I bought another lot of cameras yesterday. I went to pick up an Asahi Pentax SP1000 some guy was selling, and when I was there he told me he was selling some lots of random cameras as well. I took a look at the crates of stuff and bought one of them because he was asking next to nothing considering what was in there.

This way I got home with about 30 cameras instead of one, I'm now trying to decide which ones I'm going to sell and which ones I'm going to keep.

What is in there:

• Asahi Pentax SP1000Debonair Diana clone
• Regula Sprinty BC 300
• Regula Sprinty BC
• Agfa Click I
• Agfa Click II
• Franka Solida I
• Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515/2
• Kodak Brownie Starlet
• Vredeborch Vredebox
• Ultra Fex
• Uni-fex
• Kalimar A
• Agfa Isola I
• Agfa Isola II
• Agfa Isolette II
• Petri 7sII
• Ricoh 500G
• Cosina compact 35S
• Olympus trip 35
• Voigtlander Vitoret
• Petri 35E
• Minolta Hi-matic E
• Minolta S
• Zeiss Ikon Contessa
• Agfa Silette LK
• Revue 400SE
• Vredeborgh Felica
• Mamiya 135

Another abandoned textile factory! A huge site, but mostly really dark halls. There was one nice surprise though, a large relief mural world map, in a very decayed state.

A few days ago I went to Paris and I visited what has to be one of the coolest museums in the world. The Galerie de Paléontologie et Anatomie Comparée of the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle. It's basically an old building stuffed with thousands of dusty skeletons, and the way the exhibition is set up probably hasn't changed for the last 50 years or so.

I brought my Agfa Isolette II and made some shots. I really should get an external rangefinder, as the focus is quite off in some of the pictures, and I'm not that good with guessing distances. Also, seeing as there wasn't all that much light available inside, I had to shoot with the aperture wide open (tripods were not allowed in the museum), resulting in quite a shallow DOF.

Shot on Shangai GP3

A huge textilefactory which went out of business about a year ago, they're still moving out.

The Agfa Isolette II is a nice 1950's medium format viewfinder folder camera. There are rumours floating around on the internet that Isolettes need to have their bellows replaced because they all have pinhole lightleaks, but mine is fine and light-tight.

My Isolette has got the Apotar lens and the Prontor-SV shutter, which results in apertures between 4.5 and 32 and shutter times between 1 and 1/300 (and B). The guess-o-matic focusing works ok and seems pretty accurate.

I have to say I really like this camera, the resulting negatives are sharp and contrasty plus the camera is fun and easy to use. It's also pretty compact with the bellows and the lens folded inside the body, and thus easy to take along.

shot on Shanghai GP3:

Today I bought a lot of cameras from an old guy (for real cheap). He was selling all the cameras he'd ever bought because he recently switched to digital. His first camera was a Franka Solida IIIe, he got it while serving military duty (this was around 1950). After that he updated his camera arsenal every 10 years or so, keeping up with the latest fads. In a way, this is a condensed view of almost 50 years of camera history.

The cameras in the lot:

• 1950 Franka solida IIIe (120 film (6x6 negatives), uncoupled rangefinder)
• 1961 Miranda DR (35mm slr, removable pentaprism viewfinder)
• 1968 Olympus PEN EE-2 (35mm (half frame), selenium exposure meter)
• 1974 Minox EL (supposedly the smallest full frame 35mm camera ever made)
• 1986 Minolta 5000 AF (an ugly and unwieldy autofocus 35mm slr)

Also, some extra accesoires: a Gossen Sixtar exposure meter, a Vivitar 135mm for the Miranda and 2 flashes.

An abandoned spinning mill, this one will be demolished soon. It's quite a big complex of buildings, mostly empty, but the atmosphere is nice.