Random photos, comics, etc.

[Leo Enticknap]

Last year, waiting to check in at an unremarkable chain hotel in Caldwell, ID, a couple with thick South London accents were ahead of me in line. After they had completed the formalities and been given their room entry cards, one of them asked the lady behind the desk: "Oh, errr ... we're outta fags. Do you know where we can get some fags round 'ere?" She looked totally bewildered. I couldn't resist adding to the fun, and so replied, "You should find plenty in the 7-11 just across the street." They thanked me and made a beeline for the front door. The check-in clerk then asked me, "I'm sorry, but is there anything, like, gay about 7-11?" At that point I explained, resulting in a nervous giggle.

I hope the couple needing their tobacco fix realized that smoking was almost certainly not allowed in their hotel room, but that was their problem, not mine.

[Jim Cassedy]

Anybody who was around in the 60's - 70's or 80's/90's probably, at some point, owned
a "KODAK INSTAMATIC™ camera. The 126 cartridge loading camera was one of the
most successful consumer film formats of all time, before being phased out in 1999.

But there is still a large group of die-hard amateur photographers who like to
experiment and 'play around' around with 126 format cameras. With patience and
a darkroom, it is possible to re-load old 126 Instamatic film cartridges with 35mm film,
which is pretty much the same size as 126. 126 film had one single perforation along
the top edge, which was used not only toadvance the film, but in many cameras it also
cocked the shutter and moved a frame counter on cameras that had them.
When using 35mm film, the bottom row of perfs falls into the picture area, and the
multiple perfs on the top row don't cleanly mesh with the 'claw' in the camera.
But some resourceful experimenter figured out a way to modify an old 35mm
tape splicer to punch a single hole in a strp of 35mm unperforated film that, when
loaded into an Instamatic cartridge, will make the camera perform just like 'real'
126 film. It requires removing all but one of the perf-pins and registration pins on
the splicer, and also removing the cutting blades. (Which is probably a good
idea since they're not needed, and it eliminates the possibility of the user slicing
a knuckle of fingertip, since everything needs to be done in the dark.)

This photo shows all the pins that need to be removed
.126_Perforator.jpg

If you're curious, you can read more about it
HERE> https://emulsive.org/articles/guides...ilm-perforator

[Leo Enticknap]

Where would you buy unperforated, raw 35mm from? Photography stores (back in the day before Amazon became a thing) stocked 100ft or 200ft rolls of perforated 35mm for loading into 135 canisters via bulk loaders, but I can't remember unperforated stock ever being available for amateurs to buy. It must have been produced, because that's what microfilm essentially is, though.

BTW, based on the CIR splicer and Jack Roe tape, I'm guessing that the author of this article is British. I haven't seen either in any booth since emigrating to California.

As a child of the '70s, my first photography was on 126. While the only film you could get from supermarkets and general stores was C41 color negative, there was a specialist photography store near my home that also sold b/w (Verichrome Pan) and Kodachrome 64 in the format. Showing square slides at family gatherings always attracted comments.

[Leo Enticknap]

Not taken on 126 film, even though it's almost a square pic...

image.png

No mystery as to why this DSS220 was spontaneously shutting itself down! The fans were so clogged that two had stopped rotating, and one had totally burned out. Apparently it had been running continuously since its installation in 2012, and had likely never been shut down until it did so involuntarily a few days ago.

This pic was taken after an initial blast with the Datavac. When I opened the lid of the case, there was a think layer of dust and goo, such that it was impossible to see what color the motherboard is. I wish I'd taken the photo then for shock value, but it didn't occur to me until I was about to go to work on the fans and heatsink.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Not taken on 126 film, even though it's almost a square pic...

image.png

No mystery as to why this DSS220 was spontaneously shutting itself down! The fans were so clogged that two had stopped rotating, and one had totally burned out. Apparently it had been running continuously since its installation in 2012, and had likely never been shut down until it did so involuntarily a few days ago.

This pic was taken after an initial blast with the Datavac. When I opened the lid of the case, there was a think layer of dust and goo, such that it was impossible to see what color the motherboard is. I wish I'd taken the photo then for shock value, but it didn't occur to me until I was about to go to work on the fans and heatsink.

Was this at a certain room we both know of? That booth never got shut down and dust was an issue...

[Leo Enticknap]

I don't think so: it's in a Bel-Air Circuit residence theater.

[Leo Enticknap]

In reference to the power outages that sent all of Spain and Portugal dark for a day, and many parts of it for a lot longer:


image.png

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

I don't think so: it's in a Bel-Air Circuit residence theater.

Thought it may have still been one I did, but I don't recall doing any 220's, just 200's. Might have been a replacement for one my old 200's though, been so long since I worked the Bel Aire circuit.

[Frank Cox]

915dcc70ee48013d98d7005056a9545d.jpg
..........

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Not taken on 126 film, even though it's almost a square pic...

image.png

No mystery as to why this DSS220 was spontaneously shutting itself down! The fans were so clogged that two had stopped rotating, and one had totally burned out. Apparently it had been running continuously since its installation in 2012, and had likely never been shut down until it did so involuntarily a few days ago.

This pic was taken after an initial blast with the Datavac. When I opened the lid of the case, there was a think layer of dust and goo, such that it was impossible to see what color the motherboard is. I wish I'd taken the photo then for shock value, but it didn't occur to me until I was about to go to work on the fans and heatsink.

I used to see this dust buildup in QSC Cinema Amplifiers of all models in theaters in Nevada and Southern Utah. The dust would literally clog the heatsinks in about 5 years time causing the amplifiers to cycle off and back on. Nothing like spending a day removing amps, cleaning them out, reinstalling them, checking levels, etc.

[Leo Enticknap]

I recently had to do a rack full of MX1500s that had gotten so bad that the theater owner was complaining of a burning smell coming from the rack. It was just dust/goo/crud that had been sucked into the amps over a 25-year period, and incredibly, they were all absolutely fine after a thorough internal clean and some DeOxit on the gain pots. Despite the age of the amps and that the B-chain hadn't been touched likely since the place converted to digital (at which point the audio system wasn't replaced: they added a Doremi D to A to the existing CP65), I only needed to make very slight adjustments to get everything to reference.

image.png

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Some times Ithink it's better to have replacable filters on the rack itself, so Customers can change their own filters. But no one wanted to pay for them. instead they got stuck paying Technician time to come clean out amplifiers and power supplies on site at 20X the price.