best cheap/free scores 1.1

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Minolta SRT200 SLR with 50mm lens, flash, and leather case for $10:





It is amazing how cheap film cameras have gotten these days.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

that's because it's hard to find places to develope the film!

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

that's because it's hard to find places to develope the film!

Not too hard around here (at least if you stick to C41, E6 and B&W is a bit of a pain to get processed), some of the local drug-stores still do 1hr. and a bunch of places do send out (to local-ish labs so it comes back in a couple days), though I realize that outside of the US and even in very rural parts of the US that isn't necessarily the case anymore.

If I'm shooting E6, B&W, or Ektar (one of Kodak's higher end C41 films, it is a print film that tries to mirror the look of slide films with saturation) I send it out to Dwayne's in Kansas, about a week turn around, but I've always gotten good results.

I shoot more digital most of the time, but like to shoot film every now and then (especially Ektar and Velvia), digital just can't match the colors (at least without editing):

For some comparison here is a landscape pic with my Nikon D7000:


And here's one on Fujichrome Velvia 50 from my Nikon F3:


(both pics are from the same lens and similar time of day, and both in northern PA within 30 mi. and a week of each other)

Of course digital still wins majorly when it comes to cost and convenience, while the digital picture was "free" (aside from the initial cost of the camera and memory card) and instant, while the one on Velvia 50 cost $13 for the film (36 exp.), $19 for the processing (including shipping), and took a little over a week to get back from the lab.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

i thought kodak recently dropped all film production?

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

i thought kodak recently dropped all film production?

They stopped in-house manufacture of cellulose acetate (the base stock for photographic film), but they still make emulsions (the part of the film that actually captures the image) and finished film (using cellulose acetate purchased from other suppliers), though they have cut their film product portfolio significantly over the last decade or so (including the discontinuation of Kodachrome in 2009 and Ektachrome in 2013, though they recently announced they are bringing back certain varieties of Ektachrome fall of 2017).

[momaka]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

That's why the slot insertion limit looks like bullshit.

They are not bullshit. They are just a *minimum* *guaranteed* number of cycles before the slots *may* wear out.

It's like using a 1 Watt resistor to dissipate 1 Watt of power - it will handle it just fine. In fact, it typically takes almost two times its power rating to burn it out, and over a fairly long period of time too. But manufacturers do this so that they can give you a product rating and know that the product will meet it safely over various conditions, like CG mentioned above.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

It's me again with some updates on the 3 PS2s I bought:

I just finished fixing the Taiwanese model - it's pretty nice and useful since it's both chipped - I just need to add the SX wire, replace the power and GND with thicker wire and then it's a final wrap up and it will play PS1 games. I soldered the fan wires to the motherboard's fan connector (which was broken) and right now it works fine, and won't overheat again.

One of the euro slims got gutted - there were two - one that had a missing fan and broken connector and one that was 99% fine (just the power connector needed resoldering). The one with the missing fan got gutted for parts, and so might the modded 79003 be, since no matter what spindle I use it won't spin the discs. I replaced the laser as well and same thing. I'm still deciding whether I should mod up the working 70004 slim or replace the chip in my old trusty silver phat (50004) and find another broken phat to harvest its laser from and put it in the 50004. (I'm going to use models older than the silver to take the laser from.)

Let me know which one I should take to work with. I am aware the 70004 will need a laser fix (checked and it's a v12) and the same applies for the silver. (the latter already having the "Romeo Mod" done to protect the laser)

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

It's me again:

I got another PC for parts. It's got a Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 motherboard w/ a Sempron 3400 CPU, a 400W-PIV noname PSU (that somehow turned out to be a really beefy Sun Pro w/ bad caps - going to look into that) and a crappy "SHAW" case that looked ugly than sin.

The motherboard is broken though - using a good recapped PSU (a "400W" Torrent Computers LC-B400ATX) the board will turn the PSU on, but other than that the board won't spin any fans or anything. The SB isn't dead though.

I might replace the VRM caps and see if that fixes it. All caps on this board are Nichicon HM and of the bad 2004-2005 kind, but at least I could get away with replacing just the bigger VRM caps since the other small caps usually check good.

If that won't cut it then obviously I'll replace the small HMs as well.

[Curious.George]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

They are not bullshit. They are just a *minimum* *guaranteed* number of cycles before the slots *may* wear out.

Said another way: if you use this component within these operating parameters (temperature, voltage, humidity, vibration, etc.) you can rely on getting at least this sort of durability.

So, when you publish specifications for your product, you can safely tell your customers that they can expect at least this level of quality. Some will end up getting better than that. Folks who get less than that will feel empowered to seek compensation (replacement, etc.)

In many industries, these minimums are essential (e.g., aerospace, medical, pharma, process control, etc.). And, few consumers would buy a product that claimed it might work as expected.

"This DIMM socket might allow you to insert a module 25 times..." (WTF?)

Unlike "sale prices" which are always "save up to X%" (but, you could end up saving 0% just as easily!)

"This DIMM socket allows up to 18,000,000 insertion cycles!" (but, you'll probably only get 27!)

[grss1982]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Not my own, but this dude has got to be the luckiest guy when it comes to dumpster finds:

http://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/ee...ter-diving-pc/

I originally saw his video about this in YT and found his blog later on.

Makes me wanna fly to Australia and dumpster dive.

White Fractal Design R4 Case and a complete X58-based system inside. Plus a GTX 570.

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Very quiet this week, looks to be winding down with winter coming. Still managed to grab some good deals and mostly £1 each

Humax PVR-9150T 160GB - £1 (Working, no remote)
Luxor 250GB PVR - £1 (working, no remote)
520w BeQuiet Modular PSU - £1 (Working, missing 2 PCI-E Modular cables)
Rotel RT-820 Tuner - £1 (Working)
Yamaha Natural Sound Tuner - £1 (working)
Netgear ProSafe FVS318v3 8-Port Switch - £2.50 (Brand new sealed)
Some magnatech kids toys £1, only bought for magnets

Everything working so thats a plus, nothing spectacular but good enough.

