GRAB YOURSELF A PARTNER !! "it disturbs me to read that members are still using hybrid - even redundant - formulae for E6 films". So writes Tony Chuter in the booklet accompanying, and circulating with the Area 20 folio of slides. The practice may just about get you by for a few emulsions. "Of course", he says, "If you cannot guarantee the accuracy of the pH values of the various solutions you are further handicapped and it`s sheer luck if you achieve acceptable results".

Tony goes on to suggest an interchange of, say, half an exposed roll to be sent to willing co-operator to process and for you to process the other half. If one of the `team` has a pH meter, and uses the Club brew, then this could well show up any faults that could be occurring - perhaps even some not known about. This seems to me to be a sensible and fully workable arrangement and there must be couples within each area who could get together, possibly through their Area Co-ordinator, to test out the theory in practice. So go to it! Bombard your Co-ordinator! Get yourself a partner! Do it NOW!

GLYN FILLS THE GAPS! In the same booklet, mentioned above, Glyn Willicombe who resides down there in the West Country, is ecstatic in his praise of an article by Robert Chapman in the American Magazine, "Darkroom Techniques". The article is a definitive study of the chemicals used in the E.6 formulation. Glyn confirms the excellence of the article and goes on to say that it has filled in many of the gaps on the functions of chemicals we use. "It confirms" says Glyn, "What I have suspected for some time - my failures with the C.R.C. Formulae probably stems from my water supply. Not because it is soft, but because it contains iron and for this reason it is advisable not to use EDTA as the chalating agent in the colour developer".

"An analyst carried out by Wessex Water Authority confirms not only iron in the water but a high level of other metals as well" Glyn wonders whether the reaction taking place is EDTA Na2 + Fe - EDTA Na Fe + Na. Have I been using - until I stopped using a chalating agent - a colour developer contaminated with a bleaching agent?".

Apparently Wessex Water Authority have some sources giving a low pH and this has to be adjusted in order to protect the pipework. Mike Puttick, in the same Folio booklet, thinks Glyn`s chemical reaction is not quite right though the EDTA Na2 is affected by the iron as, indeed, are other metals such as Copper, Lead and so on... and stops it carrying out it`s normal function.

DID YOU KNOW? That the largest and most expensive industrial camera ever built is the 27 tonne Rolls Royce camera commissioned in 1956 and now owned by BPCC Graphics Ltd. of Derby. It measures 8ft 10" high, 8 1/4" wide and 46 feet long with a 63" lens. Phew! Some instrument. Imagine lugging that around to cover a wedding!!

AVOIDING THE BADDIES! George Sparkes, Area 22 Co-Ordinator, indulges in a spot of nostalgia and looks back to the Area`s roots in his local Newsletter. He recalls buying a leitz projector, bulk film from Ferrania and processing kits from Johnsons of Hendon but maintains that these were consistent in quality than the ones available today.

There was a lot of discussion over film batches, some of which needed "tweeking". Bottles were known to leak in some kits or else the contents precipitated. Members would search amongst the bulk film containers in order to avoid the codes of the `bad` batches!

George remembers one odd character who asked for advice after a disasterous processing session. It turned out that he had mixed together the contents of each bottle in the kit! George doesn`t remember whether he bothered with white light reversal! It certainly takes all sorts, doesn`t it?.

LONE PRODUCT - 75 PAGES! I am indebted to Tony Chuter - via Ron Croad - for the oppertunity of seeing, and writing about, the most unusual and amazing photographic catalogue I have ever seen!

It is a full colour, 75 page affair beautifully printed and presented on top quality paper. So what`s unusual, you ask? Well it virtually offers but one product! Despite its 75 pages! ONE product? Well yes. One product with just a few ancilliary and helpful gadgets associated with that one product. The product? Simply the transparency mount!

