GOOD AND BAD FROM ERIC!
A letter from Eric Weatherill of Lincoln and Area 11 brings a mix of news good and bad! Eric`s wife, Joe, had an operation in the summer to remove two discs from her spine which unfortunately, was far from successful. In between subsequent surgery, Eric says, she has some good... and some bad days.
All of which has meant Eric has had to curtail his photographic pursuits more than a little. In fact, as he says, he hardly exposed a single cassette for almost a full year.
The good news is that he is determined to get back to normality in the coming season - photographically speaking, of course - and indeed has treated himself to one of those Hi-Tech, all-singing, all-dancing Nikons in joyful and boyish expectations!.
In anticipation of a busy season last year Eric mixed a full litre of solutions, to the Club formulae, of course, but was unable to use them at all. Well not quite all for he finds the fixer and bleach still `as good as new` ... the rest however, the developers, the reversal and the conditioner were all discarded. Wise man!
A new mix recently, a quick trial run on New Konica and the colours says Eric, look just great.
His new Nikon F90 he describes as providing a `traumatic change` from his Nikon FA - even for a guy reasonably in tune with modern technology! The flash and camera, between them, have a total of 32 buttons or Knob. Phew! No wonder he also admits he sometimes longs for the old mechanical no-nonsense instruments of a by-gone age! Particularly when the F90 winks it`s lights, makes awful rude noises or refuses outright to do what it`s been ordered to do! Despite all this the technical wizardry does work fantastically well when used correctly.
Fill-in flash has always been something of a hit and miss business for me, he says, but now I just switch on, point and shoot. There`s perfect balance between flash and back-lighting... every time!
Some of the figures are enough to make your hair curl! Shutter speed up to 1/8000th sec.! Flash to 1/4000th sec.! And up to 160 flashes during a single exposure! Eric, though, does come back to Earth when he says "These are NOT facilities to be used every day!" ... Gee! Oh Gosh! Oh Golly! ... they`d scare the living daylights out of me!. But Eric still maintains he`s having FUN trying them all! Have you touched on the right one of those 32 buttons during your fun runs, Eric?
Eric is `quite puzzled` regarding the trouble which are apparently being encountered by members using the C.R.C. Formulae. He is still using the original mix published in 1988 and, so far, he has had excellent results with no trouble at all. I can only second this. With care and accuracy the formulae is capable of turning out first class slides. It is at it`s best with the new Konica emulsion.
Ron Knowles.