There was a black ME Super in my local "crafts and antiques" place, with f1.7 lens, I think they were asking £75 for the pair. It has gone, but obviously I've no way of knowing what they got for it. I think the place has an automatic 10% discount for stuff over £20.

I'd imagine that was a bit pricey, unless you can fix it yourself or there's something on it that you know is good, and you know you need or want. Say it was a film SLR with a databack or something like that (I have a vague recollection of Pentax doing one, but maybe only for the LX) and you particularly wanted one, then a tenner is a bargain.

Now, I might pay a pound for a broken SLR to have the fun of taking it to bits and maybe even fixing it, but not a tenner. Maybe the shop doesn't realise it's broken, though around here I find that some charity shops do set their prices, shall we say, ambitiously.

I'm also trying to do some decent panning shots, and would be happy with any of the above. I don't practice as much as I should, but will be at Oulton Park for the next three days to see if I can get anything usable.

You may well be correct. I'm not sure whether the rust is just rusty water from whatever box the car booter kept it in, or whether it goes further back - I know it's been dry for two or three years as that's about how long ago I bought it, but no more. There is some discolouring inside the body of the camera but I haven't looked further into it.

One day, when I have nothing else to do, I will test these things. I should, really, because there's no point keeping them if they're no good.

This was another one from the car boot sale, largely for the strap at a quid.


Cimg4125 by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

The battery cover for the camera is missing so I have no idea if it works or not.

Does anyone else keep an eye open for bargains on the local car boot sale or similar place? I've got a local "antiques and craft centre" that has a load of used stuff, and there's a bit of photographic equipment around there. As is often the case with these places, I usually feel the prices are a bit on the high side, but that might just be me.

So I was particularly pleased to spot this on the car boot sale a couple of weeks ago:


Cimg4124 by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

Pentax ME Super with soft case, 50mm f1.7 lens, Bell and Howell 135mm lens, 2x converter and a B&H 28mm lens that I gave to a mate as I've already got an old manual 28mm. The price? A fiver for the lot. That's a bit more like it.

Anyone else find any bargains?

Some good stuff there, I like all of them. Another location I'd like to go to, but never quite get around to it.

It's nice to see them being used. I haven't got around to trying it yet, but I know at Llangollen as well as the steam railway, during the Classic Transport Weekend there is a range of old buses running parallel services between Corwen and Llangollen, a mixture of open top double deckers and older luxury coaches.

I was hoping to walk from there to the ruined Abbey while my sister stayed there to paint the view, but it came on too heavy too quickly. I did notice how wet the camera (Kx) got, but it doesn't seem to have suffered from it. I didn't try just nipping through the trees to the Chainbridge - I went back to the car to see if I could get a view through them to the station in time for the next train, but it was still quite heavy there.

OK, not quite as catchy as the original. A couple of views of Horseshoe Halls from earlier this afternoon. The first one is when I was wondering whether I should take my coat back to the car, the second is when I was glad I hadn't.


procIMGP9924_stitch by Mike Edwards, on Flickr


procIMGP9948_stitch by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

Both of them are stitched with Microsoft ICE, I'm not really trying to show much image quality, just a change in the weather.