I think it's a case of being able to buy them direct from the manufacturers in HK via ebay, rather than them passing through an importer and retailer.

Depending on how good it is I may well buy more of them. Looking forward to observing the reactions to a steaming lens of tea!

I also found an interesting experiment to do with an offcut of tint film: Make an ultra-ND filter using an old UV filter and some tinting!

It'll probably be horrible, but I'll give it a try as I have the bits in the spares box.

Just finished putting the fourth coat of polish on the new car.

There is a reason for this beyond shine - apparently Subaru paint is fairly thin so I reckon a good thick layer of polish should give it a fighting chance on our salty roads.

Now to wait for a dry, still, warm day to fit the window tint film. This is either going to be great or a complete disaster!

That looks identical to what I ordered - do any of the controls move or is it one solid plastic moulding?

Depends on how much you fire them, really. I think they're prone to overheating from intensive use and becoming slightly explodey?

Well, for under £10 can you really go wrong? Just hope it doesn't go walkies in the post between Hong Kong and here!

There do seem to be slight variations in what's on offer. The one I ordered has a top resembling a lens cap, but I've also seen tops which look like the front of the lens or indeed a lens hood. Some don't have the proper name on, presumably as they're worried about being sued.

There are quite a few on ebay, all CaNikon. I'm actually thinking I might have to buy a couple at the prices asked (£6 in some cases!)

Should be brilliant for winding up pros when you're shooting with a Pentax and apparently drinking from a Canon 70-200mm!

Edit, just ordered a 24-105mm replica for £6. It has a stainless steel liner so should be usable. I thought the taller versions might be a bit unstable when full!

The M 135mm lenses also seem to be in better condition than most used glass. Most likely because they simply didn't see as much use as the 50mm ones.

I paid £50 for mine a couple of years ago and it is pretty much mint, £30-£40 seems a more common price though. I've seen a few priced at £33 or so BIN.

How on earth do you use it hand-held?

They're not the only ones to act like this. I suspect a lot of bankruptcies occur when the bank gets fed up with making loans to a lame duck business (which has been carrying on as normal rather than making an effort to sort their problems out).

Germany seems rather notorious for this - banks supporting firms no matter what, even when the losses are ongoing and the firm shows incredible arrogance in their refusal to address their management/manufacturing/marketing/pricing problems which are causing the losses.

Naturally we have no idea whether any of this applies to Camerabox. They could equally well have been the victims of a similar bank stunt to that pulled on someone I met a while ago whose accounts were frozen despite their having steady cashflow and a full order book. In their case, the bank wasn't happy with the way they were ploughing the profits back into growing the business rather than leaving them in the bank (not much money for a bank there...)