52 Cameras...

Great new site discovered today, called 52cameras, and is all about film cameras. Yes, film. Check it out for some major retro goodness.

Amazon Japan Bestsellers.

Here, here and here. Interesting, very interesting. Also new stuff.

Spotify Playlist...

This may work, this may not, hence me trying:
HTTP link to spotify playlist...
Spotify URI...

Clarks Selbourne GTX Gore-Tex Active Air (Clarks Again)

Clarks Selbourne GTX Gore-Tex Active Air. (Brown) Shown above. Reduced from £95 to £65 at Clarks "Factory" Store although I didn't notice a factory anywhere in the retail park... And they don't exist on Clarks website either, they seem to like the idea of removing shoes when they've sold out. You know instead of saying "Sorry this shoe has been replaced by this new version... why not buy it instead" they just say "Sorry you're wrong..." (and "Good luck trying to figure out what the modern day version of your last shoe is...") (PITA) Whatever happened to having a really good model and you know, continuing to sell it?!? Or perhaps archiving the information on your old shoes? I'd imagine some people (me included) want to buy the same pair of shoes every 2-3 years?!

These are replacing Rustlers GTX (Black) Active Air Shoes. Shown below, they looked much better when they were new: like this. They don't seem to have lasted as long as previous Clarks either - lasting around 2 years and then I stopped wearing them.

Here are the previous Clarks shoes I've had (and life span)
Clarks Rustler GTX Jan 2009 (2yrs)
Clarks Show Low GTX Feb 2006 (3yrs)
Clarks Other Active Air 2004 ish (2yrs)



I also picked up some Karrimor Border Walking Trainers - to replace some Adidas walking trainers - that surprise surprise they don't do anymore... but they did last about 9-10 years due to me not wearing them much. It will be interesting (in a nerdy kind of way) whether any of these new shoes are capable of lasting anywhere near as long as the Adidas shoes, hopefully by alternating a few different pairs of shoes they'll all last longer. Oh, and I've still got the Stride Trainers, some 11 years later.

Voigtlander Vito B Prontor-SVS Color-Skopar 1:2.8/50

Photos of the Vito B, this is apparently the more desirable version with larger optical viewfinder, and brighter f/2.8 lens, made between 1954, and 1960, it's a neat little camera, with shutter speeds from 1/300 - 60, and aperture from f/2.8 to f/22. It has a neat (APS style) cartridge escape hatch on the bottom, (for ejecting fully rewound film without having to open the whole of the back), and the pop-up rewind knob looks rather stylish (in the same style and design as the Leica X1 pop up flash). Fully working, I picked this up at a car boot sale. It even came with film :)

Great websites...

Love these sites:
http://tokyocamerastyle.com
http://www.japanexposures.com/category/feature/
http://yowayowacamera.com/

Love this program:
Image Resizer for Windows 7: http://imageresizer.codeplex.com/ (essential!)
File Renamer - Rename a batch of files: http://www.fauland.com/af5.htm

Rainy summer evening....