I have a good copy stand made out of an enlarger column and baseboard ( a 'Gnome' enlarger I think) and I bought a copy arm from Gamer Engineering who made my Gamer Universal enlarger for £4-7-6d in old money. It takes all my 35mm cameras and my Pentax 6x7 .

Don't expect more than £15 for the lot- less if there is any fungus inside the lenses. At my camera club auction a Canon FTbn with f1.8 lens fetched only £1.
Just thought- isn't there a SCHOOL nearby that would take the gear? I had a phone call the other day from a man who wanted to give away some darkroom gear and put him onto our local school where a member of my Club teaches photography and they were pleased.

Whatever you do, after pushing the film leader into the 'Magic Needles' on the right, close the camera back, shoot a shot on 125X and watch the rewind spool lever on top LEFT- it should revolve as the film goes through and there is a handy little red striped thing on the back near top right- that moves as film goes through; don't blame us FILM USERS if the film is not transporting correctly and you take all your shots on one frame !

Today the road is being re-surfaced, so I tried out my 50mm f1.4 Pentax-M mostly at 1.4, and my 17mm f3.5 Vivitar from my bedroom window. The light was dull: I used ISO100 and increased saturation in menu.


[Open Image] [Hosted by PhotoGalaxy.com]


[Open Image] [Hosted by PhotoGalaxy.com]


[Open Image] [Hosted by PhotoGalaxy.com]


[Open Image] [Hosted by PhotoGalaxy.com]


[Open Image] [Hosted by PhotoGalaxy.com]


[Open Image] [Hosted by PhotoGalaxy.com]


[Open Image] [Hosted by PhotoGalaxy.com]

A very good Pictorial treatment: the grain adds to it and the dark tones are rich. If your name was Ansel Adams you would get $3,000 at least - but as it's you people would begruge paying £4-50 for a 10x8", same as they do for my reprints !

Ammonyte: I was the photographer for the Geology Dept. at University College London for 8 years and when I arrived the 'camera' was a half plate Gandolfi with an Anastigmat lens. When they wanted slides in colour for the lectures I showed the boss how I could do colour slides with my Pentax S3 and they shelled out some dosh and I got a Pentax S1 for the department and a 50mm Macro-Takumar, so another recruit! ( Wonder what they use NOW as I left in 1970)

I just had Bart round again today with his K10D for another 'workshop' on digital ( a case of the Blind leading the Blind really!) and he joked he would probably DIE before he finishes reading the instruction book ! ( Well, I read it every tea-break and toilet break for a month )

Today I recruited another to the Pentax family, my friend I recruited in 1993 to the Brentwood Photographic Club, Bart Kent ( aged 82) - well, he first got a Canon EOS 1000F then got into still-life and I told him he needed a prime lens such as the 100mm f4 Pentax-M macro as I was doing all his colour printing and I could see the effects the Canon zoom lens was giving on his prints, so he got a Pentax P30 and the 100mm macro from Jessops and immediately started winning at the club-now he wanted a digital and bought a small Fuji Finepix from the widow of a fellow Sailor who died and was a club member, but made so many mistakes. He then saw my PENTAX K10D and fell for it- he made some dosh selling his wife's wheel chair as she has just died and got £50 on the Premium Bonds so bought a K10D. I have been going through it with him today- now all he needs is a COMPUTER and he can join this site !

I didn't think I would mention it to the local press this time as I had front page exposure in the Brentwood Recorder and page 3 Yellow Advertiser when I won the Olympus digital camera; they don't like too many pictures of the Mayor- tell me to leave him out when I can, so they will not want too many pics of Pentax Pete either! Will try the Pentax Magazine though as it's relevant.
Dan : I haven't seen this week's YA - do not get it delivered on my estate and the man who delivers around Shenfield and has joined Brentwood PC was not there last night.

Well, here is a smaller version than the huge file I had to send for printing.


[Open Image] [Hosted by PhotoGalaxy.com]