Category: Uncategorized (Page 10 of 29)

–Finally heard back from Leica Parts. They won’t sell me a vertical adjuster cap, but rather want me to send the camera to New Jersey.

–Got the Sony out again, and figured out how to do magnified focus. Took photos on front and back patios. Breathtaking sharpness in both auto and manual focus modes. I sort of knew this would happen, given the gorgeous photos I got in La Selva Beach, but still, it sure puts the whammy on Leica M’s. There’s now zero reason to use them, except for nostalgia and snob appeal. I may keep the M-E to kind of “go with” the old Contax and Canon SLR’s; we’ll see. [edit] Well, tried the M-E and the Sony on my night shot. M-E sucked, likely because of the “king of bokeh” lens I had on it. And as it turns out, the Sony–like the Visoflex 2–is almost impossible to focus at night. It might improve with practice, or by focusing on something other than a globe light, but I’m thinking Sony for daytime, many lenses manually focused; and Hodinkee for night. Maybe. [edit 10] Screwed everything up. Tried to put the M10-P silver screw on the Hodinkee. It came off trivially earlier today. Tonight it did that horrible tilt/tighten thing, and would not come off for love or money. Ruined the camera; will toss. The screw on the Hodinkee is JUST passable for sale, I hope. There is no screw on the M10-P Safari. Guess I’ll put a sticker on it for sale. Those screws are awful. Will look (I guess) for an M10-R black, and hope it is vertically aligned.

–Got the rest of my refund back on the Reporter from eBay–in spades. eBay definitely knew this transaction on digree’s part was bogus.

–Went biking with Tom Elken around some of the newer housing developments in El Dorado Hills.

–Went to Costco for muffins, gas ($5.16/gallon), toilet paper. Also got grapes and apples.

–Found a Leica M10-P Reporter on eBay. Put the photos into Lightroom and could not find a single flaw. Almost put a best offer on it, but went riding. Later, while researching it (seeing how much I paid for the first one, etc.), I noticed that the seller had deducted 10% ($1,285) from the refund on the first one. It took me a while to realize what had happened–I’ve never seen this before and didn’t know it was even possible for a seller to refund less than full price. Turns out the asshole claimed I put additional fingerprints on the tape on the inner box, which “greatly devalued” the camera. eBay, almost as if they knew this was bogus, had a large “Open a Case” rectangle nearby. So I opened a case. Seems to me like a no-brainer, but I’ve been outfoxed before on eBay. Oh—it turns out there are two Reporters listed now on eBay, neither by digree. One is at $13k (above), the other at $22k. When I finally compared photos of the cheaper one to the one I bought, I discovered they’re the same camera. Ditto for the $22k one. I repeat: serious manipulation in Lightroom showed zero marks of any kind on the camera. I do believe these pics were taken before someone put that faint rub mark on the top. Dodged a bullet there, and MAY get a full refund.

–Picked up coffee at Black Sails.

–Went shopping at Target for eggs, milk, cream cheese, Zone Perfect bars, deodorant.

–Slow day. Windy, cool. Plants are looking good.

–Took the second “plant picture” with the Hodinkee. Lightroom blowups showed horrible jaggies. Took two more pics, with Hodinkee and M11. Both were much better (bad focus first time?), with the M11 having an edge even though it set ISO at 2000 (Hodinkee was the usual 800). Will likely move to the M11. Forced max ISO to 800, which seems to work on other Ms. Will test with another street photo tonight. [edit] Well, so much for that idea. M11’s first two pics had shutter speeds of 1 and .5 seconds. I ran the max auto ISO back up to 2000 and under-exposed by one full stop. The shutter speed was .25s, but the pic was totally over-exposed: the globe lights blew out everything, and could not be “highlighted” down. It almost HAS to be something I’m doing wrong, but I sure can’t figure out what. I suppose I could go full manual and set shutter speed, but what a pain. [edit 2] Tried again, all manual, same settings as the M10 successful night pic. It was better, but (a) not great, and (b) for some reason, the camera only wrote the jpg correctly–the DNG file was corrupt and showed nothing. I guess I give up on the M11. [edit 17] Tried the Hodinkee again on auto, got a totally good pic. [edit 129] GOT IT! Read up on M11 overexposure at Leica forum. It’s a known issue. Solutions are several, two of which I tried with good success: (1) There’s an exposure setting called Highlight Weighted Metering, which does what its name implies. (2) Use Spot metering and Live View. Aim at the brightest light, half-press the shutter, recompose, and (if LV looks okay) take the picture. Not as automatic as M10, but I really should be using Live View (and/or the EVF) more anyway. No guessing.

