A Round Up
It’s gone quiet on the book front now Vol.2 has arrived. I’ve presented my mate and sanity checker with his copy and I’ve a couple more to dispatch from my authors pack. But sales wise, I won’t know for 6 months how it’s doing when the sales figures are sent to me.
I say that, but I have had the sales update for the first 6 months of the year, and volume 1 has crept up to 255 in total. Oddly, there’s 20 copies of Volume 2 sold, which considering it didn’t arrive until August is clever. If that means there were pre-orders, then I’m impressed. Though my suspicion would be, it includes my 10 authors copies; hey ho.
Volume 2 has been included in the new books bit of Key Publishing’s mail shot advertising though, which is nice. But what I’m more concerned about is Vol.2 looks nothing like Vol.1 cover wise, and my suspicion is, both Key and myself are reliant on those that bought the first volume making the link to the second. Still, not many Vaughtons around if they search, which in this case is a bonus.
Looking further ahead, I’ve still no more ideas in finding anything else to write about, or at least, something that’s doable. I do have one new idea, but I need to do some research first to see if it’s worthwhile. It’s not even got a development title yet, so I may be some time.
I have been messing about with old 35mm cameras again though, shock, and I may even have reached the end game with my Yashica journey….maybe. See Another Yashica
A pair of Olympus XA2 compacts also appeared. One is scrap, the light meter doesn’t work correctly, but the removable bits on the body were in really nice condition, so I’ve salvaged those, along with the viewfinder which was pristine.
The other one is frustrating me to death! Light meter works fine, all the interlocks on the sliding cover work, shutter button, check, power, check, low light warning LED, check.
Advance the film and cock the shutter, press the shutter button, it fires at the requisite speed. Wind on the film, press the shutter button again, nada.
The best I’ve managed, even after cleaning the faces of both little solenoids which actuate the shutter, one of which is a pain to get to, is 6 shots before it stops.
After pinching the best bits off the one now in pieces, this one is in really nice usable condition as well. It is maddeningly frustrating!
My collection of Yashica lenses has doubled as well over the same period. Technically, it’s trebled, because I now have three 50mm lenses, an f2.0, a1.9 and finally a 1.7. That last one was a nice find, as it’s regarded as a bit of a sweet spot in terms of image quality and cost.
The best Yashica ML 50mm lens is supposed to be the f1.4, but it’s rather pricey as a result. The f1.7 is virtually as good, but quite a bit cheaper. The other two aren’t that bad, just not quite there.
Other than a trios of “nifty-fifty”, I now have two of the other better lenses for the Contax/Yashica mount, or at least, one’s which don’t say Contax on them. Take a look at Analog in a Digital World to see what they are.
There’s another page in progress about these lenses, which will appear once I’ve some pretty pictures to go with it.
I’ve also been out and about with my furry friend!
After our recent series of heatwaves, I do believe summer is giving way to autumn. Which is good, because it’s cool enough to sleep at night!
It also means the football is back, the NFL starts this weekend, and it’s less than a month before the first puck drop of the season in the NHL. Let’s Go Lightning!
