SECRETARY'S NOTES
I have a feeling that this is not one of our best summers, but this has not appeared to have prevented you from taking your normal quota of slides. Of course I am judging this observation on the amount of film that I have sent out to our members. The response to the Committee's decision to stock Konica film has been very good, and that must be good news for the Club at it is a service that is very pleasant to fulfill.
One of the good things about sending out the film is that I find that I am getting in contact with a lot more members. It is a very nice feeling when some of you pop in little notes telling me that you have used the film before and how it has performed for you. One lady has even been trying it out under water. I would love to know how it turned out.
There is little point about the distribution --- could you please make out all cheques to the Colour Reversal Club, so that I do not have to go through the process of cashing them in and re-writing a cheque fore the Treasurer.
If you also put in a self addressed sticky label then I can get your film back in most cases by return of post. The exception will be when I have to re-order. As we are allowed to order in small quantities, and Konica meet my orders in a couple of days, I do not have to carry a huge stock. This is so that what I have is fresh. There is no point in having a lot of film in my freezer going out of date, so what we have literally comes from Konica to you.
One of my recent letters was on the subject of re-useable cassettes. The author was concerned about the increase in use by manufacturers of crimped cassettes that have to be more or less torn apart to get at the film. His worry was that in the future bulk film would cease to exist. I don`t think he should worry over much, as the spiked cassettes are mainly because of the Colour Print part of the Photographic scene. Manufacturers of films are in business to sell as much film as they possibly can. 90% of the film today is Colour Print so you can not blame the makers for wanting to be as foolproof as is possible.
However on the good side (for us) is the fact that all the serious photographers use transparencies. It is the only material that the publishers will accept for reproduction. The colour brightness and density are much better on slides, so I think they will be around for a long time yet.
The cassettes that use Konica film are DX coded, but are not spiked. They come apart very easily and can be re-assembled simply. After having trouble with scratches while using `Rowi` cassettes from Phototec, I bought a batch Jessop`s plastic ones. They have given me no trouble at all.
When on holiday in France, I was given a sharp reminder that there are a lot of crooks in that part of the world than at home. While on a beach with only four other people in sight, our camera with most of Sue`s camera kit and valuables were stolen. So if you go to the mediteranian for your holiday, make sure that you are insured or it could turn out to be a disaster. Even with a good insurance it took three days of our holiday to sort out the trouble.
There is a lot of writing done on the colour balance of various films. I recently borrowed a small book called 'Colour and the Environment', from the local mobile library. Its worth reading. On one page is a series of all 11 prints of the same place. They are taken at different times of the day and months of the year. Some look as if they have been taken in a totally different place. The difference in colour balance varies from predominant orange to predominant blue - it made me wonder if there is any bad colour film on the market. In fact I am pretty sure they are all good.
Good Shooting. Ron.