–Played with cameras again (duh). Trying to see if I can live with the M-P 240 Safari, since it’s new and green.

–Took Grace to Smiles on Sunrise, then Koreana Plaza. Had lunch there; not bad.

–Pizza for dinner.

–Dark and rainy today.

–2mm ball end hex driver came in from Amazon–two, in fact. (?)

–Bought a Leica M10-P silver (used) at M&K Camera Hong Kong. Good price, hope it’s nice and can replace the Hodinkee. Compared Hodinkee with mt M11 tonight, on the light across the street. Hod took a nice photo. M11 looked like it was horribly over-exposed–I couldn’t even begin to recover the globe light. Turns out Hod was 1/30 ISO 800; M11 was 1/30 ISO 3200. I think I’ve seen that before on the M11. It’s like Leica said “The camera takes great shots at high ISO, so we’ll max out ISO when we can and show Sony a thing or two.” I know the odds are good I’m misusing the M11 (people take great shots with it, after all), but I tried hard to set the cameras up identically. Total bummer, as the M11 feels so good in hand.

–Returned the crappy Leica TL from eBay.

–Tried hard again to like the M-P 240 Safari. Couldn’t. With everything set up identically, the 240 over-exposed the bright leaves in several patio pics; the Hodinkee did not. Minimum Leica: M10. [edit] Took another great night shot with the Hodinkee. Still in a quandary regarding keeping or selling it. Found a shop in Hong Kong with FOUR M10-Ps between $5,100 and $5,400 (U.S. stores/eBay are mostly $7,000+, plus taxes). (The M10-P is the only M10 worth considering, as it’s the only one with a screw cover for vertical alignment). BUT all M10-Ps available today are second hand, may have marks, have unknown shutter count, etc. I guess I just enjoy the Hodinkee and consider a mint Safari if one comes up.

–Was working on the Hodinkee cover screw in the garage. Dropped it. It hit the bench, then went to the floor and COMPLETELY disappeared. Exactly like the Fellow Ode spring a couple days ago. This is simply beyond belief.

–Picked up Nitecore charger for dead Hodinkee original battery. It showed some numbers, later said “Full,” but it was still dead as a doornail. Tried a few more cycles in the Leica and Nitecore chargers, no change. This was supposed to be the “improved” version of the Nitecore, but it’s not worth crap if it flashes some numbers and then calls a dead battery full.

–Leica TL (allegedly Top Mint) finally got here. Also a piece of crap, with scratches dings and chips all over. Started a return at eBay.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Played with cameras. Decided to keep just an M9 for now, so did a showdown of  four of them. No marked differences; will keep the nice anthacite M-E: low shutter count, nice images, very nice body. Re-re-re-learned that one shouldn’t attend to jpg’s from M9s, as they are known to be weird. (I have noticed this myself: in all of my other cameras, jpg’s and DNG’s are identical in XnView. They are starkly different  coming out of M9s, which likely accounts for (a) all the hoopla in forums about M9 colors, and (b) how over-saturated the greens seemed in my early M9 patio pics.) [edit] Okay, hold everything. Tried a night pic of the house across the street with the M-E, as done many times before. With the Voiglander lens at 1.2, the street light just blew everything away, beyond all recovery in Lightroom. Grrrr…..] [edit 2] Dug out the Hodinkee for the 8th time and took two more pics–with Summilux and Voigtlander. Summilux was a little better (less glow around the globe light), but both ere perfectly exposed. Try as I might, I can’t seem to get rid of the Hodinkee. It’s likely any M10 would be as good, but: do I want to make the Black Paint a daily user? Buy a $6k lens for it? Get a new M10 and a $6k lens? Arrggghhhh…]

–P.S. As of yesterday, my back is all of a sudden 90% good. It’s beyond my comprehension: comes in an instant, lasts for a week, two weeks, six weeks, then goes away almost overnight.

