On Apr 14, 2013, at 09:08 , John Sessoms wrote: > I must have missed the bit where you told about butchering innocent Pentax > lenses to fit Canon. I don't see switching brands as a joyful thing. > > It's just a pain in the nether regions, like getting a baseball bat enema!
There are many of us that, being old and lifetime hoarders, have a choice of what to take with us for any particular imaging assignment, professionally or personally presented. Therefore, I assume that many of you still hang on to several formats of camera and lens. So, you may be interested in this product that was mentioned on TOP yesterday. More about it and when to expect it can be found at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wanderlust/travelwide-45-camera These two guys already have their startup money, and some unknown amount of prototypes. What they are going to manufacture is a plastic body that will take specific old lenses found in all those old Speed Graphics, resulting in a 4 x 5 camera that weights less than a Canon Rebel XT or Zeiss Ikon Color Skopar, 630 grams fully loaded with lens, film holder, viewfinder and rangefinder (none of these are included, but are available to fit in the three flash cold shoes on the top) for a base price of $99, pinhole lens included. Still got 4x5 film in your freezer? No? Well, according to this article, development of 4x5 film emulsions still goes on, and is better than ever. Don't want to play with sheet film? Remove the film holder back and rubber band on your old roll film. The body is designed for this too Check it out!! Spoken from the fingers of someone who just dropped over $1500 on a complete Q kit with flash, ring flash, Auto-110 adaptor, and Pentax's super over priced K-mount adaptor. First impressions? Auto-110 lenses, the 70mm and 20-40mm, used with the Soligor 1.7x telextender scatter light more than is useful, sorta like the 85mm soft. The 02, 03, and 06 lenses are very sharp (01 on the way from China) but at full screen on my iMac, and handheld, seem less sharp than my Pentax Z-10. But I have not put it on a tripod yet, or I should say, put a lens on a tripod yet, and shot any reference images. Because I'm an old fart, who can't hold a coin by the edges without going spastic on it, I use several of my junk drawer pieces such as an aluminum 90° bracket once used to flip a small camera (PEN-E size) from horizontal to vertical. I also carry several very well made adjustable camera clamps. The best containing a three inch jaw, chrome plated screw clamp, a 2" screw for tree trunks, two legs hidden in the 'C' clamp that tripod the unit, and a two ball joint head for versatility, and instability. :) Both completely free the camera from my hand, add weight for mass, and unfettered access to the tiny buttons used to take pictures and adjust 40 or 50 various settings, as yet unlearned. Hah! -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
