The Compact Disc is dead. Long live music.

All for one pound sixty pence. A free newspaper with an album for £1.60
Sigur Ros compilation album with The Independent.

My Kingdom for a 32 bit horse....

In the long term I'm going to need to start using Linux again. I've just been reading about the new worm infecting computers running Windows called variously Conficker, Kido or Downadup. Read the article it's very easy to spread and from using other peoples machines via copying files on pen drives. So apart from practising "Safe Hex" the only thing is I need a Linux compatible modem most are windows surprise surprise and a new scanner for exactly the same reason. The Apple option is no longer available to me and a new computer is laughably out of the question. I've run a version of Linux called Suse and was impressed with it. It was very familiar if you've used windows before. Application wise OpenOffice and GIMP handle the writing and photediting applications. I'm using Firefox which is a Mozilla browser which also comes in a Linux flavour. So if I don't want to use the net or scan anything I'm alright. Oh and video there are some applications some of which you have to pay for. So Windows isn't straight in the bin just yet.

Much like banks, software and computer hardware companies have you by the short and curlies.....

BBC Complaints [T2009012800CWS060]‏

From complaintresponse@bbc.co.uk

Thank you for your e-mail.

We note your disappointment at our decision not to broadcast
an appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee to raise funds for Gaza.

We decided not to broadcast the DEC's public appeal
because we wished to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence
in the BBC's impartiality in the context of covering a continuing news story
where issues of responsibility for civilian suffering and distress are intrinsic
to the story and remain highly contentious. We also could not be confident that
the aid resulting from audience donations could reach those it was intended for
at a time of a fragile ceasefire and sporadic border access.
We will of course continue to report the humanitarian story in Gaza.

The BBC's director-general Mark Thompson has therefore explained
the decision in more detail in a number of television and radio broadcasts
and online at our Editors' blog.
Please follow the link to read his explanation in full:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/01/bbc_and_the_gaza_appeal.html

Please be assured that we have registered your comments on our audience log.
This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily
for all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC,
and also their senior management.  It ensures that your points, and
all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Regards

BBC Complaints

Funding approved for regeneration

in this weeks Gt Yarmouth Mecury news paper is the news of the successful funding of an area of the town As part of this scheme that is most interesting is the renovation of St Georges Theatre in the scheme. It will be transformed into a flexiable arts centre and communty hub. This will be completed by April of 2011.

Closer look at the town

St Georges theatre in the top left hand corner of this section of the mural.

Two sides of the town

The mural depicts two sides of the town. The town itself (which is on the right) and the countryside and broads that surround the town (which is on the left). A community project led by Mike Skipper. There's some pictures of this mural earlier in my blog I posted a couple of years before.

A mural revisted.

I paid a visit on the way back to the Color4all mural in Great Yarmouth to see the state it's in. This is situated in a subway in the town. The mural is in two halves of the corridor. there is another corridor that has been painted over but there has been no attempt at another mural. The work that color4all have done is slowly becoming covered in graffiti, dirt and cobwebs. I took some more pictures with the Pentax for some better quality images.

Walking back from Caister

Walking back from Caister. I live a few miles outside Lowestoft. Interestingly Beccles is only a 12 miles from Gorleston.

Halfway to Acle

Last night I walked to Caister and back. Norwich from here is 20 miles away.

Further darkroom steps I've taken

Paragon Universal Enlarger was one of the items I picked up today from Freecycle. Another developing tank, trays, darkroom light, tongs, framing board amongst other things. For the cost of picking it up well worth recycling for the cost of a bus ticket.

Looking for a source of leaks

Looking for the source of light leaks in the Zenit B. I think it's possibly coming from the area where the red arrow is in the image. There's a hole which was probably in the sibling machine the Zenit E light meter was attached. To the left there is also some signs of corrosion. So possibly linked. I can see a speck of light coming from this side in the view finder. I'll put some material in there and add some foam to the front of the mirror plate which is just a sliver of hardened material. It's that strip of material to the left of the red arrow. I suppose that was once rubber?
I could just through this away and get another Zenit body. But then that's a waste of material and money. I could also use this body to explore inside what is wrong with it further. The repair manual which I obtained from the Zenit users group has a list of options that are the common cause of leaks for this camera. The timer is jammed solid but I don't use that function mainly. Though that corrosion could've spread if that is what caused it.

...it's a fight against the idea that everything has to die when it doesn't create turnover

As quoted by Florian Kaps in the Independant On Sunday on his planned rescue of the abandoned Polaroid instant film format. He and in partnership with Ilford have bought a lease for the factory and equipment to make a new film for this camera format for next year. Polaroid had announced they would not make any more film in February 2008. They intend to release the new films the same date that the old Polaroid stock runs out. More information can be found at the impossible project.

A great quote even if you no interest in photography.

Enveloping moisture of thought

Enveloping moisture of thought
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

The breathing world

Pentax P30t + Cosinon f1.7/50mm + Kodak Full Color

I'm going to enjoy printing these colour negs into b+w when the darkroom comes to fruition.

The conception of an idea

Amateur Film Making by Peter Broderick
First edition
ARCO Publications 1964

Irony is somewhere between bronzy and silvery

The last two rolls of film I had developed contained faults. Both developed as ASDA. The roll developed at Lowestoft ASDA had three pictures which were defective. I got a free film as compensation. The second in Great Yarmouth ASDA. This last roll was seriously defective. Stains on prints and negatives, colour casts, light leaks, badly cut negatives, five images not even printed off the roll.