–Tried the M-P 240 Safari again. It just did not seem to want to meter correctly, and (I was reminded) it shows these flashing clipped highlights in Play mode. I could probably get rid of them, but. So brought back the Hodinkee. It takes some pretty spiffy pictures. Might be the lens, I don’t know. [edit] Found out how to fix Play on the Safari. Did a showdown between Safari 240 and Hodinkee. Hodinkee wins. Incredible lens, 3 buttons on the back (as opposed to 5-6), LCD screen more modern, can use Visoflex 2, no Advanced vs. Classic metering,  etc. [edit 2] Another showdown between the Hodinkee and the M11, both using the 35mm f1.4 FLE lens. Photos were close, but again, Hodinkee rules. Can’t hardly understand it. Hodinkee did 1/30 ISO 800, while M11 did 1/320 ISO 3200. Why does M11 run the ISO up so high? And the house number was almost readable on the Hodinkee, while you could hardly tell there was a number with the M11. Strange, and I guess I’ll just have to get used to the gray paint.

–Got a (small) start on reorganizing/cleaning up the garage. Exhausted.

–Pizza for dinner.

–Sharpened the new CKF on the Wicked Edge. Pretty good.

–Yet another cool, dark, drizzly day.

–Set up auto-pay for state and federal taxes.

–Played with cameras. Still don’t know what I want.

–Another gray and misty day.

–Bought fruit and cheese at Koreana Plaza.

–Discovered (to my glee) that the vertical rangefinder alignment was off on the Reporter. So I requested a refund, using that and the scratch in the top plate as excuses. The seller offered me a $100 refund. I said no thanks, just get me your address. Meanwhile, Progear Cameras in New Zealand has a new Hodinkee M10-P available, and I’m in touch with them regarding shipped price.

–Re-routed drip hoses in the side yard so we don’t keep tripping over (and breaking) the one that crossed the path. As I’ve said before: feeling every inch of 77.

–I have slight evidence (in the form of sleepers) that Restasis might be working. Fingers crossed.

–Leica M10-P Reporter finally came in. Mostly my fault: DHL thought Seward was a company, and that complicated the customs process. Also cost me $62 in duty. Crap. Camera is nice, but has a small mark on the top plate and ~2,450 clicks. Looks like I might be keeping it, as a query to Hodinkee hasn’t been resolved yet (“we’re looking into it,” which likely means “they sold out a while back and we neglected to update the listing”). Listing has been updated now: sold out. I doubt I’m going to get the last one.

–Took a shot at painting the Leica Black Paint bottom cover, after sanding it smooth. It might work.

–Well, so much for M9’s. Took out the M-E for a couple of patio pics at twilight. DNG looked like it was shot through a red filter, jpg through green. Tried the black M9, thinking the M-E had acted up before–got exactly the same results. I really don’t understand the hype behind M9’s.

–Used the 1-ton press and a feeler gauge to improve the action on a Sham by pushing down the detent ball. It worked!

–A dark and drizzly day.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Did a bagel run.

–And not much else.

–Finished and submitted 2023 taxes via TurboTax. They had a state underpayment penalty (Block did not). I think Block may have been accurate, but didn’t feel like getting into a showdown with the state.

–Walked to UPS to pick up Dremel polish. Surprised to see the order did not include buffs. Ordered the buffs (again?) from Widget Supply. Very strange. Stopped at Bel Air for dessert and cheese. Wanted milk, but you cannot buy one quart of milk at Bel Air. Second time I’ve seen this. Inexplicable and very annoying.

