WE`VE ONLY JUST BEGUN

By Margary and Kevin Maskell (Area 13)

(A tale of two people going on holiday)

Way back in December 1989, we were booked to a Fly-Drive trip to the west coast of the United States of America, from 23rd April to 17th May, with the intention of starting at San Fransisco, and finishing at Los Angelous 24 days later.

We planned a route first, which took in some of the National parks of california, Navada, Utah and Arizona. Then we had to decide what film to take, and what equipment.

Now came the hard part. HOW MUCH ?

This took several days effort of trying to work out how much film we were likely to use per day. We eventually came to a staggering total 30 cassettes of 35mm, 50 rolls of 120 and 109 rolls of 220, plus 100 rolls of TMAX!!!

Once the decision was finally made, the next problem we faced was what CAMERA EQUIPMENT to take?

This was determined by the two bags which had to hold the film as well as he equipment, and fitted the size to be taken on the plane as hand luggage, as follows:

Bronica ETR-S with 40mm, 75mm, 150mm lenses, & 2x converter, plus 220 and 120 backs;

Mamiya 645 Super with 55mm, 80mm, 150mm lenses and 2x converters, plus 220 and 120 backs.

Two Olympus OM2s with 35-70mm and 70-150mm lenses;

Olympus OM1 body as spare.

(It didn`t help that we each had complete medium format systems before we met, but it would have been too expensive for one of us to change).

The above were some of the decisions we had to make before our holiday begun!!!

To Be Continued...