Let Us Intrude In Your Train Of Thought

Don't get steamed if we derail your train of thought. Make a bridge - or a trestle - and get over it. This is no time to be a sleeper. Switch to large format.

Aren't you sorry you started reading this?

Okay, enough of the train jokes. We are in a bind down here. We have had what appears to be a large amount of fresh large format film arrive and the fridge is getting crowded out.

Ilford HP5 - 400 ISO. Great 4 x 5 film and we've gotta lotta it.

Come down now for a bargain on this  - it is totally fresh.

Make tracks for the shop...

Oh Myyyy....I FInd Out

Well, that'll teach me.

And isn't it always the case - the things that you find out for yourself are the ones that stick with you.

I have been using an iMac and a Macbook Pro for several years, resetting the colour video cards inside the computers with a Datacolor Spyder 2 Express each month, and printing out on Ilford and Epson paper. All good and I've been happy.

Then recently the Spyder 2 Express started to go weird and I replaced it with a Spyder 4 Express. Slightly different routine for the operation, but equally simple to do. I tuned up the home and the work computers last week and carried on blithely.

Today Dom handed me some files that were taken at last night's shop party. I banged them into the Macbook Pro and then out to the shop Epson R3000 so that some of the reps could have  paper prints. Ilford Smooth Pearl 6 x 4 paper.

Wow. Better than before. Accurate colours and NO colour cast. I think the Spyder 4 Express has done something really good for the system. What, exactly, I cannot say. And this on a standard paper.

Note: I also brought back some Fujifilm printing paper from Japan to test it. Only one print so far on what amounts to a super-quality glossy but again it looks as if printing has gotten to a whole new level of accuracy...with no especial efforts on my part.

These are standard goods straight off the shelf here in the shop - with the exception of the Fujifilm paper. I know the business of colour management and printing is said to be hard but this seems easy. Perhaps it is all just hear-say...?

Clear the Decks! Rig For Borders! Evenly-spaced Borders!

We've trundled out a special rack and sign at the front of the shop - you'll see it as soon as you walk in the door. It's a big cardboard dump bin that we are going to refill each week - with something new each time.

We're talking overstock here, and bargains, and combo deals. Good stuff, and the kind of equipment and material that you need, but at a great bargain price. You get 'em courtesy of our new shop fit and the fact that we are running out of space to rack things up. If we sell it we don't have to stack it.

This week's score is 200 sheets of Ilford paper for the price of 100. You buy an A4 box of 100 Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl for $ 85 and we throw in a free box of 100 sheets of the same paper in the 6" x 4" size.

Print big for yourself and then make some postcards to keep the family and friends happy. You win either way as Ilford Smooth Pearl  is one of the best general-purpose inkjet papers made.

Special goes for a week. Don't miss out.

Big Boxes O Bargains This Week With Ilford Paper

Those of you, and us, who use Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl paper for a standard image carrier will be gratified by the March Madness Sale that is going on this week here at the shop.

In addition to big discounts on cameras, lenses and equipment, we have dropped the Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl paper considerably. Thus:

A4................ 1oo-sheet box........................................$ 59

A3+.............. 25 +10 sheet box..................................$ 47

A2.................25 sheet box...........................................$ 82

This is a super-cheap way to get good printing paper. Already the boxes are flying out the door and this is just the first day.

Please note that while we call it the March Madness Sale we ain't going to be crazy for the entire month. Sanity will prevail after this coming Saturday, so get in THIS WEEK if you hope to score a bargain.

After Saturday we will chew through the straps and escape.

Hop In For Your 4 x 5 Chop

Users of 4 x 5 large format film will be rewarded by an oversight here at Camera Electronic.

We got in a little too much of the excellent Ilford Delta 100 sheet film in this format...and consequently would appreciate shifting it to gain room in the film fridge.

Users will know that it is the Ilford equivalent of the tabular grain Kodak T-Max film and as such gives a grain structure significantly smaller and sharper - the best way to think of it is as if you were using 8 x 10 film of the regular grain type.

Anyway, help us out here and we'll help you out - 16% discount on one box - 20% discount on 3 or more boxes. Offer good until we clear 'em out a little.

Ring Uncle Dick and he'll organise it.

How Do You Go Bust Baking Bread ?

I watched the rise of the franchise boutique bakery here in Perth - the Brumby's and Baker's Delight and such - and applauded it all the way. At least I applauded with the hand that wasn't holding the jam doughnut. They have achieved a success that is richly deserved - because they make a good product that everybody likes and uses. No-one ever complains about jam doughnuts. Jam doughnuts are a standard of the industry.