So what`s amazing, you may further ask? The answer to this one is that the variety of differing cut-outs of these mounts. That`s what is truly amazing! There are cut-outs to suit every possible situation and every type of shot. Squares, oblongs, circles, triangles, stars, maple leaves, question marks and maps of the U.S.A. and of Europe! Oh! and yes! there`s even a convention cut-out suitable for the ordinary 35mm frame ... just like the one we are all familiar with!

There are also coloured gels in singles and complete kits. There are trimmers and mounting gadgets from the simple to the sublime. Cotton gloves, cleaning solutions and storage albums are amongst the more mundane items on offer/ Amazing! Indeed every page is a veritable adventure! No prices are included but if you should want further information the address is:- AVS Distribution, 1a. Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7PA.
Tel. 071-734- 3344.

THE REDS & YELLOWS. Mike Puttick asks if any member can help with an unusual and difficult problem. He asks for advice on a particular method of copying slides to restore them to normal colour following their exposure - mistakenly - via a red and yellow filter! The film was thought to be a black & white emulsion and, of course, the exposures are either yellow or red overall!

It is intended to copy onto black & white as the colour wont matter but he asks, will it be possible - or indeed worthwhile - attempting to correct the slides for colour.? I confess I don`t really know the answer to this one - or even if an answer is possible - but if the problem were my own, and assuming the shots cannot be re-photographed, the dust-bin would seem to be the logical resting place!

REACTION FAVOURABLE! There has been some reaction - mostly, I`m glad to relate quite favourable, to my piece in the October issue dealing with chemicals and their use in the E6 process.

Mostly, as I say, favourable. But from Major Pearle of Colchester comes a mild rebuke! He maintains that I should have included a warning that not all chemicals in their raw state are stable. Indeed, he points out, one of the E6 system`s most variable in this respect is also amongst the most important. It is the colour the colour developing agent C.D.3 and I will agree with Major Pearle ... up to just a point. If this raw chemical is not cossetted just a little during storage it CAN - and probably will - "go off"!

Cossetted? Well the Pearles tell me they stack up rather heavily and so, when a new stock arrives, the chemical is re-packed into small containers so that each is full, thereby ensuring a minimum of air space. This, I must say, is a sensible precaution. Me? I simply empty the new stock into a plastic bag and bung the bag, tightly fastened, together with it`s contents, into the original container.

Perhaps I should explain that any deterioration, which is quite slow anyway, is quite apparent visually. When C.D.3 is quite fresh it is basically white, but with a faint, barely disernable, pink tinge. The colour will change to a deeper reddish colour with age. But I would further explain that such deterioration to the point of danger, will take a very long time. I have had C.D.3 more than two years old and it is still perfectly healthy. At the same time it is as well to take elementary precautions, as I`ve outlined, when this stock arrives.

WEIRD AND WONDERFUL. These are the words to describe a colourful booklet given away with an issue of Practical Photography. It certainly does open ones` eyes to how some of the special effects are created. A typical example is a shot of the toast flying through the air after having completed its stint in the electric gadget which is designed to give it the sun-burnt appearance. Of course most of you will know just how it is attained! Though a friend of mine was astounded at the patience of the photographer sitting there waiting the exiting climax with his camera and high-speed flash-gun at the ready! The naivety of the man!

Not so easy to accomplish is an attractive shot of a full-blown rainbow emerging from a packet of fruit gums. This is amongst the most effective of the examples and is done with the aid of multiple exposures which, of course, involves careful pre-planning and even this can be extremely dicey - especially working in colour.

An other impressive picture was achieved by bas relief. In colour this really can bring a gasp of incredulity. I`ve never ventured into this world with colour though I have in the distant past experimented - I think somewhat successfully - in black & white.

All in all this is a most interesting booklet with literally dozens examples and differing journey`s to achieve them. Makes you wonder, though, at the time and patience required to get a breath- taking special effects photograph on film. Which the television camera can emulate - in a matter of seconds at the touch of a button.

SO SORRY! There was a typing error I spotted in the October issue. In the article on pages four and five the pH values for the First Developer was given as 12. This should have been 9,7. My apologies.