A Modest Proposal - Written Swiftly

I watched a camera enthusiast recently prepare for an overseas trip to one of the world's notorious danger spots - Hartlepool on Bank Holiday I think he said. He wanted to take equipment that would return extremely high quality images of the natives and he needed absolute reliability. It was a pleasure to see him bring his large cardboard carton of DSLRs, lenses, chargers, laptop computers, power adapters, and screen shields into the shop and try to fit them into a backpack. The thought of him staggering up to the Qantas desk with something the size and weight of a domestic refrigerator dependent upon his shoulders and trying to get it through carry-on baggage kept me warm for hours.


Thank goodness he had not thought of taking a Hasselblad 500-series film camera with an 80mm Planar lens on his trip. I carefully avoided suggesting it, and concealed the fact that he could pick up Pro-packs of 120 film in London, take superb pictures, and have the negs processed before he leaves England. I hope no-one else lets him into the secret, because we want to sell him an even larger bag, and a book of coupons for the chiropractor when he gets back.

And don't you DARE explain how easy it is to scan  negs into a computer with an Epson V700 and file them away safely forever.