–Took the BMW to Hooverville Orchards for jam and pastries.
–Finally getting warm. Both patio doors open tonight. I can hear a mourning dove doing its classic call in front.
Month: April 2024 (Page 2 of 3)
–Second CKF Evo 4.0 came in. Great action, not the best satin finish.
–Pizza for dinner.
–Leica Safari top cover came in from eBay. Pretty scratched up on top, and the screw looks like it has been used. Good enough to replace the screw on my Safari, though. May have the cover repainted, if I ever hear from the Vietnamese painter or his friend who handles postal logistics.
–Replaced the portafilter gasket on the Cremina. Was hoping it would be thicker, and would not allow the portafilter to rotate so far when tightening. No difference. For some idiotic reason I only bought one gasket–the one in the Maximatic is likely in worse shape than was the old one in the Cremina.
–Rode the Folsom Canal with Tom Elken.
–Made pizza dough (great), then pizza (good).
–Adapter came for Biotar to Sony. Took a good while to figure out how to activate focus magnification, but then one abutilon photo answered all questions. That camera just obliterates Leicas–perfect focus, perfect metering, incredible resolution–and this on a 60-70 year old lens. Now I just need to figure out whether I need a Leica M at all. The 007 will work for sales macros; the Paul Smith should be fun if it ever gets back; but so far it’s on ly night shots that the M shines on (heh heh). If I can figure those out on the Sony, the M’s become true dinosaurs. [edit] As feared: I set the Sony (with its own lens) on spot metering and AUTO FOCUS and took a couple of night shots. One was overexposed, but one was near perfect–and had by far the sharpest fire hydrant and speed limit sign. And minimal flare around the globes. Well, what did I expect–only the Leica could shoot at night? It just boggles the mind how people can worship the M’s. Time to start sellin’…..
–Put the InnerLight on the bike stand in the back patio to check for the “pinging” I heard on my last ride. Didn’t find anything. Decided to lube and tighten the chain. Old lube had dried out, and my pin spanner pins were a little short. Went to Bob’s Bikes for lube (laughably overpriced); they couldn’t help with the tool. Fixed the spanner myself by replacing the pins with a couple of ground-to-fit bolts. That (and an online video) got the chain tightened.
–Was getting ready to buy another Leica 35mm f1.4 Asph FLE lens for ~$3,600, when I saw a reddit comment about how sharp(er) the Zeiss ZM Biogon equivalent was. A nice one on eBay is $1,325. Leica stuff is way way way overpriced, like chain lube. Don’t know if the Zeiss will minimize globe light flare like the FLE, but it’s probably worth checking out.
–Did another night pic test with the Voigtlander, after noticing (and cleaning) some fog off the rear element. Same glare/haze issues around the globe lights.
–Cold, drizzly day.
–Tried once more to flatten some Bel Air pizza dough. Failed. Another Red Baron tonight.
–Windy and cool, but not too cool.
–Took the InnerLight on the ARP, saw lots of mower goats. Was greeted by (perhaps) Mark Solich on the outbound portion of the ride.
–Watered my plants, which are looking pretty good.
–Hot weather.
–Took top off Hodinkee camera and cleaned dust off the rangefinder lens. Worked good.
–Finally heard back from Leica Parts. They won’t sell me a vertical adjuster cap, but rather want me to send the camera to New Jersey.
–Got the Sony out again, and figured out how to do magnified focus. Took photos on front and back patios. Breathtaking sharpness in both auto and manual focus modes. I sort of knew this would happen, given the gorgeous photos I got in La Selva Beach, but still, it sure puts the whammy on Leica M’s. There’s now zero reason to use them, except for nostalgia and snob appeal. I may keep the M-E to kind of “go with” the old Contax and Canon SLR’s; we’ll see. [edit] Well, tried the M-E and the Sony on my night shot. M-E sucked, likely because of the “king of bokeh” lens I had on it. And as it turns out, the Sony–like the Visoflex 2–is almost impossible to focus at night. It might improve with practice, or by focusing on something other than a globe light, but I’m thinking Sony for daytime, many lenses manually focused; and Hodinkee for night. Maybe. [edit 10] Screwed everything up. Tried to put the M10-P silver screw on the Hodinkee. It came off trivially earlier today. Tonight it did that horrible tilt/tighten thing, and would not come off for love or money. Ruined the camera; will toss. The screw on the Hodinkee is JUST passable for sale, I hope. There is no screw on the M10-P Safari. Guess I’ll put a sticker on it for sale. Those screws are awful. Will look (I guess) for an M10-R black, and hope it is vertically aligned.
–Got the rest of my refund back on the Reporter from eBay–in spades. eBay definitely knew this transaction on digree’s part was bogus.