Holga, Toy, Charity Shop, Car Boot and other Bargains (film only please)

cowasaki said:
Exactly why it was reported by someone!

At no point did you say "I've found a bargain on eBay that someone might be interested in". You copied the text which actually said "my beloved t70 is up for sale........"

If I was being a jobs worth I'd have given you an infraction for questioning a moderating decision in public. If you'd sent me a pm explaining then I would have reversed it and you could have added the line saying its not yours but something you had found.
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h'mm Oh well..but what is worse is my tip off was reported by "one of us" who didn't bother to check anything out e.g. I live in South Bucks not Basingstoke, Hampshire for pickup...............:thumbsdown:
 
excalibur2 said:
h'mm Oh well..but what is worse is my tip off was reported by "one of us" who didn't bother to check anything out e.g. I live in South Bucks not Basingstoke, Hampshire for pickup...............:thumbsdown:
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We get so many reports of rule breaks etc that sometimes we miss who it is as well. Honestly it did just look like you were trying to sell something. I'll reverse it later but I'm on the phone at the moment.
 
I wouldn't normally stick my head above the parapet but fwiw I saw this post earlier today and didn't for one minute think that Brian was trying to trade. I checked out the ebay listing and if I had been a Canon user I would have bought it myself and thought it was a decent tip from Brian and was only surprised he didn't go for it himself.
 
RaglanSurf said:
I wouldn't normally stick my head above the parapet but fwiw I saw this post earlier today and didn't for one minute think that Brian was trying to trade. I checked out the ebay listing and if I had been a Canon user I would have bought it myself and thought it was a decent tip from Brian and was only surprised he didn't go for it himself.
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Thanks...even a few years ago, if it was for sale near me I would have bought it, but for a newbie wanting to try film how can you go wrong for £30 (cheap because of free pickup) :shrug:
 
I've been lucky with freecycle the last couple of days. Monday I picked up ten expired rolls of cheap kodak and jessops c41. Today I got a oly trip 35 with a roll of ilford FP4+ in it. Only a few frames used but the previous owner opened the back so it's probably fogged. Going to try some c41 before using the apparently 20 year old b&w film.

So good day, down side was the freecycle guy was at about the highest point in Edinburgh and I had my single speed bike... I earned this camera! :-D
 
We were away for a few days over the New Year and went along to the local indoor sale in the village hall.

Inside a very battered old Kodak Instamatic case was a very strange camera - one I've never heard of before an Ica Bebe.

A very small plate camera by the look of it.

It has a Carl Zeiss Tessar f4.5 lens, a metal body and leather bellows. It is stamped as being made in Dresden and has the Star of David etched into it so it looks very interesting.

The seller told me it was his fathers camera which he had brought back with him when he returned from the First World War.

The leather bellows are in superb condition but what an unusual camera to find in a Kodak case.
 
rhody said:
We were away for a few days over the New Year and went along to the local indoor sale in the village hall.

Inside a very battered old Kodak Instamatic case was a very strange camera - one I've never heard of before an Ica Bebe.

A very small plate camera by the look of it.

It has a Carl Zeiss Tessar f4.5 lens, a metal body and leather bellows. It is stamped as being made in Dresden and has the Star of David etched into it so it looks very interesting.

The seller told me it was his fathers camera which he had brought back with him when he returned from the First World War.

The leather bellows are in superb condition but what an unusual camera to find in a Kodak case.
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I like the sound of that! Is it like this one?

http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Ica_B%C3%A9b%C3%A9

How much did you pay for it?
 
I got a Polaroid Autofocus660 with 5 photos left and a live battery for £10 today.

2 days ago a got a whole bag with a Polaroid Land 1000, Canon EOS 750 body, halina 120 camera, Kodak 600 120 camera(box+2 films), Chinon Prinzflex TTL, Helios 28mm in box, Sunpak flash, national flash and a boots 4000 TL Slide viewer all for £5!! The lady asked for a donation of £3 but i had to give her that £2 extra! May I add those all work and are in a good nick!

What a good 2 days.

(I'm yet to learn how to add photos)
 
Wow Cezar you hit a good one there (provided something in that lot actually works!). I've had some good charity shop successes including my Pentax MX, 28-50mm lens, 135mm lens etc. Rather more expensive than yours but cheaper than fleabay and gives you a bump boosting the charity too. Welcome to TP and the F&C section in particular; the folk here are extraordinarily helpful. I'm sure someone will know where there's a post about uploading pictures...
 
Extra kudos for winning "film photographer of the year" using a camera picked up for £3.25

You know it makes sense :D
 
Thanks Chris! and yes they all work haha. I was so happy and now got a tie in with the manager to give me a call every time they got something in so there will be more good deals for me. Always happy to help the charity too.
 
