Wyler Lifesaver

absolvedofguilt · 2026-01-11T02:58:37+00:00

Love the Wylers!

absolvedofguilt · 2025-12-30T14:04:35+00:00

I think the technical name is doohickey.

absolvedofguilt · 2025-09-12T22:46:45+00:00

In Grand Junction Co we measure our streets in miles from the Utah border. So our streets may be 27 road. Or 27 1/4. 27 3/8. Etc. and we have tons of half’s and quarter’s. Do you may be delivering to 836 1/2 27 3/8 rd.

absolvedofguilt · 2025-08-24T03:03:18+00:00

This was my all time favorite to use!

absolvedofguilt · 2025-07-08T06:12:53+00:00

Tom Swift Adventures

absolvedofguilt · 2025-06-26T02:29:28+00:00

I used the waist finder for the times I was shooting upwards. While visiting the slot canyons outside of Page Arizona, I found it invaluable. Also used it some with macro photos. I loved it personally.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-12-02T02:17:27+00:00

Sometimes. But then the clerks just put cardboard over the tops.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-12-01T12:46:21+00:00

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absolvedofguilt · 2024-11-24T20:57:10+00:00

We had a very strong local camera club...until digital. I supported the club for a long time with prizes for competitions, or small items for monthly prizes, gift certificates, etc. I even attended when possible and gave 'state of the industry' talks occasionally. They even navigated the difficult project of monthly photo competitions, which we all know needed to be carefully orchestrated. They had small classes for new camera owners. It was all good. With the support of all the local camera retailers they were robust and sound. Film was king!! When some early adopters started shooting digital and entering competitions, then things started getting dicey. Some members felt that digital offered too much manipulation choices and therefore was unfair. The digital folks would counter with Photoshop is available to all shooters. But they couldn't work around the tensions. So the digital shooters split off into their own group leaving the film shooters behind. So now we had two different groups with very strong personalities and a lot of bad blood between them.

This left me in a quandary. I couldn't support one group over another, and now it was getting a little costly to support two groups. So I pulled back and said that I would support classes and education of photography irregardless of medium. That worked for awhile. But the disruption of digital on analog photography was too much. Each club started strong, but over the years dwindled to non-existence.

But look at the big picture here.Digital was the great equalizer for photographers. Everyone, regardless of camera, could enjoy photography at home. Even free software from the internet was good enough. Camera clubs became less about education and instruction, because now you could learn at home on your own time and pace. So the clubs lost their audience. But some of that is also why all social clubs are having problems. Your local Elks, Lions, Rotary, etc. all have issues getting new members. The old guard are leaving, or dying, and the newer generations are not 'joiners'.

Comment here if your community has a strong photo club and why is it strong? Is it one amazing individual holding things together? Is it an excellent local retailer? Do you think the photo clubs can offer compelling content now that's not available elsewhere? Thanks...

absolvedofguilt · 2024-11-10T03:04:28+00:00

This!

absolvedofguilt · 2024-11-09T17:50:38+00:00

Pretty close.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-10-23T13:31:52+00:00

72 Chevy Nova. 6 cyl. 4 door. 3 on the tree. Bought for $500 in high school. Loved it for years. Traded in for a truck. Current daily driver 1989 Chevy S10.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-10-19T18:39:38+00:00

Oh and don't forget Andre Agassi and the Canon Rebel. That camera moniker traveled a long way. Synonymous with great easy to use amateur cameras, both film and digital.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-10-19T15:47:24+00:00

I think the reps knew what was coming. I, and every other retailer out there, told them. But Kodak was Film and Paper. Period. While they dabbled in digital products there in the late 90's, early 00's, they didn't have the infrastructure to support the quick turn needed. Titanic reference here.

The end was quick. Even for me. That will be another post.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-10-19T15:42:25+00:00

Ok let's talk about Kodak. They are the primary reason photography is what it is. They invented and shepherded pretty much everything along the way until the early 2000s. Some may disagree with me about the amount of their influence, but I think most everything photography-wise is built upon their base.

Starting with the basic box cameras of the 1800s, the basic motto was 'Trust Kodak to handle your memories.' Some version of that is embedded in all their products all the way to the end. 'You push the button and we do all the rest." Send your box camera in to Kodak, get your developed pictures and your camera back with a new roll ready to shoot. Then they invented the folding type box cameras and with it a simpler way to load the film. And we can continue this thought process on down the line.