–Never satisfied with my Leicas, I looked again at eBay. Noticed (not for the first time) a used M10-P Hodinkee Ghost Edition for $19,000. Nice-looking camera. Searched the web to get a feel for it, found that Hodinkee is selling this new for $15,000. Bought it. Hoping that’s the end. Removable bottom cover, three buttons, 24 megapixels, cool ghost colors. Given its age (2019) and scarcity (250 units) I’m surprised to see it still available new. It better be new…

–Picked up Leica M-P 240 Safari at UPS. Not what I thought it was going to be. Was expecting a sort of M10 (like the one I have with rub marks), but instead it’s a 10-year old camera, just like an M9 with 24MB sensor. It has weird Classic or Advanced Exposure (with Live View), which seems more of a kluge than an advance. It’s flawless cosmetically, but really is just the most advanced M9 (Live View) in green. I can’t see a real niche for it. SL2 and M11 are the only real candidates for “master camera,” and M9 has a spot as a classic with CCD sensor. It’s possible the M10-R BP could be the master, but then M9 would be superfluous, I go back and forth on the BP as user vs. work of art. And then there’s the Reporter coming some day……

–Had a horrible night of diarrhea, after Motor City pizza and a Howard’s Donuts cinnamon roll.

–Slept much of the afternoon.

–Did Federal taxes; owe $828.

–Took the Beemer to Howard’s Donuts (no bagels) and UPS.

–Picked up the “softest” Dremel buff. Looked harsh to me, and shed like crazy for a long time. HOWEVER, with some Crystal Brite polish, it really did seem to get rid of very shallow scratches in the M10-R BP. It left a fair haze, but Meguiar’s Swirl Remover brought everything back to perfect. This might actually work; I’m holding my breath. Also conflicted now on which M to keep: the BP, or the incoming Safari. Tests are in order.

–Tried to finish taxes using the IRS online app. Too many limitations–they can’t do IRA distributions, for example. Bought H&R Block Tax Cut (cheaper than, and works with Turbo Tax) and we’re moving along.

–Took a shower and shave. Used a new Gillette Spoiler blade, after using one for 4-6 shaves. Really nice blade.

–Played with cameras. Will keep only (1) SL2–like the Sony before it, it will take any lens (with adapter) and focus it better than an M with Visoflex 2; (2) M10-P Safari–using the scratched one now, with an “unused” one coming soon. Nice color, last M with the bottom plate, will utilize the Visoflex 2 in a pinch; (3) TL–best design ever, takes fine pictures; (4) C-Lux–huge zoom with incredible sharpness at the far end.

No M9’s for now. Will decide how to use the CL Paul Smith (which kind of overlaps the TL) when it comes back from Leica.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Turned on sprinklers, after fixing issues front back and side.

–Pizza for dinner.

–Lumitime clock came in. Flawless, quiet, not as bright as the one from shermtyv on eBay. Don’t know how he did it.

–Black Leica TL came in. Mint condition, still feeling it out. Not sure it will replace a CL.

–Second Leica D-Lux 7 007 came in. Ultra new. Made the mistake of comparing it (again) to the C-Lux. The C, with its vastly longer zoom and smaller sensor, blew the D out of the water. Oh well…

–Got an appointment (via Firoz referral) at Sacramento Spine and Physical Therapy. For May 1. Oh well…

–Dr. Firoz’s office called with a referral to Sacramento Spine & Physical Therapy.

–Played with cameras and abrasives. Tiny bit of progress, maybe.

–Went to UPS for Rolex crystal (had marks, I tried to polish out, ruined it), rubbing compound (promising), rubber-coated tweezers (nice).

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Daylight Saving started. Stupid.

–Played with cameras. Noticed the M-E is nice-looking. On the other hand, twilight shots between it and the M11 were pretty dramatic: an abutilon bulb on the M-E was a blob, while on the M11 it had decent definition. Do I really need to keep an M9? The bottom plate is retro cool and all, but the camera leaves much to be desired. AND the M10-R has a bottom plate. I’ll probably never decide.