I would have thought that the Ilford company was in much the same position as the bakeries - and I am speaking about the division of their firm that manufactures paper for inkjet printing. Dance how you wish, their Galerie Smooth Pearl and Smooth Gloss have been the standard of the industry for as long as I have been inkjetting. One thought of them as classic cash cows, wandering through the paper paddocks and yielding profit for the company whenever they were milked...

Such would appear not to be the case. the paper division of Ilford has gone bust. They are casting about in Switzerland looking for a buyer or some other solution to the financial crisis. Out here in the boonies we are gathering all the supplies of the classic papers that we can to ensure that our clients can continue to print. We also hope for a buyer solution, but of course we will also be looking at other brands.

I wonder if they have the same accountant as Eastman Kodak? Or the South Sea Bubble...

Uncle Dick

Cameras In The Trenches - The Next Four Years

We are just about to see the centenary of the First World War. From August of this year to November of 2018 we are going to get periodic reminders of the events of the twentieth century - spaced out as manufacturers, film producers, and politicians cash in on the thing. I have a number of predictions for the photographic side of it.

1. There will be an ANZAC camera - in fact several of them.

 Someone will package up a film disposable with images of ANZAC cove and an Australian...and possibly New Zealand... flag printed on the cardboard outer sleeve. it is likely that the RSL will sell them from street stalls at the appropriate time of the year - it is absolutely certain that they will appear on eBay from Hong Kong.

There will also be a commemorative waterproof camera produced by either Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, or Olympus with some sort of ANZAC marketing. Perfect for capturing pictures at dawn on a beach.

There will be a professional ANZAC video camera developed by the ABC. It will be issued to film crews covering various commemoration ceremonies. The most interesting feature of the device will be the incorporation of the "reptile-recognition" button. Whenever this is pressed the camera will automatically focus upon a state or federal politician with a sombre expression on their face. It will hold this focus until the politician's rating in the Gallup poll rises by 2%.

2. The Leica company will re-issue a re-issue of the Leica O camera with a digital sensor inside. It will not function, but this is not viewed as a problem - indeed it can't be vied at all - the entire production run will be sent directly from Wetzlar to Hong Kong and will disappear into the interior of China.

3. The Reica company of Guang Zhao will issue a re-issue of a re-issue of a camera that looks really very much like a...Oh...whatever was I thinking?

4. Kodak will invent a new film format, then cancel it, then go broke again.

5. The Ilford company will issue anti-Zeppelin film for use in 35mm cameras. We will stock it here at Camera Electornic and can confidently predict that the city will not be attacked by Zeppelins. We do our bit for Australia.

6. LOMO will make something out of plastic that exposes film through a plastic lens. It will resemble a camera. It will be packaged in 115 layers of propaganda and cost as much as a small digital camera. It will be themed upon WW1. In 2017 it will be repackaged as a revolutionary product. It will be manufactured in China.

7. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT will be re-filmed with aliens and pirates. It will star Angelina Jolie in the role that originally used Ernest Borgnine.
Will Smith may star as the Kaiser if contractual arrangements work out. If the Japanese buy into the financing there will be Hello Kitty in a stahlhelm with a Mauser rifle as a sniper.

8. The Department of Maintenance will take take the opportunity of changing and cleaning the carpets in Parliament House in Canberra during April 2015. All the federal politicians, advisers, secretaries, and ABC camera operators will be fact-finding and commemorating in Turkey during this month and it will give time to let the carpet glue smell dissipate. A large mat will be put out the front door to get the beach sand off when they came back...

9. Camera club presentations nights will feature military and naval subjects. The local re-enactors will be seen from every angle. Someone will fall over on parade and appear on the front page of the local paper.

10. Four good movies will be made of the conflict - one will involve airplanes and will be filmed by Peter Jackson. One will be of trench warfare and will be filmed in Yugoslavia.
If it is paid for by the French they will show more people sitting around eating than fighting. The American film industry will craft something around Belleau Wood.
The Swedes will make something gritty and depressed and the Germans will help them do it but it will pale into insignificance with the spectacular that the Russians will make in 2017 to celebrate being revolting. The theme of the 2017 Russian film will be " We were right - really we were. Honest to Putin, we were."

Put on your tin hats and look for a better 'ole...

'Ol Uncle Dick

A Quicky After You Finish Work

Well, just one.

When you have printed your Ilford or Epson paper on your Epson inkjet printer and laid the print aside to dry for the requisite period, what do you do?

