quite interesting: A local resale shop was on the lookout for me. A lady had consigned a Leica IIIb from 1938. I looked it over and consulted with Key Camera in Longmont, then bought it for $150. ( It did need CLA work ). But upon researching the lens I was astounded. It had a clear Leitz Taylor-Hobson f 1.5. Well those go for quite a penny!

Meanwhile I have acquired several Retina's, a Rollei SE, an AE1-Program and an OM-2, plus an Electro-35. Most have been tested. I have had bad luck with 2 Exakta "beasts" with bad shutters.
There are several oddball 35mms, a set of 4 old long Canon lenses 400-600-800mm to discuss, and a Linhoff I am consigning.

Sep 7, 2017 12:02:31 #

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

bkebbe wrote:

Hello all, br br I am in my mid-70's and have alw... (show quote)

Welcome and have fun. I had a Leica 111C with a collapsable Elmar lens that would fit into my suit pocket. Wish I had it again. I did have luck with my Exakta's. Hope you shoot with some of them.

Sep 7, 2017 14:03:38 #

Pochon53

Sounds like me, to a certain extent. Im am 85 years old, and my first 35mm camera was a Ricoh (who ever heard of them) bought in 1954 at the small PX at HQ 3rd. Inf. Div. in 1954 in Korea. I have a Pentax Spotmatic. I go to a number of swap meets, and over the last couple of years I gotten for peanuts a Canon T50, T70, and A1. I have tested all of them and will be using the T50 in Program mode as a point and shoot. The T70 is hopeless, but has the prettiest manual I have ever seen. The A1 works great. The best FD lens I have is a 28-55 zoom. I also have a lens cap that says 'Canon official 35MM camera 1984 Olympic Games'. For years I have been using a Chinon multicoated 40-105 macro zoom screw mount lens but now I find that I can't keep it steady anymore, and I go to a lot of gardens and garden shows to take closeup pictures, so what I do now to compensate is use the classic Pentax SMC Takumar 50MM 1.4 lens with a #2 closeup filter. If you want to do anything with those shutters I would like to suggest Flutot Camera Repair in Whittier, Ca. Mr. Flutot (now deceased) started repairing cameras in the 1940s out of his garage; his daughter now runs the place and has become known worldwide for her work with shutters (562) 696-0759. Whittier is in Los Angeles county, and so am I. Best, and I'd like to know more about what you are calling 'oddball'.

Sep 7, 2017 15:51:26 #

bkebbe

Edixa Reflex-C ? Chinon CE4, Bellami, Voigtlander Vito CLR Weird Enough?

Sep 7, 2017 20:13:38 #