–Played with cameras. Don’t know what I’ll keep. The M10 Black Paint is a beauty, but maybe more of an art object. The Safari is cool, but has a noticeable scratch that the finish won’t allow e to take out. The M11 is lick, but has that spring-loaded battery. First-world problems…

–Made pizza for dinner. Forgot to cut the dough in half. That was one thick pizza. Good though.

–Took the Beemer to Green Acres in Folsom and got an Owari Satsuma semi-dwarf tree. Hoping it produces fruit in less than five years.

–Cleaned up the plants a bit on the back patio.

–Put the meteorite in the electrolysis bucket for several hours. Didn’t seem to do a whole lot. Will continue.

–Leica M10-R came in. Some evidence it had been used as a store demo: it had an old battery and SD card in it. Further, the Leica Sync app showed > 400 shutter actuations. (Same app showed around 620 actuations on the Black Paint M10-R–a keeper for sure.)

–Back started out good, got bad as the day progressed. Neck hurts now too. Crap. Sent a message to Dr. Firoz asking for a referral.

–Picked up yet another Leica M9 at UPS. Very nice, with intact sticker on the bottom (I took it off) and just over 1,000 shutter activations. Each of the black M9s has tiny marks, but I’ll likely stay with today’s; serial number is much higher for one thing. Still don’t know about M9 vs. M10-R.

–I successfully set up an electrolysis rig and ran the Erie Spider skillet through it. Seemed to work fine (there wasn’t much rust on the skillet). Meteorite next.

–Lunch at Jersey Mike’s.

–Picked up Leica M10-R Black Paint at UPS. Marks on top and bottom, not bad but easy to see. Tried to polish some out on top, added some bad scratches (just did that with another camera, can’t remember which). Don’t know if it’s diamond abrasives in the vicinity getting rags or not–actually trying to polish the paint with .5 and 6 micron diamonds didn’t do much of anything. I think I really need to restrict my rag use to the yellow microfibers–or maybe the green shaving towel. Tried some Meguiar’s Swirl Remover, and it may have helped. Ordered another Meguiar’s polish that’s one step coarser, and a soft Dremel buff. There are lots of cameras that could use some polish, the problem being all the knobs and buttons that get in the way.

–Another relapse on my back. This is getting old.

–Picked up the Rolex 931250 at UPS. Not only is it the wrong year (looked like VB on eBay, actually VE), it’s super worn/over-polished, and the clasp doesn’t work well. I gave up, put a strap on the 1680 for now.

–Back pain considerably better on day 12.

–Took a shower and shave. This could be the 4th shave on the Gillette Spoiler blade, and it felt good.

–Day 11 of back pain. A new record (last one, two years ago, resolved in 8 or 9 days).

–Red baron pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–And dot’s about it.

–Went to Smart & Final for ($17) banana muffins; Bel Air for milk, cream cheese, pizza.

–Heard from Tom Elken, who wants to start riding again March 11. We’ll see.

–Well, back to the M11. I might be missing some settings, but test pics on the Safari just don’t look great.

Dilemma: It’s super-hard to focus the Zeiss 85 in the bedroom at night using the Visoflex 2. Similarly with the Biotar. So: maybe one needs an M9 for its history/look, and a CL for lenses that won’t focus on a rangefinder without a Visoflex. Could the built-in EVF of the CL be that much better than a Visoflex on an M11? Maybe.

Later: Turns out the CL viewfinder DOES support nice focusing of Zeiss 85 and Biotar. Will use CL for non-M (i.e. non-rangefinder) lenses, and black M9 for M lenses only. There are a few. Don’t know what I’ll do when the Paul Smith CL comes back. It’s cool and all, but the one I have came new. We’ll see.

–Walked to UPS (!) to pick up the Cheburkov flipper. Nice blade, though it has foggy sections, and the flipper tab is way too small: it’s a pain to open. Crap.

–Got bagels at New York Bagel Cafe.

–Back is bad today; took a Tramadol at 4.

–Back still hurts, a little worse than yesterday. Taking the combo Advil/Tylenol caplets, which don’t seem to have a huge effect.

