I am helping out a lady member of my Club with joining some online 'Clubs' such as 'Flickr' and 'ephotozine' and she has a 645 original from her late Husband who died in his Darkroom must have been 15 year or more ago -- well, she has never used his 645 and I kept telling her to let me check it out and I would give her some 120 film to try -- she is a 35mm NIKON FE user with 4 bodies -- at last she got it out yesterday -- there was the original box and luckily the Instruction book ( I had looked it up 'online' but could not memorise it all ! ) The camera body was loose in the box with NO body cap and the standard lens was loose with NO rear cap so you could see all the dust inside on the mirror ! I had a go to get out the battery holder -- no luck in her house so she let me take it all home and I tried to lever it out -- at last things MOVED and I saw indside a glimpse of batteries !! _ -- well, you can imagine after 15 years they had all leaked and the GOO was eating away at the plastic battery holder which came out with bits broken off !! I tried to glue it all together and washed off all the corrosion with a wet toothbrush, put in 6 new batteries but nothing happened -- the Lithium back-up battery had not been changed either and Pentax designed it with two very small holes needing a special tool to open the cover.
Wish Pentax had designed a better battery holder -- it was a real pig to open ! So it's back to a PENTAX service centre if she wants to use it!

Yes -- I am geeting fed up with being let down by manual Focus on my K10D -- I did some floodlt footbal using my 135mm f2.5 SMC Takumar because of the wider aperture f2.5 and all were OUT -- I have to focus much futher forward than normal and hope it hits the right spot -- then last night I was using my 50mm f1.7 A-Series on my K10D at f4 and they were out and the background was sharper !

WoW !! I want to move to DOHA -- I get only £25 -00 a job from the only local newspaper that pays at all !! (and NO free LUNCHES !! )

You do not have to LIVE in an area to belong to their Club -- Clubs will be pleased to get new mwmbers from anywhere !! Wish Brentwood Photo-Club had a waiting list !! There has been a 'new Lady' come with film and digital PENTAX cameras -- she came with another lady member who dropped out after being a member for a few years but never ONCE showed any PHOTOS -- she has a Rolleicord VB and won a lot of 120 film in the Christmas Party must be three years ago and has never loaded her Rollei with any of the film !! WE have members from West Horndon , Billericay, Ingatestone and even Newbury Park Ilford and several Nationalities : German, Spanish, Shri Lanka, Philippines, Ireland etc

How do they get such good depth of field at that magnification ?

I hope they put up the maximum FLASH synch speed to at least 1/250th second ! They did it once -- why not again ?

I have used PENTAX since the S3 I got in 1961 but my stuff is not good enough to make it to that 'Gallery' especially as it's mainly on FILM !

The way he walks around without camera on a strap and I nearly had a heart attack seeing him change film standing up with camera tucked under one arm .! Would never let him near my Pentax 6x7 or my 2002 Hasselblad 501CM -- then the 'studio photographer' has to do all those expensive 'polaroids' to get the exposure right even though he has a flash meter -- I NEVER used a Polaroid test -- just use an old Britsh 'BOWENS' flash meter and they come out OK !

Take it on B&W Film and expose more for the actual Statue not the sky and put an orange filter over the lens to darken the sky and it would come out GREEEEEAT !


Here are two I did on my free Kodak Brownie Box Camera model D -- I held a fiter over the lens of one -- it was old Ilford Delta 400 film 120 size I re-roled onto a 620 spool.

Stan Doe -- what a surprise to hear from you after all these years --!!
Yes. those were some Good Days for the Essex Group Pentax Club -- now I belong to Brentwood & District Photographic Club and am Past President - ex-Wife Beryl lives in MALTA with the bloke she went off with from Barking Photographic Society -- I started a NEW FAMILY at an Old Age with my new Young Filipina Wife -- well, who could resist a dolly 23 years younger !! WE have a Boy aged 13 and a Girl aged 14 and they are both camera owners ( but NOT PENTAX ) Humphrey Bishop who used to come to the Essex Group belongs to Brentwood -- he still has PENTAX as well.