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Saturday 20 October 2012

Ode to an Optima: Saturday Morning Coming Down, a Heart-Starting Coffee and a Portable Typewriter

This is the first Optima I acquired, an early Elite 2. Not sure whether I still have it, stashed away somewhere:
This is my later Elite 2, right, with an Elite 1. Both are also beautiful typers:
My Optima P1 with the Elite 2:
And an Optima Plana with the Optima P1:



6 comments:

L Casey said...

So many posts in one day, Robert. I'm loving it! This is quite weird, though. I have recently purchased my first Optima, and here comes this article! Also, not a half an hour ago, I was doing a bit of research that led me to your post about your Optima 2 (I think it was the 2. The black one...). Strange coincidence!

Every time I find an Optima of this style, it is always brown... Never an attractive color like this. I know it will function the same, but I am only going to purchase one, and I want it to be pretty!

As always, great post. Glad to hear the Optima is (somewhat) making up for the disappointment of the British Empire!

notagain said...

Very nice! I keep getting outbid on Optimas.

Dwayne F. said...

I like our Optima Super, Svetlana Optima, and must get her out for a typecast. She is a little rattly compared to her SM-3 cousins, but still a solid machine with nice curves.

Thanks for the comparison photos. I'd love to get hold of an Olympia Plana or the Optima twin. I'm also in serious like with Richard Polt's standard size Optima.

Scott K said...

Ohhhhh.... Now I want one of those machines myself! Dammit... it's like, typewriter erotica. I found myself looking for one of those on ebay almost instantly.

Bill M said...

Very nice typewriters. I have bid on a few out of curiosity, but never won one.
Nice to hear they are fine typers.

Duffy Moon said...

Hard for a typewriter to make ugly brown look good, but Optima pulls it off. I love my Optima, and it's beautifully-ugly brown boringness.