30 July 2014

aaaaaaaand we're back

Now that internet has been added to our new estate, I can tell you what's new!  

Well -- we moved.
 That's it really, all our energy has gone there. 

In other news,  the 18-55WR was sitting on the porch when we arrived; also, the SMC 30mm arrived from Great Britain.  So that's it for a while for inbound gear. Well not quite: while we were away I won a bid on a telescope platform that lets just about anything track the stars, so that's kinda nice. Actually it nearly renders the O-GPS1 redundant as an Astro-Tracer, and at about the same price! We shall see how that all plays out. In the meantime, back to unpacking.

Oh yes, the view. Very nice in the daytime (Rainier, Goat Rocks, St.Helens, trees) and very nice at night (Milky Way &c &c).  In a couple of years the mountains will be a memory as the trees stubbornly insist on getting taller... but some will shed and allow peeking in the winter.
Peace and quiet abound, unless you count bird songs as annoying; we don't.

16 July 2014

1 for the road

Reporting from our camp trailer via tablet --

Deals come and go, and almost by definition they come at a 'bad' time.  This rule was evident as I found deals on two Pentax lenses: an original mid-'70s k-mount 30mm f2.8 (from England!) and a newish foulweather 18.55wr!  These deals decisively close my wheeling & dealing window for the forseeable future (for me that's maybe 2 weeks).

Oh yes, also picked up an OGPS1 attachment for my K-5: not because I care about where I am to within 10' but so I can image the stars while the module tells the camera's sensor to compensate for Earth's rotation.  Cool!

Primes: k17 a24 k30 40Ltd a50macro m85 tak105, m200, tak300 (all Pentax), hanimar 400 
Zooms: 18'55, 18'250, 100'300 plus a few others..

13 July 2014

shut up & move!

Blog time will be reduced now as we shift locations in the coming two weeks.  I'm sitting in our rental house thanks to the new owners, and the New Place has shifted to closing in the coming week.  We may have a gap of several days but a new camp-trailer will suffice; in fact it will do nicely, as it has a/c and this early hot spell finds us with nothing but fans at the old place!

One other bit of interesting timing has occurred: an smc-M 85mm f/2 came up for bid and I won.  It arrived yesterday and appears to be a typically excellent sample, and wow it's compact!  The smc-M series was like that yet it's still a surprise, and yet again shows how the HD and DA70/2.4 in modern days could be made so small.  It's all about practice.

Signing off, for a while!