And rare as hens teeth now, I should imagine

There seems to have been a resurgence in interest for the old stuff. I imagine it's because affordable good quality dSLRs have made old lenses of use again, and everyone wishes they hadn't sold them at a boot sale. Or is that just me that did that?

I put my spare Flektogon on Fleabay this week. I was going to ask £20 on the 'Buy It Now' option, but instead opted for £1 start on an auction. it's got half hour to go still, and it's already hit £89

There must be tens of thousands of those things languishing at the bottom of wardrobes, still bolted to an old Praktica that were bought used for 30 quid!

I sometimes think the world's gone mad!

Are you talking about the kind that screws into the filter thread of the lens? Or os there a sort that goes behind the lens?

Back in the late 80s when I worked in an optics development lab, our 'lunchtime' project over several years was to make a front-mounted supplementary lens. We ended up making an (approx) 0.8x and 1.6x. The 1.6 was the best, made from five chunks of Zeiss glass (and 200-odd hours of grinding/polishing ) I still have it and use it regularly - it's really raher good

The 0.8 was less good, but as good as a moderate quality lens. It's sharp across about 90% of the field, but then drops off a bit.

If you are talking about front-mounted, then avoid the fleabay Chinese things, they're dreadful and then some. The Olympus ones designed for their weird-shaped 35mm compacts actually won some respect in the day.

But there's never a substitute for a decent purpose-made lens.

I've recently been looking at photos of Cromer in it's Victorian heyday as a holiday retreat for the well-healed. How things have changed! In the summer when it's full of holiday-makers, I'm planning to re-create the same photos on the Instantograph quarter plate camera. Initial experiments are pointing towards matte grade 2 paper as the 'film' of choice, due to the colour-blindness similar to emulsions of the day. I look forward to comparing notes, although your Horseman is probably a much more unwieldy beast than the relatively tiny Instantograph.

Just a Sony phone camera for me

Well, until they release a full-frame digital like my old Ricoh 500G

I'm not holding my breath

Sounds like you were had by the dreaded snipers. You can get your own back by adopting similar tactics. Google for "ebay sniper software" and go grab yourself a bargain or two

Personally, I think Fleabay should put in place technology to stop them, but they'd need to give a damn.

Hi James,

Having researched a bit, taken the advice here and looked at a few asking prices on fleabay, I'm in two minds. I've opted to watch three similar cameras to see what they fetch there. They probably do slightly better due to the auction fever people seem to get towards the end.

My feeling though is that due to its very low resale value, I should postpone the K-m purchase by a month or so and keep the K100D for now, just in case there are metering issues with the K-m and my increasing collection of manual lenses. No point ending up with a smaller camera only to find I can only use two lenses on it

Graham

I experimented a few years ago, but couldn't get close to the commercial services canvas prints. I had some limited success with the iron-on transfers onto not-too-course canvas and stapling it to a wooden frame made of square pine. Would be interested to try some canvas inket paper, I didn't know anyone did it

That's Douglas, one of three with only three. No need to tell you which fighter pilot he's named after

I'm not looking to replace my existing lenses, I just want one that I can stick on the camera and head off out with the dogs, the prime reason for the trip being to take the hounds for an afternoon out. thought that with a single superzoom and no gadget bag, I'd be travelling light but ready for most eventualities. With my three dogs, plus anything up to three foster dogs at any one time, I usually have my hands full (don't ask of what ) For photo-specific outings, I'll take along the Slingshot loaded up with my usual three lenses, spare batteries, etc etc. I called it a holiday lens, but not meaning literally.

I think I'm pretty convinced about the 18-250, I just need to add it to my shopping list, which will be after the K-m purchase, unless I can get a deal for the two.

Really appreciate everyone's input, thanks very much

See what I mean?