I've been looking for a large camera bag to carry the 5x7 Burke and James and have been looking at the CourierWare bag and camera insert. I lost an eBay auction last night for a large CourierWare bag because I had to be away from the computer at the end of the auction and it went for $20.50. I started the bidding at $9.99 and my high bid was $20. Mine was the only bid 20 minutes before the end when I had to leave. It was a Super Deluxe bag that sells new for $115. Rats! I think I actually used a harsher term.

It was a mixed loss because after I had made my bid I discovered sources for other courier/messenger bags. Check out the modern messenger bag - a short (and probably somewhat flawed) history. It includes a bag manufacturers page. They can carry a lot of camera gear and they are also handy if you ride bicycles.

But my dissapointment at losing the bag (there are many others) was overcome by scoring a clip-on light meter at Rangefinder Forum. There was a Trading Equipment post that I responded to *very* quickly and my flying fingers on the keyboard secured an old Sekonic L-136 Clip-on Light Meter for three rolls of 120 XP2 ($7.17 from B&H), which I happened to have in my refrigerator.

I asked how accurate it was an this was the reply:
"I checked it against my Sekonic L-158, and it was real close. It also has an adjustment screw on the underside. That way you can zero it. It also has exposure compensation abilities. +-2 And a high and low range. The shoe can be moved to different positions to clear camera parts. Pretty sharp looking little meter. I threw in an extra 675 zinc-air battery."

All the clip-on meters that I know about are selenium cell which are not very good in low light levels. This meter is a battery powered meter and will work well at lower light levels and will look quite nice on my FED 2 and Flexarets. Score! Truly a sweet meter. As a reference, Cameraquest has a battery powered clip-on meter, the only one I know of, for $159.

Update:
Blaine told me about some darkroom gear at Senior Thrift that wasn't out on the floor so I went down and picked up a Gray-Lab timer for $18 and a couple of safe lights for $3.50 each. The gathering of darkroom equipment has started.