Leading me to think that my main film camera (Pentax P30t) was developing a fault.

So yesterday after I had found the developing tank pictured in the previous post I made my way to Tesco in North Lowestoft. With apprehension I picked up my prints. But I was pleasantly surprised that the quality was on the whole back to a normal standard. These places are supermarkets first and foremost. They are not specialised film development labs. If you call the manager let alone ask the operator on the whole they are not going to be well versed in the technical aspects of photography. If this was for a job I would use a professional developing service or as I am intending to do in the near future develop them myself. This post is not meant to be a rant. That is bad blogging.

My camera is not going wrong and I am very happy.

One small footstep towards a darkroom

Paterson Super System 4 Film Developing Tank

Television dreams

Television dreams

Freephotoguides

Found this brilliant site called http://freephotoguidesuk.blogspot.com/ . It does exactly what it says on the tin. It's a grassroots organised list of free photoguides for the UK. They need people to administer other areas of the UK as at present it is it has areas covered in Scotland, Wales, the Midlands and the South West. It is also part of a much larger series of free photo guides globally which website is http://freephotoguides.blogspot.com/

A warm cup of coffe in the stormy ocean that is the internet

Four years of blogging.

www.mallin.blogspot.com

Where are you all coming from?

I haven't done this in a while. But grabbed this image from my statcounter page. The image shows what location people are coming from to view. Over whemlingly it's from the UK and the USA in the top three. But Unknown is quite substantial at number two. So if you know the location of Unknown... it's flag or national anthem please speak out! *


*This post may contain irony.

Films from Dinostrich

Kodak MAX versaltility iso400
Kodak Gold iso 200

Message from Dinostrich

The wonder of Flickr

On Flickr user Dinostrich offered some surplus films for a donation towards a wildlife or childrens charity. Of course these will be posted onto Flickr in due course. So this morning they arrived.

That was the wonder of Woolies

This time last week the Woolworths chain of shops closed for the last time. This back entrance of the shop in Great Yarmouth was closed up much earlier in the eighties. For some the decline had already started then. For me as a child of the seventies it was the the most nearest entrance to the toy department and as an adult in the 21st century it sums up the present situation very well.

Great Yarmouth and Gorleston The Twentieth Century 1900 - 1999 by Colin Tooke

I have been enjoying this book "Great Yarmouth and Gorleston The Twentieth Century 1900 - 1999" by Colin Tooke. Well worth a read and look. If you are into history and photography you would find this very interesting. As it contains a wealth of pictures from the area covered by the title.

See how this develops

High street film processing is not what it use to be of ten years ago since I used it. Unfortunately it's a lottery as it's the weakest part of the chain where you have no control. In this part of Norfolk it is not so readily available to walk to a specialised film lab. I already changed from one source to another due to bad processing. So since November 2008 when I started using film again I have had three rolls with errors in developing out of eight rolls. But in perspective this does mean it is in less than a dozen images out of a total of 192. With just these 3 recent images that you can't repair in post on the computer.

So a search for consistency may mean self development or mail order film lab.

Kodak Color Plus

Kodak Color Plus iso 200 from of all places Poundland. That's a UK store where everything is priced a one UK pound. I have this in the camera waiting to finish a roll of this off. I was given this roll yesterday, so subsequently today I went and got ten rolls to play with. I'm very pleased with the Fujicolor C200 so will see what this is like. because I would like to use a more expensive film such as Kodak BCN400. Which is black and white film that you can get developed using a color process. Though this costs more. So I wont have to just use one or two rolls a month as an equivalent if I mix the two together.

earth resonance

earth resonance
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

The soil is turning over for a fresh season of growth.

Came across this newly ploughed field when shooting a test roll in my Zenit B. I hadn't used this camera since 1986. Don't ask me why because I don't really know the answer. It was only five years later when I got a computer for music sequencing did I get a scanner... then the image making began again.

Zenit B + fujicolor C200 + sunny16 + little bit of burning the sky in

Can you tell what it is yet?

Example of a picture taken by the DIY macro.
This just a smaller 600 x 600 pixel of the larger image.

The DIY macro Lens

Gaffa taped the Helios44 F2/58mm lens off my Zenit 3 onto my Cosinon 50mm prime lens on my DSLR. Must say works a treat. Tried it with these two lens because they match each other diameter wise and physical size. Don't want to cause any physical damage to either lens or camera body.

I found my first camera

In the first half of the 1980s... My first electric guitar was an Ibanez ST55... my first synth was a Roland SH101... but the Prinzflex 500 was my first camera at around 1984. A rebaged Zenit B. Being the same as the Zenit E but without the light meter. Probably why I prefer manual cameras today.... Similar to the Zenit 3 in that is of a similar specification and layout. The cloth like covering gives it a vaguely Ashi Pentax Spotmatic look I think. Serial number 70118661 denoting made in 1970.

The Industar-50-2 3.5/50mm lens is quite a find. The number 2 denotes it's a M42 srew mount rather than M39. So I'm pleased that with an appropriate M42 adapter it can fit on any camera body. The non stepped aperture is changed from the outer ring at the front and the focus is by the external ring at the back. The lens serial number is 6968772 so from first two numbers denotes made in 1969.

After a test roll this has shown it has an intermittent light leak in the body. If it's not coming from the view finder I could temporarily gaffa tape the front and back seals externally and use the ever ready case. Though it could be reflected light coming through the view finder possibly. I was using this camera without a case on a sunny December day in 2008 since I last used it in 1986.

2009

A small post to herald its arrival. Hope everyone has a good year.