You, sir, are made of stern stuff if you are able to part with an Olympia SM model. If somebody held a gun to my head and told me I could keep only one typewriter, chances are it would be my SM3 or SM9. Keeping twelve typewriters sounds like a very good idea, but maybe you could extend it to a Baker's dozen and hold onto an Olympia. Such perfect German engineering.
I know - therefore for now I'll hold on to one of them until I can lay my hands on SM9 and compare directly. Of course if I had more space (and money ;) ) I would've kept them all...
And thinking of dozens... I can easily get into creative accounting here and count my 4 Kolibris as one and basically 3 of those take the same amount of space as one SM so there's room to play you see. ;) I wonder if all the collectors (whatever they're crazy about) do the same tricks to themselves...
Hm, it must be a virus. A lot of Typospherian's are cleaning out their closets and downsizing their collections. Do we buy that easily? Or do we just live in too small houses?
It is written, somewhere quite special and secret and sacred, that an acceptable number of typewriters would be somewhere between the number of digits you have and your age, whichever the greatest. Compulsive collectors are allowed to use multiples of either of course. I'm just hoping that I'll open a typewriter shop and I'll be able to refer to the collection as "stock". My Olympias were on pedestals until I discovered Olivettis and the joys of modern basket shifts.
Of course carriage shift in SM4 & SM5 cannot compare to basket shift in Lettera 22 - I give you that. Though I'm still impressed by Olympia's engineering. I took out both SM4 and SM5 to compare directly and... SM5 wins it for me. Because: 1. carriage shift is the same 2. I can live with tab settings change from the back (I don't suppose I'll touch it more than once) 3. I can live withought tension adjuster - the SM5 setting is perfect for me 4. smooth paint on SM5 feels so much nicer to crinkle one on SM4 and generally I like the colour scheme on SM5 - it is a bit brighter 5. I can live without a telescopic paper support
Bits in favour of SM4: 1. chromed levers around the carriage 2. metal logo looks the part though I quite like the translucent plastic on SM5 - actually the first graphic in this post is that plastic logo photographed by me and trashed a little.
As far as the SM5 vs SM9 - I have a feeling it will be a battle between looks and basket shift.
You, sir, are made of stern stuff if you are able to part with an Olympia SM model. If somebody held a gun to my head and told me I could keep only one typewriter, chances are it would be my SM3 or SM9. Keeping twelve typewriters sounds like a very good idea, but maybe you could extend it to a Baker's dozen and hold onto an Olympia. Such perfect German engineering.
ReplyDeleteI know - therefore for now I'll hold on to one of them until I can lay my hands on SM9 and compare directly. Of course if I had more space (and money ;) ) I would've kept them all...
DeleteAnd thinking of dozens... I can easily get into creative accounting here and count my 4 Kolibris as one and basically 3 of those take the same amount of space as one SM so there's room to play you see. ;)
DeleteI wonder if all the collectors (whatever they're crazy about) do the same tricks to themselves...
Hm, it must be a virus. A lot of Typospherian's are cleaning out their closets and downsizing their collections. Do we buy that easily? Or do we just live in too small houses?
ReplyDeleteIt is written, somewhere quite special and secret and sacred, that an acceptable number of typewriters would be somewhere between the number of digits you have and your age, whichever the greatest. Compulsive collectors are allowed to use multiples of either of course. I'm just hoping that I'll open a typewriter shop and I'll be able to refer to the collection as "stock". My Olympias were on pedestals until I discovered Olivettis and the joys of modern basket shifts.
ReplyDeleteGood to know about these numbers :)
DeleteOf course carriage shift in SM4 & SM5 cannot compare to basket shift in Lettera 22 - I give you that. Though I'm still impressed by Olympia's engineering. I took out both SM4 and SM5 to compare directly and... SM5 wins it for me. Because:
1. carriage shift is the same
2. I can live with tab settings change from the back (I don't suppose I'll touch it more than once)
3. I can live withought tension adjuster - the SM5 setting is perfect for me
4. smooth paint on SM5 feels so much nicer to crinkle one on SM4 and generally I like the colour scheme on SM5 - it is a bit brighter
5. I can live without a telescopic paper support
Bits in favour of SM4:
1. chromed levers around the carriage
2. metal logo looks the part though I quite like the translucent plastic on SM5 - actually the first graphic in this post is that plastic logo photographed by me and trashed a little.
As far as the SM5 vs SM9 - I have a feeling it will be a battle between looks and basket shift.