Hello;

I just noticed something on the way to work, a route I take (via taxi-even tho I can afford a Leica outfit, I can not afford a car in singapore!!!)seeral time a week.

The Minolta distributor's building( I assume it is because it has a huge MINOLTA sign on it) is right next to a building that has a similar "Leica" sign on it, which I assume is the Leica distributor. The buildings are twins in the same estate and only a few meters apart. I do not think that is, or at least was, a coincidence.

Nikon & Canon are miles away and miles apart.

No question, just an observation.

Sat nite and I just bought a new Epson 810 printer. Perhaps the days of the enlarger in the darkroom are over. I shall find out soon enough, or so said Robert Heinein about passing of another kind?

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), February 16, 2002

Answers

Perhaps the days of the enlarger in the darkroom are over.

If they are for you then what kind of enlarger do you have and $$$how much$$$ you want for it?

Regards,

-- John (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), February 16, 2002.

John;

Among several I have a Leitz Valoy in 95% condition, missing the slide-in red filter, with a Leitz vernier scale easel. The lens is a Russian copy of the Focotar - a Vega-Very good.

Any offers? It is home in Toronto

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), February 16, 2002.

Yeah, that digital darkroom is a joke unless you plan on spending some hard cash on a good printer and Jon Cone's inkjet setup for it (and the proper paper). Oh yeah better get Photoshop and lots o' RAM.

-- Dave Doyle (soilsouth@cox.net), February 16, 2002.

Hi Richard,

I live in Singapore, in fact right behind the Leica and Minolta buildings. The Leica building deals only with microscope system and not photographic. Since the microscopy division of Leica were sold to some Swiss company some years back i don't think they have anything to do with our beloved cameras nowadays. The institue where i work buys microscopes from them, and they told me they have nothing to do with M6 and Rs now. But they like to boast that if we respect the cameras' and lenses' capabilities, we can expect the same from 'their' microscopes. They are priced like the camera systems, too:) Cheers.

-- Steven Fong (steven@ima.org.sg), February 17, 2002.

They have to be scientific systems people. The Leica rep/service center is in the Trademart building, off River Valley Road.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), February 17, 2002.

The proximity is probably just coincidental, but years ago they did form a partnership. The jewel of that partnership was the Leitz- Minolta CL and it's 40/2 lens.

Cheers

-- Alex Shishin (shishin@pp.iij4-u.or.jp), February 17, 2002.