WHAT TO ME is an unusual problem arose
recently when a chappie mentioned the dangers of buying colour materials
from retailers who, either in ignorance or an attitude of total
indifference to ensuring the customer is a satisfied customer, still
serves sentisized materials from the open shelves in his centrally heated
shop.
“The laddie I’m talking about
assures me that in Lincoln he visits several dealers on a fairly regular
basis and he actually noticed bromide paper and colour film in precisely
the same spot on the shelf even though the visit may well have been weeks
apart. He assures me that he has not seen evidence of a fridge or cool
showcase at shops in this particular town.
This is a disgraceful state of affairs
and I set out to make inquiries elsewhere and found a much brighter
picture. In Cleethorpes for instance the two camera shops I know both have
fridges and any film or paper, particularly colour is produced from a back
room and so cold that it has obviously come directly from some
“cooler”.
In
Manchester, I’m told, Jessops and Lomax both have showcases with cooling
system built in Agfa materials are on show in the special refridgerated
showcases supplied by that firm. So Mancunians are well served in this
respect.
But the poor old Lincolnian is left
carrying a baby which is not as cool as it should be. So I say to picture takers in that City complain to the
offending dealers. This sort of affair should not be tollerated and if
there is sufficient’ pressure brought to bear the position could well be
righted. As it should be.
TREBLE TROUBLE....
THREE FRIENDS of mine have been in trouble recently and have called on me
for help. I’M talking of photographic trouble, of course. First came Roy
Johnson a member of C. R. C. who embarked on a picture taking session only
to find his film winding somewhat more stubborn than he thought normal. He
was right. For the velvet light trap on his re-loadable cassette had
folded back on itself causing the film to jamb. The taking session was
quite obviously abandoned and Roy had little choice than to retire to the
dark-room. Where the trouble was quickly traced and the offending film
removed and reloaded into another cassette.
This is not fortunately, a problem
encountered all that often although I have occasionally had it happen to
me. Just shows that a few minutes spent checking this sort of annoying
occurrence can save a great deal of wasted time ... apart from the
frustration at having a session interupted in this fashion.
Then my niece came to me with a tale of
woe, Her mirror had stuck. No Sir. NOT the one on her dressing table.
Within the innards of her Pentax this one was. Someone suggested a spot of
Three–in-one oil thinned down with paraffin. Throwing up my arms in
sheer ‘horror I persuaded her to let ME’have a look before’
subjecting the poor instrument to the ravages of an uncaring imbecile. A
little gentle talk to Pentax allied to some careful easing of it’s
vitals and the trouble was a thing of the past.
Some careful, and caring, advice
followed mind. Never touch the surface of the mirror in a single lens
reflex, I tolled her. “Why not, says she. “Because” says I, “The
thing is not as other mirrors. A camera mirror carries silver on the
surface “ I say. “And the slightest pressure, together with the grease
from your grubby little fingers can, and will play havoc with the
sensitive surface. And further, I said, “If you try to clean it you will
most probably impare the surface for ever. In fact PERMANENTLY” Amazing
how little knowledge some people ‘have, don’t you agree?
Then there’s Rita. She lives in my
neck of the woods and quite recently suffered a coronary. So she has given
up work. Left the running of her beauty-parlour to the staff, in fact. So
she decided on a hobby, you see. What kind of hobby? Can you guess?