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As I mentioned when I bought it, the primary reason for my acquisition of the R5 Mk II was to use it with vintage lenses: Old (EOS autofocus), older (Nikon F, Minolta MD, Pentax K) and really old (the mighty M42.) With the purchase of the camera body I ordered the EF, Nikon and M42 adapters. I've been using them since the get-go. Today I spent ...more hours than I can to contemplate going through the rest of my manual focus lens collection. I have a motley assortment of glass I purchased off eBay, from the local second hand shop, and numerous other places. I carefully evaluated every manual lens I have that was not already in active use. The end result is that two lenses I thought I'd not be keeping are staying with me, one that I imagined I'd keep is being donated, and two FD lenses will remain in limbo. After much cross referencing, I bought MD to RF and PK to RF adapters. Both are made by the Chinese company Fotsay. They made my Nikon F and M42 adapters. Both are very well made, finely machined pieces of kit. Mirrorless bodies have a number of significant advantages over SLRs when it comes to using old glass. The first is that the flange distance allows almost any SLR lens to be used as well as many ones meant for rangefinders. Another important facet is that the adapters are significantly bigger pieces of metal, making them easier to handle. I always hated my old Nikon F to Canon EF adapter, and in fact I threw it in the trash this afternoon (it was mostly broken.) From now on, the only manual lenses I will mount on any of my old EOS bodies will be M42 ones. I also bought a pile of PK and MD rear lens caps (I had like 2 total) as well as some 49mm front caps. There was a time, say, 1974, when 49mm was an industry standard filter size. Another win for the boomers, I suppose. After this lengthy indexing project, I tackled a 70s Tamron Adapt-A-Matic 135mm F/2.8 I got for a whopping $5. As the name would suggest, the Adapt-A-Matic series of lenses had swappable rear mounts and could be adapted to a variety of popular brands. Tamron now has a similar "Adaptall" that works with more modern bodies. The 135mm I have came with an adapter I still have not identified (nor will I, it's now in the trash.) I found a Nikon F adapter on Ebay, which cost many times what the lens itself did. Given that the system is over 50 years old, I felt lucky to find it. As I mentioned above, I've had back luck with my Nikon F to Canon EF adapter, and it was with this Tamron that I finally gave up on it. I did manage a few photos with the combination. Greetings from the Vineyard, November, 2023! I've had that middle finger carving for 40 years now. I told a guy I went to school with at the time that I had it and not only did he not believe me, he mercilessly mocked me. To this day, I still have not forgiven him, but I digress. The Tamron is actually quite a nice lens, optically. The truth is it's not that difficult to make a good 135mm and many companies have done it. It's also the truth that I have far more 135mm primes than any sane person would ever need, including the mushroom cloud laying MFer that is Canon EF 135mm F/2L. Also, as an side, I'm now uploading photos straight to HC. In spite of the fact that I pay Flickr $150 dollars every two years, they apparently can't reliably host photos in 2026. What was I saying? Oh yeah. The problem with the Adapt-A-Matic is that the Nikon end for the Tamron doesn't appear to have a set screw and it doesn't stay on the lens as well as I'd like. The stacked adapters made the entire arrangement feel very loose and sloppy, especially when adjusting focus or aperture (which, you know, one does rather often with a fully manual lens.) All of this is less of an issue with the chonky Nikon F to Canon RF adapter. The end result is that I'm keeping the Tamron 135mm. 2026 greetings from MV! Some things never change. The lighting conditions were significantly better in 2023. Also, it was raining today and I'm not entirely sure how weatherproof the R5 II is with a manual lens attached to it and TBH I don't want to find it out. Also also, in the 90s I was hugely into ska. In 1997 I bought a compilation of instrumental ska tracks. On it is a cover of Ghost Riders in the Sky by The Rhyth-o-matics. The name of the Adapt-A-Matic has been making me think of it all day. It's a lot of fun, except for the kind of cheesy "SNL closing credits" solo in the middle. I actually have a time corrected version of this I've played on Test Tone a few times.

3rd show (out of 4) in 8 days.... Neko Case, awesome show and lots of her great and funny chats. One of my favorites: for "I Wish I Was The Moon" she mentioned it was used in a "Vampire Fuck Scene" (it was the title for, and featured in the soundtrack of, an episode of the TV series True Blood). No videos, they and pics were forbidden. I did notice others sneaking photos, so I grabbed a couple. She is such a great show; great music, friendly and fun chat. 3rd time seeing her, once was with kd Lang and Laura Veirs. THAT was incredible! Kudo's to the merchandise manager; she instantly recognized and complimented my Residents T-Shirt from the other day....got a Neko T-Shirt and a signed early CD copy.

I don't know if any of y'all are following Fender's attempts at overly litigious...litigiousness, but PRS introduced the Silver Sky DeFender series, LOL.

One of the members of the world's favorite trio of motorist jackasses bought himself a Series III and has a lot to say about it. "Then why didn't you get a Defender?"

The Residents - a wish to see them since the late 70's/early 80's when my HS friend and his brothers had almost the entire Ralph Records catalog. Very cool, and a fair bit eccentric! Opening up was a freaky but cool performer called Rushadicus. An avant-garde industrial cellist who sings in some nonsense vocals (kind of like the Residents sometimes). Also very athletic (carrying around the cello, climbing the rafters, etc.) and talented. Some Google Drive links of the videos I took: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZgFWmGVII02s79YQLkqLrhTejyUjfb6Y/view?usp=sharing - Rushadicus first song https://drive.google.com/file/d/17UhZY7JwLK3VvXqPgHdk6_V7QmB6q-Vz/view?usp=sharing - Rushadicus playing from rafters https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jlsPiSFNEq54OrV1f0C9KG8WG0_64-Gi/view?usp=sharing - Rushadicus playing two instruments at once https://drive.google.com/file/d/16rM4zhiGuqt-Uaio07w3B7PCdfAxjsQA/view?usp=sharing - Walrus Hunt https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QgFE149_QZ43VzFEG4299glIfQoZ_Qnd/view?usp=sharing - Mole Men https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i9bZdPogj__KK1FyKPRSDMBkwTKvkzga/view?usp=sharing - second song of second set https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JLr20otxx9lT1-wE-OVV-b9hjjIyxsge/view?usp=sharing - more from second set https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IqEt6HqoyWMOjx7SNpSyX_4dQJKtfLMe/view?usp=sharing - last song

I love some of the things that pop up. I had to go look up some of my favorites and Machina Dynamica seems to be having site issues? They're not too far from me, maybe I should go check on them... Kerry told me about "quantum wood" that I cannot seem to find anymore. That one was in the category of ornaments (in this case a small piece of wood) you put on things to make them "better". EDIT: it was Bybee's "Quantum Signal Enhancer", I should have known. Years ago, at some event, I remember seeing Justin at his booth and he had a pretty nice metal bowl on top of one of his amps. A guy came up and asked about "what does it do? how does it improve the sound quality?? where do I get one???". Justin just went "it's a bowl. for almonds. want some?"

Success.

First post here, just want to share pictures of Carbon I built. My goal is as small as it can be. Use c3m0900170m instead of c2m1000170d (to-3pf version of c3m0900170d), lm4040-10 instead of lt1021-10, ksc5042m instead of ksc5026m, 2sc2705 instead of pzta42 (easy to buy from local shop). Two output sockets from Stax for pro bias and normal bias. It runs at 400V, 20mA. Heatsink temperature is about 55°C after an hour (ambient temperature is around 24°C). No short, no magic smoke, everything seems fine. 🙂