–Leica M9 (black) came in. Nice enough, 688 shutter actuations, takes fine photos. No box, no accessories except a Leica charger that doesn’t work. Ordered another on eBay ($125 for the Leica name on a $10 charger).

–Noticed that NCIS Hawaii season 3 episode 3 “License to Thrill” was a dead takeoff on the Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze film Point Break: older, super-likeable criminal takes a young police officer under his wing as he’s being investigated. At the end, the criminal jumps out of a plane and disappears forever, similar to Swayze paddling out into killer 30-foot waves.

–Back is better, somewhat. Looked up the previous episode from March 2022: it lasted 8-9 days. So, a few more days of this.

–Bought a Leica M10-P Safari from MPB Camera.

–Back bad all day, always on the verge of spasm.

–Still don’t know jack about photography. Took some bedroom shots to check focusing. The M9s were 1/60, f3, ISO 400. The M11 was 1/320, f 1.4, ISO 2000. What??? The M11, known for low-light capability, opened up the lens, did 10x ISO, then snapped at 1/10th speed. It’s like the M11 is saying “do whatever you have to to use a super fast shutter speed.”

–Back still bad.

–Birds and squirrels are getting more numerous at the feeders, and today a cute brown rat showed up to work on spilled bird seed.

–Back is better, but still not good.

–Did a showdown with the Leica C-Lux and D-Lux 7. C-Lux won: much longer zoom, excellent image quality.

–Back was somewhat bothersome yesterday, and sure enough it blew up overnight. Took a Tramadol this morning (which may not have played well with all my other meds), and napped much of the day.

–Got out the Leica, which I thought was wrecked, and was surprised to see it takes as nice a pic as the M9. Shutter count is > 26,000, but it looks and works fine. I do recall I had to re-calibrate the rangefinder–successfully, it seems.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Saved $35.

–Bought a black M9 on eBay which had its sensor serviced by Kolari. Looking forward to it.

–Went to the dermatology PA. She froze several, asked if I wanted to biopsy a couple. I said let’s wait and see. Made an appointment for three months. Really need to find another dermatology practice.

–Rolex 1680 came in. Disappointing (though not hugely surprising): watch is 1978 while bracelet is 1994; crown guards, while likely unpolished, are not as fat as I had hoped; runs poorly on the Timegrapher: amplitude 200, beat error 0.7ms, timing +23 s/d; caseback has considerable corrosion around the edge. Dial and hands are in good shape, though, and–while I really didn’t notice it–the dial may be blacker than many of this era. And the bezel insert is a gorgeous fade.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Misty day; started raining around 5.

–Made pizza for dinner. So-so.

–Played some more with Leica M9 and M11. Settling on M11: M9 colors are just too saturated; M11 has all the advantages of a newer model–view screen, megapixels, etc.

–Lunch at McDonald’s.

–Walked with Grace to UPS/Bel Air/Rite-Aid.

–Played a lot with M9 and M11. They are strange in precisely opposite ways: the M9 is dark and super-saturated, while the M11 seems over-exposed and under-saturated. I put a new-generation SD card in the M11 (as forums recommend), and it went haywire. Tossed that card. The old style seems to work fine in that camera. Leaning toward keeping the M9 at the moment, though it’s only 18 megapixels. I should probably just go with the SL2, but M’s have their charms.

–Last night they predicted big rain today. We got 2-3 drops and some wind.

–Took a shower and shave. The Gillette Spoiler blade continues to impress.

–Mailed Amelia’s birthday present.

–CIT Bank account is closed, money moved over to Heritage. Will likely re-move some to Ally for better interest rates.

–Played with cameras. Still having a hard time deciding between the SL2 and the M11. Bought a Visoflex viewfinder for the M11 that will pretty much turn it into an SL2. We’ll see.

–Picked up coffee from Black Sails.

