The Heathrow gauntlet

[Charles Twist]

Well Sinars have lost of value so why not Ebony's? With the gradual disappearance of slide film, it may yet happen. A lot of other kit that was top notch one hundred years ago has also hit the deck. Nice that we can take advantage of it.
Charles (who travels with a Sinar 5x4 because he can't squeeze in the 5x7 plus big and heavy lenses)

[Andrew Plume]

exactly Charles

regards

andrew

[Marizu]

A lot of other kit that was top notch one hundred years ago has also hit the deck. Nice that we can take advantage of it.

I'm guessing that you haven't tried to procure a Dallmeyer 3B recently

[Charles Twist]

A lot of other kit that was top notch one hundred years ago has also hit the deck. Nice that we can take advantage of it.

I'm guessing that you haven't tried to procure a Dallmeyer 3B recently

Actually, and going totally OT, I think that's exactly what VM is railing against. Yes the 3B is a fine lens, but why spend stupid money on it when there are alternatives? You can still buy a 12" Petzval for £400 on Ebay (let alone auction houses and friendly deals), especially if you're prepared to go with f/4 or f/4.5.
VM and others are outspoken advocates of unhyped gear; that is IMO a good thing and may actually help to bring the 3B and Ebony's back down from the stratosphere.
Charles

[edilskrad]

We flew Heathrow /Jo'burg with Virgin, returning last weekend from a 15-day trip.

Having checked-in online the day before my heart sank at T3 when the hand-luggage was asked to be weighed. The comment from the desk-agent was that as long as the size was "about right" and the combined weight of the hold baggage and a carry-on bag was within limits for the ticket-type, viz. 23kg & 7kg, then they were not really bothered. Both our carry-on bags each weighed around 11-12kg but were within size volume, and our hold luggage was only about the same weight too. So we were well within weight limits overall for the tickets we had purchased (cattle class !).

Interestingly, our carry-on bags were not weighed for the return journey.

So, ... more of a kid-glove than a gauntlet from our experience.

Hope this helps.

[Andrew Plume]

Charles

'Petzval prices' - yes

Dallmeyer's are imo, well over priced but they will very likely continue to maintain their current prices. Darlot's are seen more frequently and are pretty widely found, mainly in the US, where BF&Co were a large importer. Prices of longer length and fast petzvals seem to me to have increased this year, there's a certain gent, based in NY State who regularly achieves high prices. A real shortage at Bievres this year has seen prices go up

I'm all for unnnamed Petzvals, they offer much lower prices, compared to the 'marque' manufacturers

andrew