No Purchase Policy

This is pretty weird.  So far in 2012 (end May) there has been just 4 lens purchases to date - a Leica 35mm f3.5 Summaron in LTM, a Nikon 28mm f3.5, a Sigma 30mm f2.8 and a Pentax 21mm f3.2; the first two of which was part of a trade for some Nikon lenses.  

This is unusual.  Usually I purchase approximately 25-30 lenses per year, most of which are again sold after I try them out, but this would suggest a purchase of about 20-25 so far this year.  So far only the Nikon 28mm f3.5 has been sold; the Sigma and Leica are most definately keepers, while I will ship the Pentax to my Dad.

Oddly enough , I have purchased 5 cameras this year, which is about normal.  Two of these cameras came with fixed lenses (Fuji X100 and the Fuji GA645i) and three as bodies only (Nikon F601, Pentax SFX and Sony NEX 5n).  The F601 hasn't been used at all and the GA645i has had a couple rolls through it, though I have had quite a bit of use out of both the digital bodies

Lithium Batteries

Probably the biggest pain in the butt when buying a 1980s / 1990s film camera is whether they need Lithium batteries rather than plain old AAs.  They're still quite expensive and often the batteries cost as much as the value of the camera.  

Recently I picked up a Nikon F-601, which apart from the crappy auto focus, is actually quite a useful camera.  It meters with manual focus lenses, does spot metering, TTL flash metering and has an exposure lock - all very useful features.   But it takes the dreaded lithium batteries, so I am still deciding whether to out lay the $20 or so on a new battery, which is probably the value of the camera.

Sony NEX-3 with Voightlander 35mm f1.4 Nokton

This shot I used a big screen TV to create a background to highlight the beautiful orchids