Probably the going rate - I've seen these lenses going for £40-£50 alone, add the case, strap, and the fact that it's all mint and boxed and I'm not entirely surprised.

It's a nice piece of kit, although best used outdoors as otherwise it's a bit dark in the viewfinder of the Spotmatic!

The "won't somebody think of the children" paranoia is ridiculous now. On one hand you have stories like that, on the other you have our local papers which routinely publish photos of school groups alongside which they give the full names of the kids in the photo! Generally I thought your full name was the sort of personal data we're supposed to be encouraging kids not to publish...

The 35mm f2.4 is brilliant - a modern answer to the old M 50/1.7 in that it's a relatively cheap but superbly sharp prime. It isn't a case of "excellent for the money" (with the implication that you can't expect much at that price) either - it can stand up to lenses costing two or three times as much.

Interestingly some early computer hardware is now climbing in value again. Look at the price of a good BBC B on ebay.

I've been given two over the past few years, the first came with some slightly rare extras and spare add-ons which were fitted to the second. Both now have a blistering 64k of RAM!

The ally legs are a bit weighty but weirdly they don't feel it. I wandered around a few bits of woodland recently with mine over my shoulder and it wasn't uncomfortable.

My thoughts exactly. I won't post an auction link openly (I might send someone a PM if I spot something I remember they were after) but B.I.N. is no different to any other one-off deal.

It'll take some time for this to filter down to PCSOs methinks!

ACPO do not have a good reputation in rank and file Police circles from what I've read, as they're alleged to be more interested in chasing promotion than they are in proper policing.

I've got their three section legs and their ball head, both are great. The ballhead is very nicely made and takes standard Arca Swiss-type quick release plates, so you can buy longer plates to adjust the camera's balance by shifting the centre of gravity.

I still have a few working 500mb drives. Can't bring myself to chuck them as they've lasted this long.

IMO Ebay will only care about shill bidding when it causes large numbers of people to desert their site. As their fees are based on a percentage of the sale price it's in their own interests for this to be as high as possible, which shilling naturally helps. It may be illegal (not 100% sure?) and against their TOS, but on the occasions when I've reported blatant cases of it I just got a response along the lines of "some buyers always like to buy from trusted sellers, blah".

Funny how that "buyer"'s history only showed activity with the same seller...