Month: January 2024

–Leica M10-R came in. Scuffs on base plate, occasional hairline elsewhere. The Leica Sync app said 26 shutter actuations; who knows? Wrote to seller, asked for refund. They’ll refuse. Could open a case, could just buy another base plate ($300), try to transfer the label from this one, and sell the camera, along with 17 others. I have problems. The focus magnification in live view is okay, but I vastly prefer doing it through the viewfinder–not possible on a Leica rangefinder. Don’t know whether to go back to the SL2, or sell that and go back to the Sony, or just give up on high-megapixel cameras and go with CL and D-Lux 7.

–Tried to reconcile finances. Seems that a CD at CIT Bank I thought would mature in 5/24 (12 months from purchase) is actually a 6-month CD, which must have matured in November 2023. I got no notice, though, so I don’t really know what’s going on. Will call them tomorrow.

–Crap.

–Went to Dr. Taylor, ophthalmologist. Big scare the last time much reduced today. Both retinas seem more or less normal. Will need to keep taking Latanoprost forever, though, to keep the pressure down. Same with erythromycin ointment for blepharitis, though only occasional use needed, not nightly. Got some Cequa (cyclosporine) samples and (hopefully) a prescription. We’ll see. (heh heh)

–Verizon restricted Grace’s phone for some reason, likely related to my debit card expiration. Only three levels of chat needed to restore.

–Cleaned the sink at the espresso station. It gleams now.

–Slow day. Looked at a lot of toaster ovens on eBay.

–Dropped off the old Macbook trade-in at FedEx.

–Right hearing battery died around 5 PM (6 days). Replaced batteries around 6 PM.

–Leitz 35mm/f2 lens came in. A tiny bit stiff in focusing, so I started to take it apart, then realized all videos I had seen (3-4) dealt only with the optics and shutter blades, not the helicoid. So, I put it back together. Takes a fine picture, but I’m not big on focus tabs, as you know.

–Sun came out today.

–Janesville arbor press came in. Heavy, smooth; it did take some setting up. Pressed down the detent ball on my newest (really stiff) Shamwari, and it worked. It took like 4-5 stages with decreasing feeler gauges, and lots of pressure, but it did work. As I think about it, using a hammer and punch might be better: the ball might rather be shocked down than eased.

–Yet another crappy drizzly day.

–Lunch at Burger King, shopping at KP and Target, Red Baron for dinner.

–Removed my presence from the old Mac and got it boxed for return.

–Played with the new Mac. Pretty impressive. Capture One works pretty well on it, so I bought it ($300–yikes!). Much more customizable than any other editor I’ve used.

–Pan pizza for dinner. Not bad, but not my best.

–Picked up the new Mac M3 at UPS. System transfer took 30 minutes, and the new machine is a 100% clone of the old machine. Downloaded and played with ON1 photo editor, which was horribly slow on old machine. Works great on new one. Bought it.

–Yet another dreary day, with .01″ of rain.

–Bought another Reg Barber yellow tamper. Can’t believe I tossed the one I had. Oh well…

–Rain off and on all day.

–Took apart Leica 50mm f2 lens to ake it a little smoother-focusing. Can’t get it back together of course, and haven’t yet found a video for this lens. Oh well…

–Cleaned up Christmas stuff a little.

–Got the Honda washed (finally) at Folsom Car Wash. Good job. Might be the first time it’s been washed in Sacramento.

–Tried out the “new” toaster oven with a bagel. Worked okay, burnt a little on the inside part.

–Took Grace shopping at the new Grocery Outlet in the commercial center within Sunrise and Coloma. Nice new store, beautifully stocked, but they didn’t have much to tempt us. Probably won’t go back.

–Lunch at Jasper’s. Youngish Hispanic-looking couple running it, no sign of former staff.

–Haircut at Great Clips. Brittany again (after a couple with others, not nearly as good). Will have to mark the next one on the calendar, as she only works Mon-Tue-Wed.

–Picked up GE toaster oven. Kind of cheaply made (to my surprise), but it might work for bagels.

–Went to UPS and picked Swarovski crystals I don’t remember ordering and two shaving brushes: Paladin and Rudy Vey. Neither grabbed me, so into the closet they go.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Covered the bird of paradise and Kenny’s succulents with perlite in an attempt to keep the squirrels from digging up the soil.

–Helped Frank the gutter guy unclog Sherry’s downspout. Tough work, but it’s clean now.

–Red Baron pepperoni pizza for dinner.

