M42 Adaptors - some are more equal than others.

Today there is an enormous range of affordable M42 or Pentax screw mount adapters available. Here is a Nikon Ai example under $10.
Using an M42 adapter you can adapt any ol' screw mount lens to fit many 35mm, digital SLR or even a micro four thirds cameras.
Such adapters are an excellent way to breathe some life back into older lenses.

However try before you buy,

Karambolage - a photographic journal about traffic accidents.

Finally tracked down a copy of Arnold Odermatt: Karambolage.

Arnold Odermatt photographed automobile accidents on the streets of the Swiss canton of Nidwalden between 1939 and 1993.

Two black and white photographs from each accident tell the sad story of crossed trajectories, with exquisite composition and print quality.

Grange Hermitage or Printer Ink?

I bought a new magenta ink cartridge for my printer the other day. This time I read the packet.
It contains a mere 13ml of magenta ink. That works out to $2.15 per milliliter. At that rate, magenta ink is far more expensive than Penfolds Grange Hermitage & the ink is not even vintage!

Obsolete Photo Gear #1

Obsolete photo gear cluttering up my bottom drawer. -

#1 Kodak Monochrome Viewing Filter

This filter is used to visually approximate the relative tones of gray produced in black-and-white prints by different colors under daylight illumination. It is very dark with only 10% luminous transmittance.