Ramblings

["Jeff Segawa" <segawa@netone.com>]

>P.S. - Speaking of ugly Leicas: A dealer in my town (Mike's) actually took
>down one of those Brueckner M6s. I could tell that he felt stuck when he
>asked my opinion on a lottery to get rid of the thing. The idea was to
sell
>40 chances to win it at $250.00 each. He nets 10,000 and some lucky ( ???
)
>person gets an eyesore for $250.00. Interesting.

Now there's an interesting idea: I'd be tempted, but when it comes to
gambling, I have zero luck. I took a peek at it and didn't think it looked
THAT bad. Of course, if I won it, I'd certainly try to turn a big, quick
profit, but failing that, what the heck, a person could take pictures with
the thing, listen to the CDs and use the hardwood box as a nice catch-all.
It certainly wouldn't be hard to get one's $250 worth of fun out of that!
Come to think of it, at that price, the blue leatherette wouldn't bother me
a bit :-)

Recent buying experiences:
I finally got my 50/2.8 collapseable Elmar today: It is the first brand-new
Leica product that I've ever purchased, save for a handful of straps, caps
and filters. I'm used to a modest amount of haggling, but the first dealer
I visited all but scolded me for daring to ask for a better price!
Fortunately, closer to home, I located the elusive black Elmar at another
dealer, and did not have to do any haggling at all to get the price I
wanted!

Lens felt squeaky-clean, to the point that mounting on the camera body and
locking the lens in it's extended position was a little rough, so I
lubricated the bayonet of the collapsing section with the tiniest amount of
moly paste. The lens mount received an extremely thin film of  Teflon
grease, which is somewhat more stable than the Vaseline that Leica
recommends. Result is that the lens is much smoother in operation.

Discovery: Nikon makes 39mm filters and wallet-type cases for them. These
would be great, though I hate to ask what the price might be!

On a semi=related note, I've run out of 35mm film and think it's a good
time to update my knowledge on newer products before commiting to a
fair-sized film order. Any great new ISO 50-100 slide or b&w products that
I should be trying? I am very familiar with Velvia, moderately so with
Provia and largely out of date with Kodak, since the days of Lumiere LPP
and LPX.
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