Brother in law got a manfrotto tripod which seems to be worth good money.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I shoot more digital most of the time, but like to shoot film every now and then (especially Ektar and Velvia), digital just can't match the colors (at least without editing):

For some comparison here is a landscape pic with my Nikon D7000:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1506645338

And here's one on Fujichrome Velvia 50 from my Nikon F3:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1506645482

(both pics are from the same lens and similar time of day, and both in northern PA within 30 mi. and a week of each other)

The film does indeed look nicer there.

However, I think you can greatly improve the image from that Nikon if you use the correct exposure setting. In particular, the image you showed above looks way too over-exposed. You need to use a quicker shutter speed when it is very bright outside. My sister's point-and-shoot camera did the same until I read the manual and found that there is a special setting for day-time shots. Funny, you'd think that in "auto" mode, the camera would know what to pick. But that wasn't the case at all. The difference was tremendous. Before, my shots would look exactly like yours above - gray and dull. Blacks were gray and whites were also gray-ish. No color whatsoever. Then, I started using the setting with quicker exposure, at least for the daytime shots (for night-time and sunset/sunrise, there were also separate settings), and the image quality was superb. No need for post-processing or anything either. Most shots just came out looking good as is.

I got another PC for parts. It's got a Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 motherboard w/ a Sempron 3400 CPU, a 400W-PIV noname PSU (that somehow turned out to be a really beefy Sun Pro w/ bad caps - going to look into that) and a crappy "SHAW" case that looked ugly than sin.

The motherboard is broken though - using a good recapped PSU (a "400W" Torrent Computers LC-B400ATX) the board will turn the PSU on, but other than that the board won't spin any fans or anything. The SB isn't dead though.

I might replace the VRM caps and see if that fixes it. All caps on this board are Nichicon HM and of the bad 2004-2005 kind, but at least I could get away with replacing just the bigger VRM caps since the other small caps usually check good.

Before changing anything, first check if all major voltage rails are present. Also check if the LAN/Ethernet chip is not dead and pulling something low when it shouldn't.

That said, only Nichicon HM, HN, and HZ caps with 2004 date codes should definitely go. As for 2005 date codes - replace at your own discretion. I usually leave them as I haven't had many issues with those.

Yamaha Natural Sound Tuner - £1 (working)

I love older Yamaha amps. I'm curious what model you got... though whatever it is, it's definitely a steal for a pound! Same goes for the 520 Watt BeQuiet PSU. Nice finds man!

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Was given an HP Z1 all-in-one 27" workstation. Came out of a home of a doctor, its in mint physical shape. Has some Xeon CPU @ 3.3GHz and 32gb DDR3 RAM, quadro m3000 onboard. 250gb SSD is unresponsive/not detecting, not sure if the drive is toast or the motherboard....but it will boot from the optical and MEMTEST ran without errors. I'll diddle with it more later on, I'm up to my elbows in another project.

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

The film does indeed look nicer there.

However, I think you can greatly improve the image from that Nikon if you use the correct exposure setting. In particular, the image you showed above looks way too over-exposed. You need to use a quicker shutter speed when it is very bright outside.

Yah, there are a bunch of scene modes and picture settings in the D7000, that would make it look better (and of course a polarizer works wonders too), but I wanted a direct comparison, so both shots were shot in aperture priority and in the case of the D7000 default settings and no filters on the lens. However it is somewhat sad that the 35 year old F3 with its basic center weighted meter could get a better exposures (on notoriously difficult to expose properly velvia 50) than the much more "advanced" D7000 (sometimes all the "features" and automation do more harm than good).

... of course since velvia 50 is a very specialized film specifically designed for landscapes and cityscapes in direct sun-light, a more "fair" comparison to a DSLR on default settings would probably be a "drugstore grade" 400-800 ISO print film.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Before changing anything, first check if all major voltage rails are present. Also check if the LAN/Ethernet chip is not dead and pulling something low when it shouldn't.

That said, only Nichicon HM, HN, and HZ caps with 2004 date codes should definitely go. As for 2005 date codes - replace at your own discretion. I usually leave them as I haven't had many issues with those.

Ended up scrapping it - neither replacing the Nichicons and removing the LAN/Ethernet chip worked. It still did not POST. I should mention all voltage rails are present.

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I love older Yamaha amps. I'm curious what model you got... though whatever it is, it's definitely a steal for a pound! Same goes for the 520 Watt BeQuiet PSU. Nice finds man!

Its just the tuner, model is TX-300.

Yea PSU is pretty good, luckily ive got a stack of old modular cables for various PSUs over the years so should be able to realign the pins to make them compatible with this unit although many are usually very similar pinout anyway.

[goontron]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ How's the reception? My old CR-640 was pulling in station from Salida Colorado when i lived in Littleton!

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^ How's the reception? My old CR-640 was pulling in station from Salida Colorado when i lived in Littleton!

Couldn't say, don't have a aerial was just using a couple of wires to test but picked up local stations without a isssue.

I don't think its particular high quality, the case is mostly empty with the pcb probably only taking up a 3rd of the space.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

my 'supermicro tree' dropped an X8SAX in my lap today. I never even knew this one existed. Its in working order.

[jiroy]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

This week , For free , i got one Asus X80L , One Acer Extenza 4320 .. The Asus went for parts , the Acer received 4GB of Rams and a new battery .

One old JVC Camera , the one with tape , with all its decks and recorder , cables and accessories . I don't know if it's worth time and effort , as its pixelage may be outdated . Any advice ?