IT`S LIGHT.... and IT`S STRONG!. Just a few years ago I had a Nikon camera the shutter blades of which were metal. My Nikon was part-exchanged for a later model... though I believe Tony Chuter (Area 22) still has his! So what - you may well ask. So these two shutters, Tony`s and mine, were made of Titanium which has now been re-discovered by the Japanese Company and being utilised once again as the strong light material to form the shutter blades in their latest models.

Strangely, this metal was also used as a material for the entire body of one model, was eventually discontinued because it was considered to be environmentally unfriendly. Now however, it appears to be freely available in abundance within the earth`s crust and, apparently, no longer considered to be an environmental hazard for it is being used, as I say, as a shutter material on one of the latest Nikons to appear on the British market. So if you have an odd £850 or so to splash out on a new model for the coming summer this new Nikon could well be for you!

There is also another new Nikon model available which has a phenomenal memory able to retain data regarding shutter speed and exposure details for as many as five rolls of 36 exposure films - though, as you increase the level information stored then the number of rolls the memory can handle will be less. Whatever next? The answer to that intriguing question is in the next item! In the meantime let me explain that the information for this one came from the Westminster Gazette of Grays the Nikon people and the news sheet came to me from Tony Chuter... so thanks to them.

WHATEVER NEXT? This was the question contained in the previous item. I didn't quite expect to include, so quickly, a piece which answers the point precisely and succinctly! But it came with the weekly visit from Roy Johnson who took over from me as Area Co-ordinator of Area 11. He had been reading through his copy of the Amateur Photographer wherein Polaroid were mentioned as having marketed a new model.

Whilst this new version is not, literally, all-talking, all-singing and all-dancing! It certainly does go part of the way. For it does, literally, TALK... to its sitters, of course. It says to its victims "Say cheese"... "Are you ready?" As well as other little gems. I also caught sight of a computer which prints on screen whatever is spoken to it!! As I repeat "Whatever next?"

RITA HAS A WORMERY! Yes it's perfectly true! She told me so herself! This contraption is like a square dustbin and some creatures she describes as `tiger-worms` live - hopefully happily - in the bottom and gobble the vegetable waste. Then valuable garden compost is dispensed to which the tiger-worms have contributed in no small way! But just in case you feel this column has forsaken photography for gardening let me assure you there is a point! It is that Rita, of Colchester, also has a new greenhouse and, with all the adjuncts is confident she will be producing an exotic array of plants and flowers to parade before her lens this coming snap-shotting season. For, you see, Rita is a dedicated, and competent artist with the camera and, like me, she is also an enthusiastic gardener. The two fit nicely into the scheme of things. For flowers, even the less exotic ones, lend themselves as sitters in the most patient way possible. And the resultant study can be amongst the most rewarding.