Paul Williams
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Buying Second Hand Multiblitz Heads - "is this a good price?"

30/9/2019

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I get a regular stream of contact forms asking if such and such bit of Multiblitz kit is a good buy at this price?  Quite often I email back asking what is being bundled for their £/€/$ price as there is not hint of this in the initial contact form.  The truth is I feel unless you're getting one of the relatively new units and it is bundled with quite a few modifiers it will have to be very very cheap.  If you're already a Multiblitz user, then there is of course some justification for buying a lone head, but all the contacts so far have been from people who've never used Multiblitz lighting, so my advice will always be;

OK if it's cheap enough and comes with most of the accessories that will allow you to attempt the style of photography you're interested in & always check to see what new kit is available for the same price - better to own a new unit with full warranty & support than an old obsolete one!


I certainly wouldn't really recommend a beginner buy old Multiblitz equipment, then have to search out modifiers to suit, you almost have to willing to loose the money invested, as although I've always felt that Multiblitz are inherently reliable, spares and maintenance could be prohibitively expensive if not impossible depending on the age of the unit(s).

I recently bought a batch of 6 heads, all relatively modern, 4 had faults that rendered them only fit for spares as the cost of repairs would have far exceeded their valiue, so in the end I just salvaged the flash tubes that I could use.  The 4 heads were put on eBay for spares at only a few pounds each, but in the end only one sold & the rest went to the local electronics recycling centre.
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What do I do when I get a new watch?

27/9/2019

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Had a few contacts asking me what I actually do when a new watch arrives?  Yes, I do have a bit of a 'nerdy' process I follow, but it isn't overly onerous or very technical - I've added a description of the process to the main Watch Reviews page for those interested - though it isn't wildly exciting!
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Thinning out the watch collection!

24/9/2019

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Whilst I enjoy every one of the watches I've bought, it's has become obvious that some are worn much more than others and I felt it was time to sell on the ones that I either bought a cheap homage to see if it was something I'd like to own the real thing at a later date - we're not talking fakes here, but clearly watches based on a specific style so below is the gallery of those sold or selling.

I bought a couple of large Chinese Flieger style watches, just to see if I wanted to experience the truer large pocket watch size editions as I was looking to get a more traditional quality flieger, thankfully this experience let me know that I didn't want a original size watch (these were over 50mm in diameter) but I did like the huge crowns!

When my Omega Chronograph was being restored (I use the timing function on these quite a bit) I bought a nice Citizen Eco Drive Chronograph, which whilst absolutely gorgeous looking the chronograph buttons lack and feel at all so you had to physically be looking at the watch to ensure that the hands had stopped, which is useless as far as I'm concerned, also as these don't 'fly back' to their start position, but take a leisurely sweep around the dial you can do a rapid re-start, also a bad weakness.  No if you don't ever use the functions of these watches in anger as it were, but just like the looks they are great, but for me it has to do the job it was intended to do.  With that in mind I bought a Seiko Meca Quartz powered chronograph and this was superb, quartz precision, but with a mechanical chronograph movement on top - it was great almost like a fully mechanical watch.  Well now my Omega is back, it is the only chronograph for me so it was time to put the rather stylish rose gold Chinese one up for sale.

My gold plated Omega Seamaster Dress watch is in the pending pile, I've recently put it on a nice black leather strap from Geckota, with an 18 to 14mm taper so I can put on the original Omega buckle and it looks superb, but I have a very similar looking (shape, size & gold plated) Omega Genève which I wear more often, but the Seamaster is in really great condition, so in two minds at the moment..
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Laco Aachen Pictures & the Eagle Eyed!

11/9/2019

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It was a bit of a surprise to have a couple of contacts from people pointing out that in my pictures of this watch, in the background I had British & American planes, when really they should have been German!  Well those have now gone and been replaced within the Watch Gallery...
Picture
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Richard LeGrand Atlanticus

9/9/2019

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Very excited to have just placed an order with Richard Legrand (RLG) Watches for their Atlanticus Compressor Style Dive Watch.  Click here to see why!

