Marja-Leena is a printmaker who lives a little over three hours north of me, in British Columbia (check out her link.) She is a regular reader and has been following my buying binge of obsolete cameras. She read my post on my "new" old 5x7 view camera, saw my interest in large cameras, and offered me this one...

It's an Agfa-Gevaert Repromaster with a 16x20 vacuum back. All I had to do was come up to Vancouver and pick it up. Well, it would actually take a couple of people in addition to myself to pick it up. I was sorely tempted. Really sorely tempted. But I caved in to reality and passed on it. They need the space and the Repromaster is just going to be thrown out. Printmakers used to use cameras like this to make large negatives for printmaking (non-photographic prints). You know the term "camera-ready art"? This is the camera. Now it's all digital. Kind of sad. I wish I could have picked it up. If it was on horizontal rails I might have gone for it. Then I could have done still lifes on 16x20 film for contact prints. Maybe someday.

But I did ask Marja-Leena if I could have the lenses for my view cameras and she said I could! Yesterday she took them out and emailed me: "One lens is 5.6/150 and the other is 9/120 - made by Schneider-Kreuznach." I don't know yet just what model they are and just what they cover but they will be great lenses. They are barrel lens without shutters but that is only a minor problem. I'm very excited to be getting them. Many thanks to Marja-Leena for this help!

But wait! There's more! Yesterday morning, while going through the posts at Rangefinder Forum, I found someone who wants to trade a Jupiter 9 for some film. The Jupiter 9 is a Russian 85mm f2 lens for Leica thread mount cameras like my FED 2. I've been wanting one but they generally go for over $100. This was an extra lens he had and would let it go for $30 worth of film. It needs some relubing but the glass is good. I recently bought 23 rolls of Fuji 120 roll film on eBay for a good price so I was able to trade $30 worth of film retail that I paid $13.10 for. I'm turning into a wheeler dealer.

My photography kit nears completion.