In an effort to keep the discussions on camera and Oly topics:
I spend several hours at the Houston Camera Show yesterday. There were a few
OM-2's that
looked decent for btw $200 and $250 or so. A lot of 3rd party lenses. Not a
lot of
Zuikos. Lots of caps, filters, and accessories for everything. Quite a bit of
Leica &
medium format stuff.
KEH was there, as were several local vendors, doing free camera
inspections/tests & light
cleanings on the spot; certainly these services were worth the price of
admission ($5).
Apparently KEH has recently gone into the repair biz. After speaking with them
and 2
other local outfits about my jumpy Nikon DP-1 (photomic) finder/meter I let KEH
take it
and my Nikon F2 with 'em for repair and light seal replacement. They claim a
1-week
turn-around time, which seems a lot better than the two Olympus specialty shops
I know
about ;-)
My main goal was to get a Nikon 180 2.8 for my astrophotography. There were
about 4
non-ED lenses for sale, 2 manual focus ED's, and one AF ED. One vendor wanted
$75 more
than the other for a lense on worse condition. I ended up after negotiating at
$110 less
than the expensive vendor, so it certainly pays to shop around and negotiate
(and pay
cash)! I picked up the cheaper unit from Jack's in Muncie IN. Seemed like
nice people
from my limited contact.
Olympus equipment is small & light, which makes it great for astrophotography.
I mount
the camera/lens to my telescope using one of those little bogen adjustable ball
head
things. It's difficult to get all that tight enough not to move through long
exposures
(typically 10 to 20 minutes).
I have decided to move to Nikon for the 180mm and longer lenses. It's quite
clear the
Olympus 180 has chromatic abberation issues. Also, the longer Oly lenses are
relatively
scarce and tend to sell for quite a bit more than the Nikons. The Nikon camera
(at
least) weighs a *lot* more than the Oly's I use, and there's really no hope to
mount the
Nikon on the bogen ball head. I'm getting a heavy duty side-saddle setup,
where the
telescope sits on one side and the camera/lens sits on the other side to handle
the
weight.
I definitely plan to continue to use Oly as my main system due to the great
size/weight/performance.
-Dick
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|