David Pitkin

I have wanted to go to “Photographica,” the camera show that the Photographic Historical Society of New England (PHSNE) has put on for a few years. I knew it used to be in Waltham and after an email from a friend I was reminded to look up where it was this year. It was in Watertown, and by a twist of fate I was in Boston this morning with some time to kill. Talking to a few characters there I learned a bunch about some of the rangefinder cameras that I want. I almost bought a Leica IIIg for a reallly good deal but the lack of a built in meter scared me. Here is a table full of lenses.

The large format cameras and collectable Leica camera systems were the most interesting for me to stare at and there were a lot of them there. The table the most people were talking about was a guy who had about 3 full folding tables full of lenses and 35mm SLR bodies for 5 dollars each, they were all being sold as-is, it was wild.

This

was the one table with the really fancy modern stuff like a 500mm fast lens.

I did buy two things and spent a grand total of 20 dollars.

• A replacement film winding lever for my Minolta SRT-201
• A 50mm F1.9 Minolta lense for 5 bucks!

It was great! I hope that next time I have a rangefinder and can buy a new lens.