From Excelsior Needle Co. to Timken: The Rise and Fall of Torrington's Standard Plant

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The Standard Plant and a Century of Making Things It was a hot May week in 2023, and J and I were already sweating through our shirts before we even made it to the entrance. We turned into the driveway off North Elm Street and passed a large Caterpillar backhoe holding up the red, white, and blue at the top of the arm. Patriotic machinery. Only in Connecticut. We moved toward the back of the complex with our eyes open, scanning for any sign of people or activity. We found cameras instead. A few of them, well-positioned across one of the buildings and up on an electrical pole, covering angles that made our original entry plan useless. We backed off, found a Plan B, and stepped into a dark room washed in tinted green light, then took the stairs down to ground level. The former Standard Plant sits along North Elm Street at a sunken grade, one story, with another building rising over the roadway to the far right when you're standing in front of it from North Street. It's the kind o...
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Zenitar 135mm Telephoto T-Mount Lens



A short lens test using the Zenitar telephoto 135mm manual focus lens. I wished I could of shot this in ML RAW rather than Canon's h.264. I think I might be taking a trip over the Magic Lantern forums so I can at least shoot for a few seconds and really open the Canon 600D. It would really give these old lenses another century to shine. My growing 135mm collection is growing really fast. Now, all I need is a Super-Takumar 85mm. I need to control my G.A.S. urges. My wallet is not happy!

This was shot at f/5.6, ISO 100, 1920x1080 24p.

Many more lenses I have in store for this blog!

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