In a word - don't! ...... Unless it is something you desperately want.

I made an offer to a Dutch seller of £100, which was accepted (expecting 20% VAT on top). They changed the Euros to US dollars for the calculation, charged a fee for it and put VAT on that too. Then they charged VAT on the postage ( !! ) Is that legal? and for some reason I don't know at all, they added an extra £4.18 fee in sterling.

My £120 (incl VAT) purchase ended up costing £156.34. I now don't even bother looking at anything from outside the UK. Brexit, coupled with E bay's greed has put the tin lid on it - firmly.

That's it ! Un oeuf is un oeuf !

3rd one - for the sheer scale and distance that you have crammed into it. The B&Ws are gorgeous too, especially the 1st one (surprised me that the colour one was a disappointment by comparison!).

There is no provision for a cable release of any kind on this particular shutter. The 'button' on the top is for the electrical contact on the old-style flash guns (I think). Others that only have a 'B' setting do have a screw-in facility for a cable and it works a treat to keep the shutter open. Alternately, you can set the DSLR to B and simply use the original controls on the shutter if you have a cable release. I haven't done that yet - but I will.

The library is a real gem! It's made for B&W photography and you made good use of it.

It's worth getting up early at this time of the year. Alas - I'm a stay-in-bed ! Super pictures with lovely rich colours.

There is a whole series of Schneider Kreuznach Radionar lenses, all of which have quite a following. I have shown
results from the 1:4.5 105mm in the past and I have now found time to have a play with my latest acquisition -
a 1:2.8 50mm. Here it is on my K1. (image taken with a 1936 105mm Trioplan).



It came off a completely wrecked post war Balda folding camera and, consequently, didn't cost a fortune. Luckily
the glass was not damaged and the Prontor shutter was mechanically sound. I converted it to an M42 mount but,
since it is a 50mm it is impossible to get it sufficiently close to the sensor of a DSLR to attain infinity focus. But
going the other way, a 20mm extension tube worked wonders and by putting the whole ensemble onto a BPM
Focuslide (their spelling, not mine) I had an absolutely excellent macro lens with a very convenient working distance
of about 9 inches !

All of these subjects are around 1 inch in size and were photographed with the aid of a tripod, the focuslide and an
IR remote. Lighting is extremely dim daylight from a north facing window under dark, cloudy skies, requiring long
exposures. (So I went whole hog with ISO100 and mainly f11).

A damp acer leaf from the garden.



Having taken 20 consecutive images of this for a focus-stack it became apparent that the leaf was busily curling up
as it dried out, making the entire exercise futile - use a dry one next time! I have to ask, "was it necessary, however?"
because the depth of field at f11 in this single shot is just amazing.

This ballpoint pen is much smaller at its business end but the lens has resolved the smear of ink on the ball very well.



And finally, a Polo mint. You would imaging these to be very smooth and shiny if asked to describe one but the
reality is somewhat different. Again, this was taken from a distance of about 9 inches.



What the heck is this?



It was a TeePee interdental brush but has had the brush bit replaced with a 5/8" panel pin
to provide a necessary tool. This particular shutter does not have a 'T' setting but only has a 'B' setting
which will keep the iris open only for as long as the shutter release is depressed. As soon as you release it,
it snaps shut. You can get round this by means of a screw-in, locking cable release but this shutter has no
provision for one. How to hold the release lever down ???

If you look at the very first image, above, you will see a tiny hole just to the left of the word 'Prontor'. Fortunately,
there is nothing behind the front plate just here so by drilling that hole I could insert a locking pin to hold the
release lever in place, thus providing an open shutter until it is removed. The panel pin works fine on its own
but is quite tiny - hence cannibalizing a toothbrush for a handle.

There is always a way to resurrect 'old glass'.

I was looking - (note 'looking' ) - at 200mm Pentax macro lenses on Ebay. It was very clear that the various sellers were using one set of photos for items they were claiming to be the ones in the pictures. Quite different sellers from different towns and asking different prices. So do compare their photos and make sure they are genuine because you might NOT get the one in the photo.

Very well done.

I have another one for you. It affects the K3 as well. If you set the shutter release to IR remote and then ask the camera to do a burst of shots, it does exactly that when you press the remote. The problem is there's no way to make it stop! And no, this doesn't fix the original problem!