Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/03/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Thu, 10 Mar 2011 Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin at gmail.com>wrote: >Here is a partial list of NYC camera stores. There are hundreds more. Every >neighborhood has a few old time stores. Disregard the new equipment on >display. Walk to the back of store and look at the used equipment moldering >away on the shelves and drawers. It helps to ask the oldest employee in the >store or perhaps the owner. Most will be happy to get rid of that old >stuff. >... >Where else can you find a 50 mm f1.2 lens for >less than the sales tax on a Noctilux? >Good hunting. >Larry Z ==================================================================================================== I'm envious of what you describe in NYC. Milwaukee used to have a bunch of camera stores like those (including two that were side by side, with doorways only three feet apart). I used to love checking out their junk boxes. Now I have just about everything I need, but still like to go to collectible camera shows for obscure items. Unfortunately, there hasn't been one in town for about two years. But back in the 70's I was lucky enough to buy most of the lenses for my M's cheaply. I got an Elmar 90 for $40, 28 f/3.5 LTM Nikkor ($100), 35 f/1.8 LTM Nikkor ($50), 85 f/2 LTM Nikkor ($100), and two friends each gave me interesting lenses. One is my Canon 50 f/1.2 that is one of the sharp examples, and the other is an Enna Lithagon 85 f/1.5 LTM. There is a story to go with this last one. When I got it from him, the focus was way off. Since it was unusable, I thought I had nothing to lose in trying to adjust it. I took the focusing assembly apart, studied it, and figured out what might make it right. I had to separate two helixes and re-join them with the threads in a different orientation to each other. The tricky part was that there were two parallel sliders that had to re-engage at one point. I spent three hours trying different starting points with no luck, and was going to give up when I hit the magic combination and it all came together. The lens has had perfect focus ever since, even at f/1.5. I hardly ever sell photo equipment once I've bought it, and one of the regrets I have concerns a Leitz OSBLO (the LTM rear lens cap/telescope eyepiece). I bought one at photo rummage for $0.25 (twenty-five cents) and sold it a few years later for $25.00 USD, but I think it might be worth more today. Oh well, I did make 100x my investment. Alan Alan Magayne-Roshak, Senior Photographer UPAA POY 1978 University Information Technology Services University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee amr3 at uwm.edu http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Alan+Magayne-Roshak/