Weekly Update, April 2026
Street shot on the Zeiss Ikon Contarex Bullseye, on DragonFilm VII
New Stock
Some fun new things this week!
- Zeiss Ikon Contarex Bullseye. This thing is probably the most obvious example of German over-engineering I've ever seen. Come check it out in person in the next few weeks as you won't see one of these very often, and I suspect it's an eBay job. Working and in great condition but with a frame overlap issue, likely needs a service, comes with a Zeiss Planar 50mm f/2 - £350.
- Canon 1000D with kit lens in great condition - £90
- Eiki/Elf NT 1 16mm Projector. Dunno why I keep buying these but probably because I feel bad making people lug them away again. Supposedly working, likely needs a service - £100
- I've picked up a bunch of new lenses across a variety of mounts, including a few EF, Minolta AF, M42 etc. I can't remember which ones right now so consider it a surprise.
- I've refreshed my stock of various films. One notable change is that I'm no longer stocking Fomapan 200/400 at the moment, as I had a bad emulsion failure on one of the 120 variant 200 rolls I shot recently. Kentmere is very nearly as cheap and notably better quality, so I'm standardising on that for 200/400 speed affordable monochrome films for now.
There's a load of other stuff I haven't priced up yet, like a Panasonic miniDV camcorder, a Pepsi Canamera, some digital compacts etc. Must admit I've basically forgotten most of the new stuff after the Contarex Bullseye turned up as it's so over-the-top.
Coming soon
Various things I haven't received yet, so condition/pricing to be confirmed.
- Pentax K1000
- MPP 4x5 (if this turns out particularly nice I might steal it for myself)
- Yashica Mat 124G
I should have at least one more TLR in stock soon as well, though not sure which just yet.
Sigma lens cloths
Last year I nabbed a swag bag from a Sigma event and it had an absolutely excellent large lens cloth in it. Putting aside the fact I've now misplaced that, it was easily the best lens cloth I've ever had and so I've ordered a big batch of them from Sigma. These are fantastic if you're repairing lenses. £8 each.
April clearout
I have too many things and I want to have fewer things, as I'd like some space back for some other things. Of note:
- Last chance for the Nikon F3/T, I'll be chucking this online after this coming weekend and upping the price when I do, as I discovered what I set it to was still somehow less than I paid for it originally.
- I have an ever-growing pile of 35mm compacts. There's some decent ones in there, pretty much all of them sub-£40.
- I'm doing deals on multi-buys of the remaining expired film in my cupboard. It's mostly down to the weird formats now, but if you have a 126 camera now's your chance.
- I'm going to be clearing out some of the cine gear as it keeps piling up. I have more Bolex cameras than any one person should have, so they'll be going cheaper if you want one. The Angenieux 12-240mm is destined for eBay as well.
- Similarly, the mirrorless lenses I still have lying about are going on eBay later this week, like the Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S.
- As is the Mamiya RB67 once I replace its light seals. It takes up half a shelf by itself!
- If you want to practice your repair skills, come take some broken stuff from my spares/repairs box for free.
Patterson orders
A reminder that I can now get trade prices from Patterson for darkroom gear, and as I need a few bits myself I'm going to be putting together an order soon - drop me an email if there's anything you're after, even if it's small (I mostly need more clips).
B&W development notes
I'm finally doing my own B&W dev at home again, after a 20 year break. So far I've discovered that I'm still terrible at getting some rolls onto the Patterson spools, and it's even more frustrating when you drop it in a dark bag than in a dark room.
Anyway a tip to round out this week's update: Ilford HP5+ at ISO 3200 is kinda awesome and I honestly prefer it to Delta 3200, so if you need a faster monochrome film it might be worth experimenting. It does take 20 minutes to push develop it, but that's enough time to watch an episode of something whilst you stand there, and it's a bit cheaper than Delta 3200. Here's an example of my cat, push-processed in Ilford Ilfotec DD-X developer:
Ilford HP5+ at 3200, Ilfotec DD-X, Ricoh Diacord