They had an old analogue photographic enlarger, which hadn't been used for ages; it just stood there, because everything is digital nowadays. I only talked to the shop assistant and the shop owner will be present in the morning to take the final decision.
I looked around on the Net and these things are sold for less than 300 euros on eBay. I hope they will sell it for considerably less.
a pencil tester / line tester
A new pencil tester (like the one in the picture above) with video camera costs around 900 USD, excluding sales tax and shipping. I already have a camera, so that will save me money. Okay, the enlarger with digital camera mounted isn't as light weight as the pencil tester.
I really hope they will sell me this enlarger for a nice price and also hope my camera fits (I'll bring it along to be sure of that). Of course, I have to modify it to be able to fix paper to the floor board. I also have to add two adjustable sidelights for proper lighting at an angle of 45 degrees.
Edit: I was mistaken. It wasn't an enlarger, but a reprostand. That doesn't really matter, because it is in essence the same device. The shop owner said he had just read the note and had to consider what price to ask. I've did some of my own researching and the typical price of such a stand new is between 200 and 300 euros. If you buy something like that and then try to sell it immediately, I guess you'll only get half that price. I've seen used reprostands for as little as 25 euros. I hope the shop owner is reasonable and asks less than 100 euros.
Edit2: The shop owner hasn't called yet (he should have called yesterday). If this falls through, I can always try to build my own animation stand, although that involves finding the right materials and someone who is willing to weld on a tight budget. I might try making a fixed frame out of wood first and see if that is good enough.
Edit3: I phoned the shop owner myself (which is not a good thing in such cases) and he said he wasn't going to go lower than 195 euros, because new ones cost a lot more than that, certainly the ones that are as stable as that. Needless to say, that I was a bit disappointed. I said I wanted to think on this, but I really didn't want to pay that much money.
I went to a local hardware chain store and looked for some cheap alternative. Perhaps some wall brackets would do the trick. Here's what I have come up with:
It isn't the prettiest solution possible, but it IS affordable (around 18 euros) and it does work. I only have to shop around for some lights, which shouldn't be too expensive. I would have needed those lights anyway, even if I had bought the far-too-xpensive-for-its-market-value repro stand.
I case you were wondering, the still camera is the Canon S3 IS, which has a swivel display, so you can see what you're shooting, even if you're not at the controls. Of course, any DV camera has the same swivel display, and if I had such a device, I could easily mount that as well.
The photo's (and movies) are taken upside down, which is, of course, easy to fix. If I want to do a line test, I can tape the surface with masking tape and put my regular drawings at the correct position to photograph. The color temperature is not really a problem, because the S3 has a builtin setting that lets you tell the camera it is watching at a clear white sheet of paper, and it should correct its white balance accordingly. This will save me money when buying the lights, no need for special daylight light bulbs, like in the old days of analogue photography.