Very nice pictures. I wonder when my son will come home with a girl friend like that.

Stunning! I wanted to ask about that blue background as well, but now I'm not going to...

Beautiful psychedelic spring you have over there. In comparison we always have the same boring yellow and white spring colors - or so it seems? Nice pictures and wonderdul bokeh !

Thanks everyone. Much appreciated.
Benny

Hi all,
I finally sold the old Epson Perfection 1240 scanner and splashed out for a V600. I couldn't justify a V700 or V750, since I do not shoot enough. But I'm rather happy with the results so far.
Here is a first trial scan from an old Rolleiflex neg.
My scanning talents are pretty limited, so let me know what you think. Here's my flow for this image :
I scanned as a b/w negative at 400dpi, chose 16bit gray as 'target' and moved the black and white triangles in the pre-scan histogram inwards before hitting final 'scan'.
In PSE9 I then increased the contrast, tweaked levels again and finally sharpened somewhat. I uploaded to both flickr and photobucket, but found that the image is crisper on flickr (?)
I also did some tests scanning this negative as a color neg and then fiddling around in channel mixer (a free plug-in which I downloaded, because this is not available in PSE). I also tried Vuescan (a free trial version), but those scans looked softer and needed more tweaking, especially in terms of contrast and sharpening. Does that make sense to you, or is it my limited scanning ability...? Thanks for your ideas.
Rgds,
Benny

You're right Larry. At first I thought it was a word in Hebrew, but indeed it would fit perfectly in the Da Vinci Code... The more I look at the picture, the more jaleous I become! Kudos.

Hi lil, that's the kind of picture i'd like to have made myself.

I had a great brithday indeed, thank you all. These two gifts to myself were the cherry on the cake I guess.
here's a picture of the Nikkor and Petri (the F2AS was NOT included for the 10 bucks!). You can just distinguish the two nicks in the black paint of the lens focusing ring, otherwise it's
perfect as you can see.

Thanks all.
Phil, I have indeed been busy with a new addiction : I'm trying to squeeze something out of my new Fender Strat but I promised myself to finally start using some of the photo gear I have accumulated. If that old promise can be held at last, I should be able to post on a more regular basis here, hehe... :rolleyes:
Meanwhile I have checked the Petri : everything seems to work fine. Even the meter works. I understand that this camera was conceived for 1.35V mercury batteries which are now obsolete. The 1.5V battery seems to throw the meter off at least two stops. That should be easily corrected by adjusting the film speed dial a step or two. I think it's a wonderful little camera : compact and solidly built (as opposed to most other Petris). Firm controls are all in reach of your right index finger : shutter speed dial (limited range though : B-1/250th), stepless (!) aperture dial, battery test button, release button and the focusing wheel next to the VF, which also retracts the lens after use, blocking the release button. It also came with the wrist strap and the original soft pouch + a non-original metal screw in front lens cap.
What I also like is that they managed to offer something better and more interesting than the simple and cheapish zone focusing cameras of the time : a distance scale in the VF with an indicator needle moving over that scale when the lens is focused. Adding a complicated and fragile rangefinder system would have made the camera more expensive and bigger and would have had a narrow measuring base due to the small size of the camera. I really must put a film in this gem.
The Nikkor is also wonderful : perfect glass and iris blades, and just two very tiny nicks in the black paint of the focusing ring. It looks like it has been used very little - it must have belonged to a guy like me...

Friends, well it was indeed a great day today. Luck was on my side for once for what concerns finding great photo items at ridiculous prices. Some people have reported here that they were given a Leica for free, or found a Hassy in the neighbour's trash can, or bought a Rolleiflex for 2 dollars and three peanuts. Well, today I bought a AIS Nikkor 50mm F1.4 for just 8 Euros (about 10 dollars?) at the thrift shop near the office and it is in excellent condition. It's not a Leica nor a Hasselblad, but good enough for me to call a great find.
Then when I got home after work the postman had brought the Petri Color 35 that I 'won' on evilbay for just USD50.00 + shipping and that was in great shape too (thanks to a great evilbay seller : Cameraman122 from Midland, Michigan in the Ustited Nates). I had been eyeballing these cute little cameras for a long time, but they always go for more (too much ?) than what I paid for this one. I think this was a fair price. So, not a bad day I would say, no?

Great pictures. Unbelievably sharp coming from an Apotar lens. You get far better results from your Isolette than I ever did from mine. Hmm, must try again. Your technique is certainly superior to mine.
Thanks for sharing this.

Jeez, Mark, those are absolutely beautiful and inspiring. They would indeed look great on every wall, f. ex. on large square canvas, unframed. Or on large & very shiny photo paper.

Don't worry - I can send you some other clickers to fill the empty spaces. D'you think she will notice? Let me see... a Diana? A Yashica or two perhaps? Ooh, no wait... a couple of Minolta's?
I'll tell my wife that I've always had that Hassy and that I'm pleasantly surprised that she finally shows an interest in the names on my cameras.

Goodness gracious, these are sharp. Nice pictures and a darn good scanner that is!

Now that looks very cool ! The form reminds me of the Nikon AF adaptor to use certain manual focus lenses on the early AF bodies.