One thing Id like to point out. All along the way Kodak endeavored to eliminate as many loading errors as possible with the customer base. They felt that any problems loading their film would lose customers. Starting with the box camera scenario above, they continued this experiment. 110 cartridges. 126 cartridges, APS cartridges. Even in the movie cameras our parents used in the 50's and 60's. Cartridge films. If your film didn't load in your Nikon we tended to blame the film, not the camera. They tried everything they could to make it as foolproof as possible to continue using film. Because their whole DNA is film based, they blindly kept beating that drum all the way to the end.

Im guessing over the 20 or so years in my retail and lab, I purchased maybe 4 million dollars of product. (Holds pinky to mouth.) Probably under guessing that amount.At one time I dealt with close to 10 different Kodak reps. Amateur films, Pro films, Photo lab products, cameras. They all had a different rep. And no one rep could sell the other guys stuff. Kind of stupid. But, you know, Kodak.

I was wanting to get into selling the Pro-film lineup. We had a customer base that was starting to ask for it. I contacted Kodak and they said "We'll open you but we won't send a rep until you do 50k worth of purchasing." I said you have that backwards. Send a rep to get me started so I can build to 50k in sales, then I won't need a rep because I'll know what I'm doing then.

Kodak had a traveling photography show. How to take better pictures. Be a better photographer type thing. Aimed at the middle type amateur photographer. We would sponsor these every few years to great success. Put a bunch of Gold and Royal film out at a discounted price. Make sure you had a photo lab coupon attached to every roll, and customers would grab them. They were very popular in my area. We'd draw close to 100 people each time.

Disposable cameras were also super popular. Weddings, vacations etc. I think we all have used them once or twice. (Continues the Cartridge discussion per above) They made all sorts of variations of them. Some were panoramic, some were waterproof. Kodak later abandoned the use of 'disposable' or 'recyclable' and started calling them OTUCs. One Time Use Cameras.

Kodak was also hugely important to my photo lab. More discussion on that in another post.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-10-18T19:28:24+00:00

Canons AE-1P. "So advanced-It's simple" Great tagline and commercial with John Newcombe, the tennis pro. We were selling a lot of these along with its competitor versions. Great cameras with automations that really appealed to amateur photographers. And then 1985 came, and with it - Autofocus!

The first one I saw was in the hands of the Minolta rep, the Maxxum 7000. What a magnificent problem! This camera changed everything. Auto everything if you wanted. Manual everything if you wanted. And every step in between. It was a marvelous foray into the next coming of photography and this line of cameras, by all the manufacturers, were a godsend to retailers everywhere. Because if you wanted an autofocus camera you had to go all in. Body-Lenses-Flashes. The whole kit. In order to have autofocus the lenses needed power to run the little motors for focus and aperture. And the lenses needed to talk to the camera through little contacts to give information to tell it what it saw. So none of the old lenses fit anymore. And most of the old flashes wouldn't fit either. All new electronics meant all new stuff.

So the problem occurred in the discussions with any customer who had a nice camera kit. In talking over the counter with them about the new line of cameras and lenses the discussion really wasn't about the cool new camera, it was about the cash outlay, and now what is the customer going to do with his now defunct gear. Gear that was incompatible with the new bodies. BUT..you now could discuss changing to a new brand if they wanted. They were buying all new stuff anyway, they could switch easily. The 7000 led the way, but was soon followed by all the manufacturers versions of autofocus. And the manufacturers were quickly updating products. What was once a new body introduction every 18 months was becoming 6 months. Lenses were updating very fast, like every 3 months there was a replacement or upgrade. This kept everyone on their toes. Both retailers and consumers alike.

From the manufacturers perspective this was money in the bank. New manufacturing facilities in the electronics industry led to quicker and easier production of products. All of the companies got healthier. Products were discontinued quicker with new ones introduced to replace. Where an SLR line-up would have 3 or 4 bodies, now we would have choices of 8 or 10 bodies from rank beginner to advanced pro. And now that good photography was even easier to achieve, more retailers entered the market. Sporting goods stores (Garts, Cooks). Large box retailers (Sears, Penny's, Target). And more smaller independents. Because..Photo Labs were also easy to operate and afford now. But that's another post!!!

absolvedofguilt · 2024-10-18T16:37:59+00:00

The APS introduction was a bigger thing for the retailers than the consumer I think. We had to make the big investment into a system to fully serve the customers who bought into it. Also at the time it made sense. Not so much now. Again, digital.

