Perhaps Colour, etc., came over in 1066 with the Normans. I doubt they are Anglo-saxon derived.

Back to Pentax SLR's. All my film Pentaxes are Spotmatic SP's. I didn't intend it all to end this way, but once I'd accumulated seven M42 Super Takumar lenses it seemed folly to switch over to bayonet mounts.

The black Spotmatc developed a loose right strap lug, which I probably wouldn't have noticed, except that I bought a Gordy's leather wrist strap and of course, when I attempted to fit it to the strap lug its looseness was obvious.

Turns out you must remove the top plate to get to the fastener that's backed off. Camera repair is not my forte, so I sent it off this week to Eric Hendrickson in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee, for repair. He is the retired head of the Pentax USA repair division, and the premier Pentax repair person in the US. He said that even though loose, the lug wouldn't separate from the camera. Interesting.

I'll miss my black spottie while it's being repaired. I bought it new in the late sixties, sold it in 1985 (can't recall why) and bought a black spottie last year on ebay and it turned out to be the same camera!

Oh, yes, Snap: Get over to the delta country. Plenty photo ops there.

Ted

Snap:

Quite a deal you got there. See if the Yashicamat works. I'd go ahead and run the Kodak 120 film through it - especially if it's black and white - just to see if the shutter, etc., works.

I had one for a time, and while it's no Rolleiflex, the lens is sharp enough to make 11X14's all day long. Mine, however, developed some unpleasant shutter problems, and that was that.

Ted

Thank you both for your observations.

Apropos of your humour, the day after I arrived in London to stay in my friend's house on Cato Street (off Edgeware Road), I went to the pub on the corner. It was recommended by my friend, Robert Cummings who said, in effect, to just mention his name. So I went, and I did. The bartender, an enormous hulk wearing a white dress shirt and a bow tie (looked as if he'd once been an enforcer of some sort) quietly served me my scotch and listened patiently - and silently - to some inane tale of mine. When I finished, he walked to the other end of the bar, polished a glass or two, returned and said, in a remarkably small voice for a huge man who looked like a thug, "I would have thought it might have been the other way round."

Back to cameras. It seems my M42 to K mount adapter is not the genuine Pentax article. Although made in Japan, and although Pentax is written upon it, it is rather difficult to remove. Goes on OK. Doesn't want to come off.

ON the US Yahoo Spotmatic sight folks who have the genuine article say it goes on and off smoothly. I believe I'll chuck it and buy the 'genuine article."

Anyone else have problems with non-Pentax adapters? Or is it just me...

Ted

Slofts:

As an expatriate Californian living in Bisbee, Arizona along with a gaggle of other ex-Californians, we have a tendency to say things like, "California is over with," meaning that the charm and breathtaking beauty of the state has largely been ruined by massive overpopulation and rape of the land (logging, agriculture and its attendant herbicides, pesticides that have poisoned the land and ruined the streams, to say nothing of air pollution).

Especially so is this view held by those of us who grew up in what in our view then was that it was, in fact, the promised land. And L.A. was indeed the City of the Angeles. Its original name given by the Spaniards was Nuestra Senora, La Reina de Los Angeles. Our Lady, the Queen of the Angeles. What a sweet name...

As for Brit humour, or the lack thereof, I once lived in London for four months and for the first month was continually blindsided by the sublety of it.

Ted

I await sentencing.

The Spotmatic Users Group on Yahoo is a wonderful resource. Lots of highly knowledgeable folks on that one.

Ted

Knockout photo, niblue. Amazing detail. ON the Pentax side, I must agree with George. The Asahi 100mm macro is one of the finest macros ever made, at least based on photos taken with my ST in M42, which I would dearly love to have back today.

As for fitting stuff onto a *ist DS, this afternoon I photographed some Olympus cameras for a recently deceased friend's widow to sell on ebay. She has no use for them and prefers her Rolleiflex. First I used the kit 18-55, then removed it, installed the Pentax M42/K adapter, and fitted an old M42 SMC 1.8/55. The results with the old lens seemed, at least to my aging eyes, a bit sharper. Am I hallucinating, or is that, in fact, the case?

That darn Kim, he's all over the place. Even on the Yahoo Groups Spotmatic forum. Pops up frequently on the RFF also. Been trying to run him down. Not an easy task.

Recently I had to photograph a few cameras for a client who wanted them posted on ebay. Used the ist DS with the kit lens. Then installed the M42/K adapter and fitted an old Super Takumar 105/2.8. Had to move back a bit, but the images were superior. Then fitted another ST, this time the 55/1.8. Again, quite good images. However, for quick street shooting I've found the kit lens a better tool. No mf, no stopping down, etc. These old M42s suddenly become much like Jupiter presets.

The adapter takes a bit of learning. Didn't come with instructions, which made it easy to install improperly. Finally discovered the cleverly concealed red dot. But the removal tool, unless precisely spaced, won't compress the blue spring enough to allow adapter removal. As one poster remarked, "It's a bit fiddly." Sure is.

But for shooting when there's no hurry, I do prefer the old Takumars. Would probably like the SMCs better, but I haven't any.

Ted

The Yahoo group George sites is the one.

so right, John. I'm wondering if Pentax is the only one with backward lens compatability?

As for it being the photographer, during the San Francisco State College police riots in 1968 I was freelancng along with a friend, Roy Shigley, who also used a Spotmatic, when a cop came up and said, "Gee, that's a nice camera. What kind is it?" Roy told him, whereupon the cop smashed it with his billy club and walked off. Oddly, the lens was jammed at f:8 and wouldn't unscrew, and the shutter would only fire at 125th. Undetered, Shigley simply shot everything for days at f:8/125th, using TriX, and bought a bottle of Rodinal.

I saw him one day in the local diner, eating breakfast and occasionally rotating his stainless steel Nikkor developing tank that he'd brought with him. When I expressed my surprise, he said, "Rodinal roulette," and kept eating. My point is that he continued to make a living and worked around the problem. Couple of years later I saw a show of his. Some of the images, blown up to 16x20 had, as you might guess, spectacular grain. My girl friend at the time said they reminded her of Andy Warhol, only in black and white.

Ted