Yesterday I went to the first trade show of the year here in Birmingham,
Alabama. I was somewhat suprised by the turnout of both vendors and
attendees. I counted around 16 or so vendors and estimated a few hundred
people came and went in the two or three hours I stayed. There were
quite a few people helping teenagers and friends get started in
photography, milling about discussing cameras, lenses, accesories, what
to look for, what to avoid. It was great! I definitely had a sense of a
new resurgence in celluloid photography or perhaps I was witnessing the
education of the next generation of photographers. It did me good, not
to see so many old codgers wandering about. (My apologies if I offended
any list members who are old codgers <G>) Among the new vendors two
stood out, Finger Lakes Photo books http://www.photobooksonline.com and
a vendor I didn't get a chance to meet. The latter had a ton of older
Lecia, Rollei, Kodak 35mm cameras. It was amazing to see so much chrome
and steel at one time. The former had quite a selection of books,
manuals and guides. I checked out the website and they offer several
repair guides and manuals to the OM system, but alas no Shipman or any
books dedicated to just the OM system.
As far as hardware offerings, C*n*n-not and N*k*n-not still reign
supreme, although more MF equipment is being offered. (I stayed mostly
away from those tables). Now to Olympus/Zuiko offerings- Not much at
all. Wolfe Camera was there and so were the pair of OM-4's I saw a few
months ago, Wolfe still wants 499.00 (US) each. Good luck Wolfe. A few
OM-1's 150.00-200.00 (US) and a couple of OM-2S both +210.00 (US). One
guy wasn't aware that without batteries the mirror and shutter would
lock up on the -2S I helped him out, but he wouldn't budge his price.
Also, one lone OM-10 w/o adapter 175.00, nope. There were several XA11
and XA16 with and without flashes available, ranging from 59.00 to
150.00 (with flash) most looked kinda dusty and well used. One or two
were very nice, but I have enough cameras and was looking for lenses and
accessories. Lens offerings were poor some 50's, a 135 f/3.5 +100.00
(US), a 24 f2.8 ~290.00 (US) and a 75-150 f/4, again way overpriced, and
only two or three by third party manufacturers. There were several big,
fast C*n*n and N*k*n that lenses I wished to turn into Zuiko 250 f/2 and
350 f/2.8 lenses but the magic wasn't there. Damn those light cannons
are big, just made for someone 6'4" and 245 lbs like me! 8^).
Did I liberate anything? Yeah I found a rather nice T32 with manual and
no case for 75.00 (US) and browsed through some manuals, but stopped
when the seller said "$15.00 each". That's outrageous! But I guess
that's what the market will bear. I also purchased a slide projector, a
Rollei P37E complete with case and 7 seven carousels with storage cases
for $75.00 (US). I'll probably replace the ISCO ROLLEI-PROJAR 85 f/2.8
lens later on, but for now its a huge step up from the ancient single
slide projector I borrowed from my dad. Lastly, a Bogen/Manfrotto 3009
ball head to mount on my barn-door tracker. GOOD FUN!!
Later
Charles Packard
P.S. I keeping what I got.
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