These pages may be of interest:

http://www.aohc.it/oddse2.htm See MF (circa 1977) fifth down

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/pho/1001170992.html

EDIT And a passing reference at https://www.usefilm.com/Image.asp?P=1&ID=674980

HAdn't seen gartmore's post.

About 1980 my father-in-law gave me his 1967 Spotmatic (which he found hard to work after smashing his arm in a car crash) together with some Tak lenses which I added to via eBay. I usually used slides and quite recently I bought a second Spottie so I could have 100 and 400 film available.

A late-adopting Luddite I eventually got fed up with scanning slides after getting through 30 odd films on a trip to Faroe and Iceland and decided to dip my toe into the digital water in 2006. After a long talk with a local dealer I got a Panasonic FZ7 which I took on a trip to Ireland as an extra camera to play with. To my shame (or not) I have to admit to not taking one slide shot all three weeks we were there. The FZ7 was brilliant but I did find it a bit physically small for me and thought it worthwhile going for a DSLR (although the FZ7 still gets taken as backup and for use when I don't want to hump a big camera).

Research led me to favour the K10D which had just arrived on account of its weather-sealing, in camera shake reduction and dust removal (dust being a problem that was then worrying me). Ease of getting other lenses and maybe using my M42 stuff played a part. And I think some brand loyalty and an illogical dislike of Canon were in there too.

With what I hoped was an open mind I went back to the dealer to see what was what. To me the most important starting point is how a camera feels in my hand. Some I gave straight back as soon as I was handed them as I knew I would be unhappy with them. (I did try them again a bit later and confirmed my view). One or two seemed possible within budget but the K10D, which I will admit to fancying, was comfortable and had the qualities I mentioned earlier. I also wanted to be able to go to about 24mm (35mm film) so the 16-45 lens was attractive. The dealer would price match SRS who seemed to have the best price at the time and the rest is history.

Why that one and why Jigsaw?

Does your Mac have enough USB power to run that on one port?

I get the impression you are buying on price. Otherwise I would suggest 250GB might be a bit small for backing up pics. Also do you only want USB or do you want FW as well?

It might be worth having a look at Dabs and Expansys sites (and others) as you may get a better price on that model or greater capacity for the same price. Both the sites I mention let you filter search results and display by price or whatever.

I have used LaCie desktop and mobile and Formac mobile and have been happy with them.

Pentax 110?

Colour print film is still available from some places.

These links showing results from a different process of similar age might be of interest:

http://www.prokudin-gorsky.ru/index.shtml

http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/prokudin-gorsky/sever.html

And I would suggest you keep it off site in case of theft or even worse at home.

Michael

Such as?

I'm just back from Chile and at dawn in the Atacama at 4,500m it was -12°C. No problems experienced with my K10D which had been kept warm going up and was in a bag between shots. I had made sure the battery was fully charged the night before.

Unlike the old lags here I'm someone who came late to digital and even later to DSLRs so perhaps your situation is not dissimilar to mine fairly recently.

I would whole-heartedly endorse the advice given by many above to handle cameras as a starting point and would say do it at a specialist dealers where they know what they're talking about. When I was looking for a DSLR I went to my local dealer with an idea of price range and specifications but primarily just to try the feel of different cameras. One I didn't even put to my eye, as soon as I took hold of it I gave it straight back. It just didn't feel safe in my hand. Trying it again later confirmed the view. I got a K10D.

For what it's worth I regarded in camera stabilisation as a worthwhile feature in view of the range of lenses it opens up and, for the sort of photography I do, decent weather sealing. I can see few occasions when Live View would be of much use with a DSLR.

Michael

And can prove difficult to get off the camera or cause damage.

Michael