Local RSPCA charity shop has a Minolta 5000 in the window with a 35-70 lens and a bag with "loads of extras" all for £20. It was closed so I couldn't investigate further, but the camera and lens looked a bit plasticky to me!
 
ChrisR said:
Local RSPCA charity shop has a Minolta 5000 in the window with a 35-70 lens and a bag with "loads of extras" all for £20. It was closed so I couldn't investigate further, but the camera and lens looked a bit plasticky to me!
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If the lens is Minolta 35-70mm f3.5, plus the very nice 5000 it would be a very good buy if all working Ok...grab it.
 
The 35 - 70 F3.5 - 4.5 and the 35 - 70 F4 are both excellent lenses, although the variable aperture one was simply built as a 'kit lens', it is still of excellent quality being sharp on nearly all apertures and with only small levels of distortion. The earlier f4 version is much better built being made of metal (like all the original Minolta AF lenses) and is possibly a bit better but I couldn't tell much difference from the limited time I had one.

Minolta AF cameras are great and hughly under-appreciated, they handle well and pioneered a lot of technologies today including autofocus and built in wireless flash, its just sad that they never really succeeded in the professional market despite the cameras being up to spec and Minolta actually being the 3rd most popular camera maker in the 90's. Today unfortunately the bodies are fairly cheap but the lenses are still fairly expensive compared to Canon and Nikon lenses, although they are of excellent quality.
 
I went in and had a look at this today. There are not really so many extras: case, skylight filter and flash! The lens is the f/4 35-70. However, the AF is not working, and manual focus is via a wafer thin ring at the fron of the lens, and no split prism/whatever. So it was a "no" from me!

Slightly relieved as (a) I won't have to explain the appearance of another camer to the OH and (b) I won't be tempted to buy yet more lenses for another system.
 
ChrisR said:
Slightly relieved as (a) I won't have to explain the appearance of another camer to the OH and (b) I won't be tempted to buy yet more lenses for another system.
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I know that feeling well :LOL:
 
The charity shops have become a bit of an obsession for me lately - I've had the odd nice find but today's was probably the best so far.

I spotted a Pullman camera bag in nearly new condition, with a £4.99 price tag on it - it seemed a reasonable price for the bag so I took it down from the shelf, only to find it also contained two (unused) 36exp rolls of Fuji Superia 400, a Praktica flash gun, new-looking Praktica strap, a 2x teleconverter (M42) in a case, and a lens hood of unknown origin.

Not a bad haul in itself, but then there was also a good condition Pentax MZ-50, attached to an even better condition Sigma 28-200mm f3.5-5.6 DL IF "Hyperzoom" lens complete with petal hood and both lens caps! Oh and the instruction manuals for both camera and lens.

I haven't been able to test it yet as I need two CR2 batteries for the camera. But to be honest, even if the camera body's dead, I think I still got my £4.99's worth!
 
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^^^^^

You Did.
 
Well blow me down Petri, that is some haul! Pics please, including the Pentax!
 
I was in a charity shop perusing for something else when I spotted a couple of p&s and some unused film with then. Most was stuff I already had but there were a couple of rolls of colour 400 that is handy for the action sampler... The wee woman in the shop wouldn't sell them!

And you get a wacking great haul like that. The charity shops round me are rubbish :-D
 
I'll get a picture up at some point, the good news is the batteries are in and the Pentax seems to be A1 and working perfectly, the bad news is the two batteries were almost a fiver each so cost more than the camera! I'll buy cheaper off amazon next time when I'm not so impatient..

Charity shops are all about perseverance! You just have to keep going back, don't be put off, you never know what's going to turn up next day..
 
One of the girls in the office was clearing her Dad's loft space.

In there, she found his old Olympus OM10 + Zuiko 50mm f1.8 + leather ERC + Miranda 70-210 + Miranda 650 flashgun inc clip on coloured filters.

The camera has a "manual adapter" attached to the front of it by the film crank rewind - which is something I've not seen before - must Google etc

She would not take anything for it - but with Easter coming - there will be a large amount of chocolate on her desk.

A quick look through the lenses and they appear to be clear of fungus and as everything was kept in a well padded camera bag - it all appears fine.

Amazingly, I pressed the battery check button, not expecting anything to happen, and the red light came on and the beeper confirmed it was ready to go.

How long it had been stored in the loft, I have no idea - but those batteries are amazing.

Off to run a film through it in the next few days
 
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Even if the battery is powering the camera, I would still check the battery chamber for any possible corrosion or rust.

The manual adapter is quite self explanatory - it allows you to choose manual shutter speeds, a feature which is otherwise unavailable on the standard camera body.
 
freecom2 said:
Even if the battery is powering the camera, I would still check the battery chamber for any possible corrosion or rust.

