Yashica ML 50 1.4, and Soligor 200 3.5

The body just followed the lens. Stuck aperture. Damn. Can't get the rear off, need better screw drivers.

Yashica SLRs like this are pretty much the "discount" brothers of Contax. Same mount.

Wierd looking leather?`Yeah, it pealed easier than a 3 week overdue banana - apparently they all had this feature. So now its more like suede.

Peek-a-boo

Not a high end item by as such, but it is still one of my favorite lenses. The feel and look is hard to beat in my book. Performs lovely optically as well. Love the machined focus ring. Need to locate a MD to Nikon adaptor...

Contax 137MD

I really don't feel like going into detail about who Contax are, and what their products are like - the rest of the internet is more than capable of that. But there is no doubting that even their non-pro bodys are very very  well engineered.

The 137MD mounted with a Carl Zeiss 85mm 1.4 Planar T.

Walking around with this combination, just adds to my arsenal of objects that are equally capable of delivering stunning photos, and bodily damage. Massive, mega, epic...

Another group shot

Double the fun or double the worries - anyhow, here are the latest seven additions to the collection:

Rear from left to right: Chrome Minolta X-300, Black Minolta X-300, "beater" Konica TC.
Front from left to right: Minolta SRT101, Contax 137MD, Yashica FX-D, "yum" Konica TC.

The SRT101 was as mentioned before a added bonus when I bought the chrome X-300. The two new TC's were bought together, the beater is mounted with a 35-70 zoom and I honestly just use this for idle hands, sometimes in the couch. (loony bin here I come) So I now have two functional TC's, but this latest "yum" addition has a somewhat smoother action, so this might become the leader of the Konica pack. The Yashica was bought for the lens - which turned out to be a bit of a lemon. Easy come, easy go. More close ups after the break. 

Negative

Negative is the mood, when ones negatives are scratched... 8 rolls of film, all are scratched to the point where it is near impossible to scan them without seeing the shabby handywork of whatever ill-trained non-motivated beeping beep, processed them. So I'm changing the photo shop, and am actually thinking about shooting a "banker" roll and handing that in first, before I let them touch the pictures I'm actually looking forward to seeing.

The joy of using a medium most people don't give a crap about anymore. 

Someone had fun.

What would any sain person do, when faced with a non functional piece of equipment? Fix it. What if said piece of equipment, wasn't really worth the time and effort needed to fix it? Answer A is throw it in the bin. Answer B is find the original service manual, and strip the poor thing to the bone.

I give you, answer B - or "what was once a Minolta XG-M"

... and afterwards you bin it.

Quite an interesting journey. Don't know how I'm going to attach the pentaprism to my car keys, but I'll figure something out.