Very cool. I just bought a lovely Zeiss Ikon light meter (selenium) in what looks like excellent shape on eBay. Selenium light meters, like this one from the 1950s, use a photovoltaic cell to generate a current. Exposure to light kills them over time (or it may be moisture, folks aren't certain). In any event, Zeiss Ikon's come in a case that frequently protects the selenium cell, leaving you with a still usable meter. The output curve of selenium maps really well to color film and thus you have a "high-value" light meter. It is accurate throughout most of the range.
Heretofore, a somewhat tedious process of sending payment through PayPal would ensue after the auction closed. But since PayPal and eBay have merged (eBay bought PayPal) things have smoothed out greatly.
It couldn't have taken me more than two minutes to complete the purchase and receive assurance that the package would be on its way shortly. In contrast, in the past it might have taken more than ten minutes.
Quite painless now, and if you have a PayPal account set up already (and are using the same computer) you too should be able to zip through the transaction. I can only believe this will need to really large growth for PayPal.
Posted by artandscience at April 6, 2005 09:49 PMYou can even send line-itemed invoices through paypal now (that reminds me, I need to do one today).
Posted by: paul at April 7, 2005 11:24 AM