1. Forget where you put it and set a sloppy coffee cup down on it.
2. Find it the next day lining the budgie cage.
3. Trim it accurately and mount it for the club competition.
4. All the above in that order.

I find it is helpful to wander around the workroom looking for my glasses until I stumble on the print. I do not enter club competitions but nevertheless I try to keep a printed archive as well as the electric images in the hard drive. This has saved my zebra on two occasions when I deleted the very files I needed.

Separate note: Do not purchase gold ingots, contract marriage, or edit electronic images after 10:00 at night - it always ends badly.

But to the point. We sell a rather natty Promaster rotary trimmer for the No.4 stage listed above. It seems to be square on the paper guide and blade path and is sturdy enough for regular use. Better than a pair of scissors and a concentrated expression on your face...

Ilford Bumper Crop Now In - Get Your Extra A4 Paper

The paper trees on the north slopes of the Laurentian Shield have bloomed well this year and the Ilford company has been able to harvest a lot more Smooth Pearl Galerie paper in A4 size. The ox-drawn paper wagons have returned from the woods laden with this fine inkjet paper and as a result of the surplus, Ilford have packed 35 sheets into a 25 sheet pack for the same price.

This means that you have more printing paper - if you are accustomed to doing test prints you can do 10 more of them before you do the final print. Or you can do 10 more final prints. Your choice. Please see the advertisements for monitor and printer calibrators that we have posted in the past if you think the latter option the better one...

This bumper harvest* is a once-a-year event - when the boxes of 25 + 10 sheets are sold you'll have to wait for next year. Therefore this is a very good time to come in and buy some A4 paper.

*Harvesting bumpers is a lot more popular now that cars generally don't have hubcaps. Just fasten a chain to them and drive away fast. A chap out in Gosnells has a collection of every Hyundai front bumper ever made. I tried to buy the '93 Getz in Lime Green from him but he was trying to gouge the price...

Permission To Have Fun, Sir? - - With Ilford

You can sit there at the computer only so long HDR'ing a picture of a beach before you start to slump sideways. Likewise processing cubic yards of bridal parties or school balls. Eventually you are forced to turn the laptop off with a brick and go looking for a drink.

This sort of ennui is not new - film photographers used to develop it ( geddit...) after about 6 hours in the gloom of a darkroom trying to get the ghost gum in the paddock on one corner of the print to match tone with the dead galah on the other corner. It was a relief to have someone stumble into the darkroom and ruin all the work. You could vent your rage and burst into tears and it was all someone else's fault.

I am not sure if the wet-plate or daguerreotype workers were bored - they generally were on the leading edge of the art and one step ahead of either poisoning or blowing themselves up. Maybe Fox Talbot got sick of waiting for the leaves to appear on the paper...

Well, we have the answer to the blah's. Get yourself an Ilford Pinhole kit. Comprises a well-built plastic frame with a "bellows" that is rigid out the front, a laser-drilled pinhole, a number of sheets of paper and film, and a calculator for the exposure.

I'll correct that -it is a calcu-later as most of the exposures you will be doing involve sitting patiently for seconds, if not minutes. Take a book and a big orange drink.

You'll need to source 4 x 5 double dark slides to slip into the back - or you could use a roll film holder if you wanted to be a spoil-sport. The three boxes of film and paper are Delta 100 in 4 x 5, Harman Positive paper, and Ilford Multigrade in 4 x 5. This means you can do paper negatives, direct positives, and regular negatives, and all you'll need to develop them is a 4 x 5 tank, or a simple set of trays in a darkroom. The chemistry will be plain old Ilford B/W stuff - no need for exotics or poisons.

The frame has an integral bubble level for landscapes and two 1/4" 20 sockets on the sides to let you do landscape or portrait. As the exposure times are so long, portraiture may be problematical, but remember it has been done before and it can be done again. You will have fun trying and the results have a soft focus charm of their own.

I particularly recommend that you Google up Photo Secession and " The Onion Field" to see how lovely it can all look.

Not To Panic - with Ilford

We have been seeing a number of photographers here in the last few weeks looking for inkjet printing paper. Several were worried when the looked for Ilford Galerie Smooth pearl paper in the familiar red box.

They could see that there was an Ilford box that said Smooth pearl, but it was a more complex design and had the word "Prestige" at the top. They worried that their old favourite paper had vanished.

Panic not. the new Smooth Pearl is every bit as good as the old Smooth Pearl and has the advantage that it is just a little thicker - 310 gsm vs 290 gsm. Same great surface and compatibility with Canon and Epson inks and same great results - really a standard of the industry.

So print away, kids - and if you need the paper profiles make sure to go to the Ilford website.