One Roo More Or Less

Our Australian readers will groan at that pun, but at least they will be rewarded when they come to the end of this blog post...they will get to turn off the computer and go and get some work done. The North American and European readers may puzzle at the image and the title.

Well, the farm cart that you see is a traditional one that was used in Australia since before the turn of the last century. It was also adopted for use in wartime for water supply to Australian troops. As they gathered around it to draw water for their sections, they would pass the latest gossip...or rumour...amongst each other. Thus any unconfirmed bit of  news or plan - that might very well prove to be false - was termed a furphy.

We have them here in the photographic trade as well. Of course a lot of them can be rejected out of hand as nonsense...the planned introduction of the atomic powered helicopter bubble car camera that made full chicken dinners out of a little green pill has long been exploded. Apparently that was disinformation put out by the LOMO company when it was still run by the Soviets to prevent sales of the similar product by the Flapoflex company in America. The American one did sell in small numbers in Florida and Minnesota but was never a commercial success. The organic fur-covered slime monster camera took all the sales...

And that is how it still works, but this time the manufacturers merely have to prod the enthusiasts who write for the internet and let them do the speculation and/or lying to each other. There are enough people in the " don't-know " to make it work. The people in the companies that really ARE going to introduce a new product - or delete an old one - are probably bemused by what the enthusiasts say to each other. Possibly they make notes on it and steer the R&D department into new fields.

Whatever, we can definitely say that rumours always prove to be either right or wrong or none of the above. If we predicate our purchases upon the forum wrangling we might miss out on opportunities to get real equipment right now and then to go out and use it to make images that can never be repeated.

Think about the chap who went out to Lakehurst, New Jersey one evening to take a picture of the German zeppelin HINDENBURG  as it came in to land. He probably had an old Speed Graphic and a couple of plate holders that his editor had given him. Now, he could have been at home reading the trade press predicting the next fast lens and how much better it was going to be to take pictures of airships and he might have waited...

Oh...