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416 (Supplement 8.) Photography. May i8th, 1909 " The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things." I SEE that a photographic fellow-sufferer has been having trouble with those things mis-named “ mag- nifiers ” fitted to his hand camera. You can buy these objects at about sixpence each, or three for five- pence, and yet some optimistic persons fancy they are getting accurately ground and carefully corrected lenses for the money. I am inclined to doubt whether it is possible to grind and polish a really good negative lens so as to show a fair margin of profit when it is retailed at sixpence. The fact seems to be that a disc of glass placed in front of a lens throws it out of focus; and if it throws it out in one place it throws it more or less in in another. These discs are then sorted out according to where they attempt to place the focus, and are sold as 4ft., 6ft., 10ft., etc., magnifiers. Sometimes the sorting is not very carefully done, or the lots get a bit mixed again. Then comes trouble. * * * The gentleman in question tested his magnifiers and found that the 20ft. one gave a sharp picture of an object at lOft. ; the lOft. one at 6ft. ; the 4ft. one at 4ft. All I can say is that he had little cause for complaint, as one of the three was right, which is just one more than usual. * * * As I have pointed out more than once, the pari of a camera most addicted to barefaced falsehood is the shutter. This will be marked with an extensive ränge of useful speeds, but if these are tested they will probably be found to be wrong without a single exception. Some careful workers have their shutter tested and re-mark the speeds accordingly. They think they are safe then. But they are not. It does not follow that the shutter will ever again give the same speeds it gave during the test. If it does, it doesn’t do so orpurpose. It is mere accidental coinci- dence. I have somewhat modified the low opinion I have hitherto held of shutters. I am now inclined to believe that they really do give all the speeds marked on them, and also an infinite variety of speeds that are not marked. The worst of it is that you never know what speed the shutter is going to give. It does not know itself. The mark to which you set the indicator is of little importance. All you know for certain is that the shutter will not give that particular speed. This is really a very useful property of shutters, because it gives you something definite to lay the blame on for all your failures. * * * Another fearful fraud on the average hand camera is the finder. Photographers are constantly finding fault with faulty finders. This is not fair. It is too much to expect a finder to show what is on the plate. If it did that it would expect to be a camera itself. The best finders actually do show what is on the plate, but in an excess of zeal they show equally well what is off it; and some even go so far as to show what is behind the camera, and even round the corner of the next street but one. It is surprising what some of them do show at the price. All that is necessary, however, to make a finder really helpful is to study it. Yon will very likely find that if you look at it with the right eye at an angle of 534°, what you see in the left hand top corner is what falls just outside the middle of the lower side of the plate. Then you know exaetly where vou are. It is something like the man’s clock, which puzzled those who were not familiär with it, but was a most useful timepiece to its owner. He knew that when the long hand was just over the half-hour, and the short hand on the 5, and it struck eleven, it was exaetly ten minutes to two * * * I note that an American firm from Buffalo, Paris, New York, and Covent Garden, is hustling around in Ireland doing photographic work. Amongst other things they offer to photograph any place in your house from cellar to garret by " artificial light.” It would have been more original to use electric sunshine. They also offer to take portraits or grups in the parlour (garret and cellar barred for this event) any time in the evening from 10 a.m.. to 10 p.m. I had no idea that the evenings were so long in Ireland. Apparently the electric artificial light turns night into day. The same firm also advertise a living- picture show, to which they let all clergymen in free. This show took place at Ballybofey some six weeks ago. Had I known of it in time I should have been sorely tempted to disguise myself as a clergyman and take a return ticket to Ballybofey. * * * I am also strongly disposed to go to Brentwood to have my portrait taken, for a photographer there offers “ light refreshments gratis to all Customers.” I don’t know whether his notion of light refreshments coincides with mine, but if it does it would certainly pay me to go and live in Brent wood and be photographed (with refreshments) once a day At the end of the first week the photographer would be com pelled either to withdraw his advertisement or bribe me to leave. * * * What with free clergymen and free refreshments (light) the photographer's lot is not a happy one nowadays. Take, for instance, the sad case of a photographer in Scotland recently. He had brought his camera to bear upon a truly charming subject; to wit, one Mrs. Newton, who was seated gracefully outside her door with a dog in her Jap. Every thing was ready for the exposure, but some vagrom boys, with fiendish ingenuity, teased Mrs. Newton’s dog to such an extent that it looked more like a whirlwind than a dog, and the photographer concluded that its appearance was for the time out of harmony with the sweet domesticity of his intended subject. At last Mrs. Newton broke forth into language. I do not know what she said, but my Sympathien are entirely with her, and I consider that any language she used was perfeetly justifiable in the circumstances. But a certain Mrs. Elannagan thought otherwise. She even re proved Mrs. Newton for her language. Whereupon Mrs. Newton, as a token of grateful appreciation, put down the canine whirlwind, arose from her chair, and presented Mrs. Flannagan with two black eyes. The poor photographer lost his Commission. He found it entirely impossible to focus satisfactorily the mixture of Newton, dog, Flannagan, and chair, that hovered in front of his camera. Like a wise man he gathered up his traps, regretfully abandoning hie beautiful genre study, and stole sadly away down the street, ruefully whistling as he went, “Angels ever bright and fair” TH WALRUS. SUBSCRIPTIONS. “PHOTOGRAPHY AND FOCUS” is published by Uifle & Sons Ltd. of 20, Tudor Street, London, E.C., and of Coventry, every Tues lay morning in Town and Country, and may be obtained of all News- vendors and Bookstalls, or delivered first post on Tuesday at tbe following ratest Great Britain. s, d Twelve Months .. .. .. 6 6 Six Months. .. .. ..3 3 Three Months r 8 Single Copy 1 Tbe Publishing Offices are at 20, T Entered as second-class matter at ' A broap« s. d. Twelve Months ... - to to Six Months .. .. - 5 5 Three Months .. .. 2 9 Single Copy 2 >r Street, London, E.C., England. New York (N.Y.) Post Office. Melbourne (Victoria), Sydney (N.S.W.), Brisbane (Queensland), Perth (W.A.),'Wellington (N.Z.), and Christchurch (N.Z.): Sole Agents— Messrs. Gordon and Gotch, Ltd. 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