RECORDING EVENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1935, Page 6

RECORDING EVENTS

USE MADE OF CAMERAS. REVIEW OF HOLIDAY SEASON. The camera as a recorder of events and family gatherings or purely as a means of recalling places visited, is a popular favourite with Stratford people, as inquiries made from a photographic dealer yesterday disclosed. The dealer said that the wet weather over New Year naturally limited the operations of amateur photographers but the number of films developed after Christmas exceeded his expectations. He also reported a steady demand for the better class of cameras as opposed to the cheaper types—evidence that the public was graduating from the “snapshot” into the photography class. There was a big rushtafter Christmas, the fine weather over the holiday having called out cameras that had . been collecting the dust of seclusion for weeks or perhaps months, the dealer said. The subject of the snaps was almost invariably a family gathering—one indication that many people still celebrated Christmas in their homes—for there were few films of the popular Taranaki holiday resorts, “Beach snaps? No, very few yet. They. do not come in in any quantity till after the Christmas and New Year holidays,” he said in response to a query. The wet weather over New Year produced a definite slump in the business. Since then the number of films totalled only about two thirds of the number developed after Christmas. Ordinarily the New Year trade was nearly double, given corresponding weather conditions over each set of holidays. “People are keeping films in their cameras for a long time these days before they complete them,” he continued. “Recently we received a film with an exposure of the Eltham Jubilee and one with an exposure of Captain McGregor’s visit to New Plymouth. That is due to the fact that some people take a camera out only when they think of it, while the keen photographer makes a point of going out after what he wants.” Another reason why films were left for long periods without being completed was the film with eight exposures. He was firmly convinced that there would be a heavy demand for a four exposure type such as was sold now in England, but was unobtainable in New Zealand. If the smaller films were available they would be used readily by people who hesitated before they used three or four exposures of the larger film when they knew that they would have to complete the film with matter that they perhaps did not really want in order to have the several they did need developed and printed. The dealer claimed a good sale for cameras and it was noticeable that the public was seeking the better class of camera selling at from £2 to £3 rather than the cheaper varieties at from 6s to 15s or £l.

“People are becoming more cameraminded; whereas in the past the majority took ‘snaps’ and brought the films to be developed, hoping that they would turn out all right, they now bring them in feeling that, they will, and, if the results do not satisfy them, they endeavour to find wherein they failed,” he explained. “All the same,” he added, “there are a lot of ‘snap-shotters’ going about and hoping for the best. A big number of the failures, apart from silly mistakes, is due to a dusty lens, for a camera cannot see through a dirty lens any better than a person can see through through grimy spectacles.” It was a source of wonder to him that people who had secured a really good snap failed in many cases to have it enlarged. An enlargement, properly framed, was a welcome addition to any home.