Month: August 2024 (Page 2 of 4)

–After verifying travel dates with Grace yesterday (Aug 28–31), she said today those weren’t right, as Kathy’s birthday is Sep 6. So I re-did everything for Sep 4–7. Airline and rental car were no problem. Best Western Eastgate could be a $700 problem. After I explained everything to central reservations, they submitted a change ticket to the the local hotel. Haven’t heard from them yet.

–Meidai Japanese bike pump came in. High quality, but the chuck head (not replaceable) is awful. Hard to get on, won’t stay on. Will toss most of it, keep a few nice parts.

–Double-ring hose clamps came in from Walmart. (a) Too large. (b) Flimsy wire. Tossed. Finally found what I should have been looking for all along: not 10mm but 3/8″ clamps. Ordered some.

–Second Helios 81H came in. Glass, though clear, had many small hard-to-see cleaning marks on it. Compared it to the first one (ultra-clear AND no cleaning marks): first one won. Then compared first one to Biotar (which it had edged out a while back. Biotar won, not really close: the Helios had a sort of misty veiling flare that the Biotar lacked. Hoping I’m done (again) with Helios.

–Talked to Nathan Reed finally at Monterey BMW. Long story short: if my 330i is flawless, I’ll trade it plus $20,000 for a white 230i with 4 miles on it. And a convenience package, surround sound, parking assistance, AND PERMA-PLATE. Can’t believe a Beemer dealer is still doing this crap.

–Spent much of the day transplanting the Mandarin into the ground. I’m totally exhausted. I was shocked to see how small and sparse its roots were. Hard to predict what’s going to happen to it.

–Renewed memberships and made reservations at Alaska Air and Best Western Hotels. Turns out I have 14,000 miles at AA (didn’t use any this time), and the Silver Cloud Eastgate has become a Best Western. All those Silver Rewards…poof!

–Helped Kenny install a wheel on his back patio gate.

–Grace wants to go to Bellevue. Flights and hotel are available, but she’ll wait a week or two to tell me she wants to go the next day.

–Went to S*T Strawberries for some berries for Grace to play around with.

–Picked up Pentacon 29/2.8 lens at UPS. Glass seems clear enough, but the lens is totally useless: impossible to focus, acts like infinity is 10 feet away, ultra-soft and unsaturated photos. Tossed it.

–Picked up Diamond Calk WWII entrenching tool at UPS. Super nice, original paint and all. I’ll almost hate to use it–but I didn’t get it as a collector’s piece.

–Went to CarMax for an appraisal. Waited a while; they finally came out with a $25,000 offer. Will try to talk to Nathan Reed tomorrow at BMW of Monterey.

–Tried to organize stuff a little in the garage.

–Kenny brought me a melon and us a baked potato. I went to Sunrise farmers market for tomatoes, jam, squash, pears.

–Water tank for the ECM Technika V came in from Whole Latte Love. Set it up, tried it out, perfect!

–Plomb 3/8″ ratchet handle came in. After some confusion and (temporarily) lost tiny conical springs, I got it cleaned up and working nicely.

–Talked to Moe from Niello BMW. Not impressed. The black 230i I was looking at turned out to be a service loaner. They have others coming in, but none that appealed to me. Will take the 330i to CarMax Sunday for an appraisal. Thinking about Monterey BMW, which has a white 230i in stock, albeit with an add-on package I don’t need. Was Nathan Reed the sales guy I worked with there? Got no paperwork, and this journal is mute.

Brought the Canon R5 out again now that I have the screw for the grip extension. Will test some more against the lower-resolution, lower-noise SL2-S. [edit] Did the test. The SL2-S is astonishing. The Canon has greater magnification, but the viewfinder in the SL2-S is super sharp and contrasty. The Leica photo had hugely less noise, and though they were close after Adobe Enhancement, the SL2-S still wins. Just an amazing performance for 24 megapixels.

–Wrote PJ James again, finally heard back: he’s made an intro with Moe at Niello. I’ll call tomorrow.

–Screw finally came from China for the Canon R5 extension grip. Unfortunately, though the camera with grip is very nice, the Leica SL2-S–with much lower resolution–takes pictures that are as good or better.

–Went to Bel Air for some bargains (Grace) and milk, cream, corn.

–Barbecued turkey burgers. The “Amaizing” corn from Bel Air was finally really really good.

–Took a 10.7 mile bike ride. Tiring.

–Found a bolt that would hold the Canon custom grip extender on. Shot some shots. Even the Pancolar came out good–at f8. I could end up saying goodbye to Leica forever.

–Played with pumps some more. Got really frustrated that several of them didn’t seem to “accumulate” air fast enough, or at all. Took ’em apart, put ’em back together, etc., THEN discovered it could be those tiny snap-on pump heads I favor. Turns out if the hose pulls the slightest bit, the head is at an angle and is (may be) letting most of the air out around the seal. Tested by putting locking heads on 2-3 pumps: they all held air perfectly, with the gauge needle staying where it ended up at the end of each stroke. So much for cornering the market on tiny snap-on pump heads.

–Scavenged a bolt that would hold extension grip on Canon R5. Thinking it might become the ONE camera. Did a shootout (heh heh) between it and the SL2-S. Leica won. Considerably less noise, slightly better colors and saturation. Quite the camera.

–Sealed the crack in the ECM water tank with epoxy and Gorilla tape. Seemed to work. New one coming, so I’ll have an extra.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Decided (as per yesterday’s journal entry) to box up the Leica Q and call it quits (for now) on fixed-lens cameras. Brought out the M11 for the 13th time, and may keep it out as a high-megapixel complement to the SL2-S. It does have (on the LCD) constant exposure preview, and the thumbwheel adjusts it via ISO. The LCD should also work for focusing at night–I imagine I’ve done it before, in addition to using the Visoflex. It’s not exactly an M, with magnified LCD focus and lift-up ISO dial for example, but I checked and all M10s also have that ISO dial, and I’m not going back to M9. [edit] Okay, okay. It’s always something. Took a couple night shots with the M11, full of hope, then realized in Lightroom that the M11 lacks image stabilization. ISO was 8000 in both pics (though I underexposed the second one), shutter speeds were 1/15, then 1/5. Pictures were awful. M11 is just not a night camera. I WISH I COULD REMEMBER THIS.