–Went to UPS to pick up Zeiss Biotar 58 f2 lens. Seems to be pretty sharp–much better than the “new” Helios 44-2, which I’ll trash. I was reminded that I cannot use this lens on the M9, as it won’t couple with the rangefinder. It will work with an M that has live view, which I’m considering.

–Scary stuff: Was searching yesterday for M10 Leicas at the Leica Miami Store, as recommended at reddit. I somehow got redirected to a site called leicaous.com (Leica Online US), where all Leicas were available cheap. I thought I bought one with the Heritage credit card, but nothing came through. Turns out leicaous is a copycat site that somehow intercepted my search and tried to sell me stuff. Turns out NOBODY has Leica 10-Rs for sale in black paint or even black charcoal. The cheapest silver one (new) is around $6,200 from Hong Kong, and the cheapest used black paint ones are $9,000 (leicaous had them for $6,100). Scary stuff–just hoping they didn’t steal my CC number to sell it.

–Took Grace shopping at Koreana Plaza.

–Played with knives, with some success.

–Took the Beemer to pick up coffee at Black Sails. Sweet car. Trying to deodorize it now with activated charcoal.

–Bought a Leica M10-R from the Miami Leica store (based on a recommendation on reddit). Free shipping, no tax–eBay is fast becoming a last, not a first, resort.

–One more dreary day.

–Made another sheet pan pizza, with Jack cheese this time. Not great.

–Big recycling toter got swapped in today.

–Revived Affinity Photo. Removed most fluff from most menus. Develop is the only persona I need now, with a keyset command for Export. It is blazingly fast (not necessarily because of my customization), MUCH faster than Lightroom, which was turning on my computer fan and being extremely sluggish with big Leica SL2 photos. Don’t know why it took so long for me to do this.

–Started cleaning up Christmas stuff.

–Took a look at Sherry’s downspout that’s leaking on our fence. Got the snake to where it goes underground (I think), but no further. She’ll have her gutter guy come out to take a look at it.

–Slow day. Made a sheet pan pizza from a recipe in the Cooks Illustrated book. Not bad, not great.

–Another dismal, dank, cold day, with not enough rain to make it worthwhile.

–Played with knives, had amazing success getting many Shams to open easily, close hydraulically. Opening seemed mostly a function of lockbar pressure (I don’t have my spiffy new arbor press yet to play with detent ball height); while closing was related to pivot tightness.

–Played with knives, mostly. Discovered the little arbor press I got (220 pounds) was not enough for detent balls. Ordered a 1 ton press (with ram stop) from Amazon. That will work.

–Took Grace to Dr. Firoz–no news. Took us both to the dentist. Grace had a cleaning, I had a filling and crown (started). Pretty uncomfortable.

–Proxxon arbor press came in. Nicely made (especially for the price). Tried it on a hard-to-open Shamwari detent ball, and it worked! I could feel the ball moving in (which was scary, actually). Highlights the need for a very smooth rack and pinion mechanism, so you can feel the knife, not the machine.

–Bad news in the neighborhood: homeless guys sitting in front of Bel Air and Rite-Aid, and further mailbox tampering in Miners Village. Crap.

–Picked up Swarovski crystals at UPS: too small I think.

–Tried to sort out all my cameras. Did okay. Just missing the box for the D-Lux 7. Can’t imagine it came without one (it came with a manual), but I sure don’t see it.

–Went to Target with Grace for sundries. I had breakfast (and bought a dozen bagels) at the nearby Bagel Cafe (formerly New York Bagels, I’m pretty sure). Still run by Asians, likely the future source of bagels.

–Played with cameras again. Resurrected the Leica C-Lux, which I had forgotten I had. Heckuva camera: 20 megapixels and huge zoom range. Seems to take a decent picture. I guess I had gone with the D-Lux 7 because of its low-light lens (f1.7)–not something one really needs much on a point-and-shoot zoom camera. Also: After looking at (and getting dangerously close to buying) a Canon 1 DS or DX, I looked anew at the 5D Mark II I have. Turns out it has 20 megapixels, not the 6 or so I had thought.  Also read up on the 50mm 1.4 lens on that camera: seems to be a dog. Put an offer at eBay on a Tamron 45mm that got high marks at reddit for its auto focus and shapness. Hoping that will turn the 5D into a really nice vintage digital camera.

–Pizza for dinner: Grace’s instant pot meal didn’t firm up.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels. Cinnamon, blueberry, sourdough cheese garlic, everything, cheese—not a plain bagel in sight.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Another dank day.

–Played with cameras some more. Finally discovered that the red cast on Leica D-Lux 7 pics came from the “cloudy” white balance setting. I set it on AWB-C (cool) and it seems good. So D-Lux 7 is back in, X Vario is out.