It wasn’t so much his bigotry that appalled me. One can ignore boorish, ugly people with little effort. There is, after all, always the remote control.

It was the fact he called himself a ‘comedian’, but he wasn’t actually funny.

That’s a fairly significant shortcoming.

Moggy

You may not like him, but he made millions of pounds from his comedy act, over many decades, playing to packed houses and very large TV audiences who appeared to be laughing all the way thru his act.

He was therefore, by any standard, a very,very funny comedian.

Even if he was racist.

BBC news has reported that veteran comedian, Bernard Manning has passed away at 76.
I can not say i was a fan of his racist or sexist act, I felt that was very much outdated but i am sure he had his fans.

I once heard him on tv refute an accusation of racism by saying something along the lines of that his act cannot be considered racist as the jokes covered every race, creed ,colour and religeon – not just black people – and he said it with utter belief and conviction !!

Yes, there was a range of Retina Reflex series cameras including folding models IIc and IIIc with coupled range finders.

For an interesting trip down memory lane, or into history for younger folk, Ivor Matanle’s ‘Collecting and Using Classic SLRs’ is a most rewarding book. You will find some info on Retinas in there.

I always found the SRT101 with its CLC meter very reliable when used with a little nouse. As with any camera mounted meter the trick was to point the camera slightly down to get a reading and set at that. Then adjust by adding or subtracting 1/2 – 1 stop according to sun position if bright. On overcast days there were few issues. I founf Kodachrome II on dull days accentuated the reds something amazing, which could depend on lens in use. This down to red and blue being in sharp focus at different points and thus reds could spread a little.

In 1968 it was really something to have such a reliable meter in the camera and with an auto (stop-down as shutter is pressed) diaphragm lens with a bayonet-fit. This was about as good as it got. Unlike Nikons of the day there was no need to reset the meter as a lens was changed.

Metering, auto-diaphragm and rapid lens changing were the reasons I went for the SRT101 (also it felt good and solid in the hand – today picking one up sans lens one cannot but be impressed by its weight). Canons of the day had not settled into a homogenous design. Pentax had that slow change 42mm thread lens mount and were lightly constructed.

Focusing using a fresnel screen became more difficult as my eyes aged and a split focusing would have helped which to be fair was available in some Minolta X700s.

I recall trying out an uncle’s Edixa Prismat with pre-set lenses. An innovation on that was an accessory which cable connected the shutter button to the lens allowing the lens to be stopped down quickly, but it was a clumsy arrangement.

I used to collect old cameras avidly (and still have some tucked away) and i had a quick trawl thru after my last post – cannot find the camera with the weather symbols as described, but still have both a Retinette and a Retina reflex amongst others…

Best cameras that i ever had, in order of appearance were: an Olympus Pen D half-frame (small and suprisingly good results – cheap to run as well as it was my first ever camera), a Nikon EM (bit simple and limited as i recall, but good results) a Hassablad 500CM (via work – fantastic, but a pain to use) and later a Nikon FM2 (lovely,lovely,lovely – built like a tank – the perfect SLR)

I have just been given a fairly immaculate Pentax ME-Super and lens set by a rel who no longer needs it and it appears to work perfectly once i had fitted a new battery.

Michael

PS appols for wandering off the forum topic of “Tutorial” – i realise i am getting a bit misty-eyed here… 🙂

This is an area where I often wonder about today’s all singng all dancing SLR, whether digital or film.

As long as I can get film I will hang on to my old SRT101s which now have a far better range of lenses available for use than when I was on Ark in the early 70’s. Bought one camera body plus standard Rokkor f1.7 lens and a Tamron 135mm in UK before embarking and another SRT101 with standard f1.4 Rokkor in Gib’ plus a 28mm Rokkor wide angle on our way out of the Med at the end of 70. Added a 300mm Tamron whilst in the Caribbean.

No worries if the batteries went flat, if the light was tricky I would use my trusty Weston Master V, which I still have along with its invercone and brown leathger pouches.:D

Considering the conditions that these cameras were used over time the fact that they still work speaks for them.

Such a shame that the digital era has heralded increasing obsolescence.

i agree – i have a canon 300D now and am very pleased with its reliability – it has been all over the world in the last 3 years without any problems – but i would love to find a digital camera that was as compact, light and most importantly rugged as my Nikon FM2 was. there is something inherantly lovely about a mechanical camera.

Michael

PS apropos of flat batteries – i just used to work to the rule that i use 125 @ f8 if you can see any sort of shadow, 125 @ f2.8 if you cant see any sort of shadows and 250 @ f11 if you need sunglasses 🙂 . It may be old school , but it generally works (100 asa)

So can we see Mr Halstead venturing into the airline business again, & will his second venture be as successful as his first seems to have been? 😀

Allegedly…:rolleyes:

in all seriousness for a second… he clearly has lots of drive and self-belief. Surely he could do worse than put himself forward for “The Apprentice” ?

In Stoke-On-Trent, they used to have “Potteries Motor Transport” buses, emblazened with “PMT Buses” on the side…..

Living in Manchester is an oxymoron.

Live in Liverpool. You can then commute to Manchester and spend as little non-work time there as possible.

Unless, of course, you are of the gay persuasion in which case Manchester will be like a home from home.

Moggy 😉

Ha – ignore the Moggies wailings…

1) South Manchester is nicer than north but more expensive.

2) Liverpool is OK for nightlife, but always has and always will be a S***hole as far as living there goes. Manchester is now far,far, far better for shopping, museums, nightlife, green areas and ,errr, anything else really – it has totally transformed itself since the IRA bomb went off.

3) people living in Manchester hate the “Gay Capital” tag – it only applies to a small area of pubs and clubs and is only kept alive by the money-grabbing council and “entrepeneur” types who wheel in a bunch of out of town gays to put on the gay week parade thing each year to simply to line their own pockets.

Every year it nearly gets cancelled because they spend the weeks preceeding it squabbling about the money side.

At least you dont have that problem in Liverpool, i suppose…