The manual adapter is quite self explanatory - it allows you to choose manual shutter speeds, a feature which is otherwise unavailable on the standard camera body.
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Many thanks freecom - lots to learn on my "new" film camera.

I've just checked the two button batteries and although the one nearest the bottom plate is fine, the second one deep inside the camera has started to leak and spill white crystals inside the camera and onto the terminal.

Cotton bud and WD40 perhaps?
 
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Very many thanks Steve and freecom for your help and advice.

Have just carefully wiped the battery compartment internally with a cotton bud dipped briefly and lightly into some Sarson's finest distilled white vinegar and it has worked beautifully.

What I thought initially was a battery terminal was in fact a tiny spring which cleaned up amazingly well with the white vinegar method.

The sides of the battery compartment and the terminal are in super condition after a few minutes work - just need some new batteries now.

TP really is an amazing site to be part of - many thanks again
 
No problem. Once you own a certain number of cameras (read: too many), you begin to instinctively know where problems are most likely to be, depending on the type of camera, condition, and age. Glad it was of some use, and I look forward to seeing some of the shots from the test roll (y)
 
Joeturner11 said:
Just Picked up a Nikon 601M with a 35-70mm F/3.3-F/4.5 + Susan 135mm F2.8 all a Bargain for £30 for the 3 Cant wait to use them, Anyone recommend any good film to use?
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If they all work that is a very good bargain indeed.(y)

If the lens has Macro, then they sell for around £35.00 alone and are of good quality.

Go to pound land and buy some Vista colour @£1.00 per rolls and run it through, if you are lucky enough to have a Tesco or Asda near you with a photoshop then have it developed and scanned there, that will give you the results that you need to assess the purchase, good luck and we all await your results.:D

Never heard of a Susan 135mm, would like to see and photo of that.
 
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Picked up a 49mm blue and red filter from a charity shop today. I think I understand what the red filter is for (more extreme sky effects on BW film), but I'm not sure about the blue.

Mixed bag (literally) of other stuff available including an Oly Trip 35 (I've already got one), a Canon EOS 5 plastic lump, a Chinon with 3 lenses, including a 75-300mm zoom that didn't look too bad. There was also a classy looking camera (Konica? can't remember) that took 126 film; steered clear of that!
 
ChrisR said:
Picked up a 49mm blue and red filter from a charity shop today. I think I understand what the red filter is for (more extreme sky effects on BW film), but I'm not sure about the blue.

Mixed bag (literally) of other stuff available including an Oly Trip 35 (I've already got one), a Canon EOS 5 plastic lump, a Chinon with 3 lenses, including a 75-300mm zoom that didn't look too bad. There was also a classy looking camera (Konica? can't remember) that took 126 film; steered clear of that!
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According to The Camera Filter Guide

BLUE - makes reds and oranges become a touch darker and blues and greens slightly lighter. Blue is little used for black & white work and would mostly be considered as a contrast reducer which you can often do satisfactorily using a different paper grade.
 
ChrisR said:
Picked up a 49mm blue and red filter from a charity shop today. I think I understand what the red filter is for (more extreme sky effects on BW film), but I'm not sure about the blue.

Mixed bag (literally) of other stuff available including an Oly Trip 35 (I've already got one), a Canon EOS 5 plastic lump, a Chinon with 3 lenses, including a 75-300mm zoom that didn't look too bad. There was also a classy looking camera (Konica? can't remember) that took 126 film; steered clear of that!
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What does it say on the filter? Its likely an 80A or similar which is used to convert warmer tungsten light to daylight with daylight balanced colour film.
 
s162216 said:
What does it say on the filter? Its likely an 80A or similar which is used to convert warmer tungsten light to daylight with daylight balanced colour film.
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It's an 80B, will that do a similar thing?
 
Yes exactly the same, its just designed to convert 3400K tungsten light to 5500K daylight rather than the 3200K that the A version is designed for. In practise I imagine very little difference will actually be seen and you only need them when using slide film these days anyway as you can easily just alter the white balance when scanning.
 
Today in Edinburgh I found a 49mm Cokin A filter holder and two grads (G1 and T1) for £5! Since I'd never used a grad before I'm pretty pleased. I've already taken a couple of shots, out long the coast, with the G1. I was a bit surprised that I couldn't easily see the grad "line" (it's soft rather than hard) through the viewfinder of the Pentax ME. Of course, I'll have to wait to see whether it made any difference!

(I think I remember suggestions that one should spend lots more money on the Lees rather than trying Cokin now and then buying Lees later... but for a fiver I thought it was worth a go!)
 
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