–Played with cameras. Actually boxed up the M11 because the SL2 was so much easier to focus–thought the M11 had some rich colors. Then did a test in late afternoon, same lens wide open on both cameras (Summicron 35/f2). The SL2 used an ISO of 25,000, compared to 2,500 for the M11, and the difference in noise was striking. I’d heard the M11 sensor was good in low light, but a factor of 10 was really surprising. Back to M11.

–Motor City pizza for the Super Bowl.

–Picked up thick floss at UPS.

–Went to the dentist. Three cavities filled, crown needed, but I’ve already used up 2024’s max reimbursement. So he’ll check it in August when I’m getting (and paying $174 for) a cleaning, maybe do the crown in 2025. This is ridiculous.

–Stopped at UPS. Picked up Aquasonic flosser. Totally useless: The built-in tank on this hand-held unit holds enough water to floss for less than 10 seconds. I had to refill it twice to even approximate a thorough flossing. Dumped it, bordered a tank-based Waterpik. Nokton lens came. Beauty. Leica M11 came. Also a beauty. The standard shots I took of Froggy the Gremlin are incredibly dense and rich. The rangefinder seems easier to use (may be bigger/brighter), and live view focusing works, but it’s not magic. Will take some practice.

–My eyes are feeling almost moist for the first time in a long time, as though the Restasis were working. Hope so.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Spent > $200 for not a ton of groceries.

–Painted the Leica “soft touch” shutter button with Krylon black lacquer. Came out fine, but not as glossy as I had hoped.

–Another rainy day.

–While trying (and failing) to use a diamond-loaded strop to hone a Shamwari, I put a couple of large scratches on the blade rubbing it with a cloth that had picked up some diamonds. Tried half-heartedly to save the blade, but ruined it. This was the Shamwari that came with issues, was “repaired” by Bull, and re-anodized by Ted Rooney. Good riddance.

–Frozen dinners tonight.

–Went to the dentist for “cleaning.” One month after 2 crowns and a cavity, 2 more cavities (one of which may need a crown) and filling replacement. Grrr…

–Put gas in the Honda.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Red Baron for dinner.

–Rain and wind all day. Back gate blew open, breaking the tree branch with the bungee cord. I put three bungee cords around the tree trunk; it’s holding.

–Was reminded again that the M9 won’t focus with adapted lenses that don’t couple with the rangefinder–Biotar and Zeiss 85mm, for example. They would focus on the M11 using live view, but not in the viewfinder. Decided (for now, as usual) to go with the CL, which offers magnified viewfinder focus for any lens, native or adapted. Hoping the Paul Smith CL is as mint as was claimed in the eBay ad.

–Took a shower and shave. N of 1, but the Gillette Spoiler blade that came with a razor was pretty darn nice.

–Picked up leather strop at UPS. Quick test did nothing. Also got the third GE toaster oven. This one is in extremely nice shape AND IT WORKS! With a bell even when toast is done.

–Cleaned up paperwork, scuba stuff. Did some quick testing of small Leicas. The 007 D-Lux 7 seems fine compared with another D-Lux 7 and a C-Lux.

–Picked up the chromed Tekna regulators from Sherm’s. Nice work. Spent a LONG time this evening putting them together–lots of free-flow issues. Had to use parts from the eBay plastic Tekna that came in today–body was cracked, but innards were okay. Lost a circlip.

–Second set of Jubilee links for the Datejust came from Wholesale Outlet on eBay. Like the first, they didn’t fit. Might have to give up.

–Took the Beemer to Hooverville Orchards to get jam and pastries.

–Played with Shamwaris. Turns out you can get just about any Sham (washers or bearings) to have great action if you tighten the pivot properly.

–Got the Leica M9 out (giving up on the M11 for now: seems to be the worst of both worlds: no magic M9 sensor, no DSLR advantages (anti-shake, auto-focus)). Took another “in my room” photo and started working it in Capture One. Disturbingly choppy, especially for a not-that-large file. Dropped Capture One (again), brought back RAW Power and Affinity.

–Got the seller to accept return of the Leica M10-R. Boxed it and mailed it out.

–Left hearing aid battery died around 8 PM (5+ days).

–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.