May 2018: I had just got the Mitakon 25 mm f/0.95, a fully manual prime lens, and needed something to try it out on. It turned out to be my old Pfaff sewing machine, fully working, in different light.
The Lumix G3 is a bit noisy on its own. The grain in these pictures is intentional, though: it was added in Lightroom to give the shots an old look.
Photos: © Martin · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Usage and larger versions
Ten euros and a speeding ticket
I got the machine itself on eBay, for ten euros. Nobody else had bid, and pick-up only was a must. The owner was really nice, and ten euros for a piece like that felt almost dubious to me, so I added a bottle of wine.
I picked up the Pfaff together with my son. On the way back a speed camera flashed, and at home the two of us still had to haul the cast-iron heavyweight up to my attic flat at the time. All things considered, the fine was more expensive than the sewing machine.
I only really understood later what I had got for ten euros. The Pfaff 130 came onto the market from Kaiserslautern in the early 1930s and was one of the first household sewing machines that could sew zigzag in addition to straight stitch. It was built until the 1950s, around three million of them in total. It is made almost entirely of cast iron and steel, and that is exactly what makes it so durable: with a little oil it still sews reliably after many decades, even through thick fabrics like denim or leather. Among collectors and anyone who mends their own sails or tarpaulins, it still has a very good reputation.