​Review to follow in the next few weeks :-)
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New look almost complete

9/9/2019

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Didn't turn out to be too much work after all and there is now just the odd element to be tidied up.  I did initially go for white background with black text, but switch back to white on black as I felt this was easier on the eyes - happy for people to let me know what they think, but feel overall the site now looks a little less cluttered, albeit still quite 'formal' overall.  I don't plan any other fundamental changes going forward, so this should now be the finalised look for the site.
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Time for a change of feel/format?

5/9/2019

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I've had a few comments about how this site doesn't come across to well on some mobile devices and also I have felt that I should freshen up the site as its been eight years since I first put it together.  I know I have some regular visitors so just to apologise in advance for any disruption in the coming few weeks as I attempt to give the site a total make-over!  I'm hoping it will go well but as generally happens with all things technological, I'm sure there will be some hiccups along the way.  Either way, because I only have a basic account, once the changes start to take place I don't think I'll be able to recover the original version - so here's hoping for a speedy transition, which I'll be starting work on tonight.
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Needed to re-do that first ever video!

1/9/2019

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Watching my first ever video I've ever uploaded again and I just had to give it another go, so have done just that!  Again it is just a quick and dirty one as I still don't have any dedicated software, video kit or it could be argued talent, but I've deleted the old one and redone the links to the newer version.  Still not great, but it is better - then again, as they say "the bar was set very low"  ;-)
​
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    Author

    Born in 1956 (so getting on a bit now) I'm married  and have two wonderful children  we all live in Devon in the South West of England - on the Cornish border.
    I'm University Educated with a Degree in Applied Statistics with Management Science and have recently retired from my work for an Independent Health Care Provider supporting the NHS.

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  • Home
  • BLOG - What's Up?
  • Galleries
    • People >
      • Street Photography
      • Seafaring...well maybe
      • America's Cup at Plymouth >
        • Onshore entertainment
      • Medieval Pageant
    • Places >
      • Enchanted Saltram 2019
      • Dyffryn House - August 2018
      • Dewstow Gardens & Hidden Grottoes - July 2019
      • Lost Gardens of Heligan - 2019
      • Pinetum Gardens - June 2019
      • Dyrham Park - September 2019
      • France August 2011
    • Wildlife >
      • Slimbridge September 2019
    • 'flora
    • Garden Art
    • Rust
    • Watches >
      • Low Cost Chinese
      • Micro Brands
    • Product
    • Fish Eye Fun >
      • High Cross House
      • Castle Drogo
    • Random Audio Equipment Pictures
    • DIY Hi-Fi Builds >
      • Bottlehead Paramour Amp Build
      • Bottlehead Quickie
      • Bottlehead Smash
      • 7 Pi Speaker Build
    • At Play >
      • MIOPS
    • Scans from 'Old' Negatives
    • Fujifilm X10 Compact
  • Photography
    • Cameras & Lenses
    • Multiblitz Studio Flash >
      • Multiblitz Manuals + Miscellaneous
    • Elinchrom Studio Flash
    • Studio Thoughts
  • Favourite Music
  • Film
    • Best Films
    • Worst Films
  • Audio Equipment
  • Watch Reviews
    • Geckota K-01 Pilot 44mm
    • Zelos Swordfish Bronze
    • Aragon Divemaster V1
    • AVI-8 P-51 Mustang Bottisham Limited Edition
    • Geckota P-01 Dress Watch
    • Phoibos Wave Master Diver
    • Seiko 'Bottle Cap' Desk Diver
    • Laco Aachen Flieger
    • RLG Atlanticus Compressor
    • Laco Augsburg Flieger
    • Orient Ray II
    • Zelos Eagle E-1D
    • Citizen Eco-Drive Titanium
    • Marloe Coniston
    • Geckota G-01 1950's Style Diver
    • Smiths NATO PRS-40
    • Aragon Regeneron Diver
  • £66 Guitar upgrade
  • Links