[Leica] FS: Ricoh GR1 (& large format thoughts) & decluttering

[imra at iol.ie (Douglas Barry)]

A repost to prevent accusations of thread hijacking but also a meandering
seeking of advice....

Bob, I'd give my eye teeth for this (his Linhof), but until we move to our
new house I'm not allowed to buy anything under strict orders from SWMBO.
I'm currently renting, and very actively (too actively - where's Saturday
gone?? - again!) looking to buy something bigger than my old place as I want
to set up a bigger, easier to work in darkroom that I can do large format
work in. Yes, I know most of you are appalled at such a retro move, but I
just love film and that chemical romance.

Currently, much of my camera collection has been in boxes or scattered with
friends or relatives. At 61, it's hard to put your life on hold and it pains
me to look at the stacked, labeled boxes that most of my stuff is lying in.
Recently, as the anniversary of our more prolonged than expected rental
status started to roll around, I awoke with a start in the middle of the
night and thought "The shutters, the f'n shutters!!" A cold sweat spread
across my brows as I thought of eighty somnolent shutters. Panicked opening
of boxes commenced the following evening.

Treasures revealed, I started clicking to stop them sticking.  Hitherto, I'd
always done this, but the move, the hunt for the new, and its accompanying
hassle knocked it out of my mind. Anyway the rescue worked, but the pile
stares back silently screaming "Use me, use me!!". That, the naked lust for
a large format camera, and the forbidding look of SWMBO was the trigger for
decluttering and taking my first reluctant steps in parting from the pile.
I'm a big boy, I'm moving on, as I told myself, so I've started to try to
sell off the less used stuff and my first attempt to do so was a listing of
my beloved Ricoh GR1 (the car camera) on eBay.

Well, things gang oft astray as I discovered today. A couple of days ago, I
decided to shoot one last film with the camera for old times sake - it had
received 4 bids on eBay - and noticed somewhat disconcertedly that the flash
wasn't working. I put a note about the flash on eBay immediately and shot
off the roll - now not out of sentimentality, but out of concern. I thought
at least two would be keepers. Well, they weren't. The entire roll was
blank. The electronic shutter has given up the ghost. I cancelled the
auction.

I now have a fixer upper. Any ideas how to? Any offers? :-)

Douglas
_________
Douglas Barry
Bray, Co. Wicklow
Republic of Ireland