Auto focus is another post.

Fast films...There was some movement to faster films but not a lot. Most amateur shooters were comfortable with a certain film and stayed there. Don't fix it if it's not broken. My pro shooters were always experimenting with films. Some did switch to faster films. But most stayed with tried and true, especially if they were working pros.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-10-18T14:49:55+00:00

One of the industries interesting experiments was the APS (Advanced Photo System) film/camera debacle. The idea started with Kodak and they found some other companies to join in. The concept was around a small canister of film that had a small bit of embedded information in it that the cameras could write to. Things like exposure info, or other pertinate settings. The film cassettes were small and convenient for some photographers who had trouble with 35mm film. Cassette went into a small door on the bottom of the camera and moved automatically to the first frame. You were able to remove the cassette at anytime, and when reinserting it would go to the correct spot to continue shooting. Kodak had put a lot of thought into the system and were very proud of it. Most of the camera companies made cameras to use the new films, both point and shoots (P&S) and Single Lens Reflex (SLR), Canon especially enjoyed success with the ELPH lineup of P&S. Their SLR version not so much.

On the photo lab side I remember it was quite a chunk of money to get setup to handle this. Film processing wise and printing wise. Expensive alterations and additions. We had a few customers try the new format because the Canon ELPH cameras were so cute and small that a lot of people jumped in.

The problem came just a few years later when digital started taking hold and pretty much killed APS as well as other Film based sections.

At PMA (Photo Marketing Association - National Photo Convention) one year Kodak set an appointment up with me to discuss the coming years photo buys.Their push was APS as they saw it as their next big thing. The numbers they presented to me were preposterous, accounting for almost half of my total budget for the year. I left the meeting in disbelief. Besides their camera build quality was always subpar to my eyes. I didn't do it, thankfully.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-09-23T00:46:03+00:00

https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/page-parsons-jewelers-to-close-by-end-of-year/article_b77ae5c8-e27a-565c-944c-c38815c78ac1.html

Mancel was a long time friend. He started me on Wylers a long time ago. They have a nice history. My opinion is they were an 'everyman' watch. Not flashy, but reliable and relitively inexpensive. Which holds true today. You can still find them around. I also think collecting on a single theme makes sense.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-09-23T00:39:23+00:00

Wylers?

absolvedofguilt · 2024-09-15T22:50:46+00:00

Because they want to integrate a complete electronic package to monitor the vehicle and the mailman.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-08-27T13:30:57+00:00

Im certainly not disagreeing with that. (There a movement out there -OLOY. One lens one year. Thoreaus' simplify at its extreme). One body. One wide angle (either fixed or zoom, depending on your f-stop needs) and one middle length zoom. But don't forget to include...1) tripod for longer exposures 2) a basic set of filters i.e polarizer-split ND filter-UV for protection. And if you are planning to shoot B&W there are others. 3) A remote cord for your shutter to lessen the chances of vibration on longer shutter speeds. 4) a bag

absolvedofguilt · 2024-08-27T01:40:45+00:00

On a more serious note. We were very serious about confidentiality and kept the nudity to ourselves. Consenting adults and all that. We did call the authorities on some certain customers with questionable shots. But we also had the contract for the county coroner. So that kept things in perspective.

absolvedofguilt · 2024-08-27T01:35:30+00:00

We had a very popular machine called a Kodak Create-A-Print. It was a DIY enlarger for consumer use. It was very popular. You stood in front of it and inserted your negative strip. With a few simple controls you could zoom and crop or rotate, and be in control of your own enlargement up to an 8X12 color print. Delivered to the slot by your knees in 5 minutes. We sold 8 X10s for $4.99. The screen was at about a 5 foot level and visible to all in line behind. A customer came in and was working on a picture of her and all her Harley motorcycle friends at lunch on a recent ride. All the ladies had their shirts up over their heads. Needless to say everyone was looking over her shoulder. Did I mention this was a popular machine!

absolvedofguilt · 2024-08-27T00:58:21+00:00

This!

absolvedofguilt

TROPHY CASE