Do you have any collections?
Me and my wife both collect. She loves a certain brand of handbag, me, I collect cameras, photo postcards, radios, models, garden plants and ornaments and empty boxes.
Together we both collectively collect dust as we’d both rather be out making memories than doing boring household chores.
Memories…yes we collect a lot of them.
Have a wonderful day.
The listing states:
For parts or not working, Does not power on don’t know what is wrong with it,screen looks to have a leak
EBay
This is probably going to be one of if not the least problematic units I have received yet. Probably more along the lines of boring for those looking for a repair report, I fear I have brought you here under false pretences, that was not my intention and I apologise if that has been the case.
Another unit from 1996 (therefore now 28 years old) this one originally had rechargeable batteries which were a bonus item for such a unit at the time. Personally I’m using good old alkaline batteries for test purposes, I doubt I will be using rechargeables.
I down loaded the instruction pamphlet, grabbed a pair of earphones and then dropped in two AA batteries and a CD.
Nothing. Silence…..
I looked at the unit, the seller is right I thought….then I pushed the play button and took the switch off hold on the side and put the second switch into normal operation and almost blew my ears off.
Superb sound and it was quite obvious that the unit was working. All buttons are doing what they should do, the Xbass system is phenomenal and the volume dial is faultless and crackle free.
It just goes to show the seller in this case wasn’t fully aware regarding how the unit works. You have to turn it on and off to get it working, it’s not all automated like other similar units. See video below.
The unit is a bit tatty and the indicator panel has had some leak by the looks of it (See photo at top of this post) but even though this looks a bit poor cosmetically it does still display most of the information, it’s just not showing the track number info. Yes I could probably try another screen on this unit but what is the point? It works fine and the unit will gain no significant value for doing such a fix. It’s just not a financially viable choice unless I somehow come across a no value donor unit and seeing the prices people think these units are worth, I can’t see that happening anytime soon. And the Sony donors I have just aren’t compatible.
So I’ll leave it as it is. As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it.” It isn’t faulty, the only fault was in the sellers knowledge of its workings.
Another one saved from landfill. And that’s a positive.
What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
I have no kids, I’ve not done anything particularly good or spectacular for anyone to remember me by, I’ve just lived a good life, been a good citizen and that’s about it.
So like the majority of residents of this planet that have gone before me maybe I might be remembered as being a decent person, but more than likely I will be forgotten. Ive just been a resident, a paid up member of the brotherhood of man, and that’s not such a bad thing.
Maybe, slinking away into anonymity is the way to go. Who cares? No fuss.
Peace
How do you feel about cold weather?
Cold has a beautiful aura to it. It also is a major pain in the ass so I mostly feel the latter towards it.
I love visiting cold climates and Iceland is up there with being one of my favourite places to visit on the planet. It’s set up for the cold, it works well and the locals are all prepared and work well in it.
Back home however we are not. A bit of cold that for some countries would be a minor inconvenience, for us becomes catastrophic and the whole country grinds to a halt. We are never prepared.
Cold brings on my arthritic aches and pains and I long for the summer months, however I am accustomed to the fact that like it or not, winter conditions have to be endured, so I do.
Yes I’m ok with the cold, but to be honest I really do prefer the warmer months.
Stay safe everyone.
Have you ever broken a bone?
I’ve broken many, but here is one i spoke of a few months back.
I was fixing a heavy wood cabinet at home, I’d been working nights and I was tired, in theory I should have gone straight to bed and rested. Instead I decided to continue, managed to hit my thumb with a hammer, used some ripe old language and then decided to land a right hander square on a solid wood door.
It transpires that after suffering quite a bit of discomfort in my hand I had broken the knuckle on my little finger, also known as a boxers fracture.
What lesson have I learned I hear you ask? Well to be honest when I feel any anger coming on now I just think of my hand and the anger subsides.
Anger is not worth it and is a waste of energy, it causes pain and upset and no one deserves to witness that.
I was a fool, probably still am but I’m now an educated fool.
Stay safe
How do you balance work and home life?
I must admit that I’ve not been very good at this for years but now I’m a strict advocate of separating the two. Every new year resolution used to be “ I’m going to work to live not live to work” but I soon ended up dropping that mantra.
So what changed?
Quite simply i just decided thats it, its all got to stop. Im paid for an 8 or 12 hour day nothing more and why should i give them more? They were taking over my life in return for no good will or recognition and i was just working myself into an early grave. How was that fair to my family?
Just a few simple changes:
It really is as simple as that. I sometimes sign on to be hit with issues that have occurred in my absence but thats just how it used to be and I’m now not wasting precious time at home worrying about work related issues.
It really is that easy. Go on change your work outlook and enjoy your life. Time is precious, don’t have regrets, give your family the easiest gift you can give them…
Your time and attention. They deserve it.
Have a great day.
What sacrifices have you made in life?
Literally, I haven’t and I very much suspect no one ever has, however minor inconveniences are probably what most people who have answered this question have experienced rather than “Sacrifice,” according to the Oxford dictionary, see below.
Now I’ve never killed anything knowingly and offered it to a god or deity, and I may be pressing the point that the word sacrifice is a bit “strong” when all you’ve really done is “inconvenienced” yourself for a short while. It shows how words can be changed over time to fit a situation ever so dramatically.
However inconvenience when combined with duty means a different thing. Yep I’ve experienced that on many an occasion. I highlight the fact that with both mine and my wife’s parents, we looked after them all, comforted them through extreme illness with care and compassion and comforted each other when they passed away, a minor inconvenience and duty as their children.
Even today we are looking after our very poorly dog, he’s been ill for the last 18 months and he isn’t going to get better. We are having no holidays or time away without him as we want to spend all that time with him, people forget that a dog is with you for part of your life but to him you are his whole life. Just think about that.
So giving up your time is a minor inconvenience and an expected duty.
No need to slaughter the sacrificial lamb, let’s not over play it.
Have a good day.
What’s the oldest things you’re wearing today?
A scar, probably my very first one. I could have put the obvious things like skin, a smile or even my wedding ring, however as I usually go off at a tangent I give you the scar on my forehead, it’s been with me about 53 years now.
Playing in the garden with my brother and he trips me up so I go head first onto a drain cover with a big nail sticking out of it sharp point up. Needless to say drain cover joins me on a journey to the hospital where I eventually get separated from said nail and cover after a small operation.
Apparently it was a couple of millimetres from going through the skull.
My brother was a right arse then…passed away a few years back, bless him, but he had a wicked sense of humour. Loved him then, still do and miss him like crazy.
Silly sod 😂
Back in March 2023 in the early days of this site I threw some figures out there regarding the amount of cameras on the planet up to and including 2022, you can read that post here: Vintage Camera figures
In this post I’m going show a graph and some figures regarding the decline of DSLR ( Digital Single Lens Reflex ) in the last 12 yrs.
It’s becoming obvious that people are ditching the traditional camera frame for the mobile phone and tablet approach and the figures you see in decline for traditional cameras have probably gone in the total reverse and multiplied many times over for the latter. It hurts the brain to realise the total amount of picture capture devices out there, as well as the waste that this produces as a result of what has become a throwaway society in which we all must share some guilt.
I can honestly state that in the last 12 months I have purchased close to 60 Cameras, 18 radios about 14 portable cd and tape players and not one of them has been disposed of much to my wife’s displeasure. (To be honest she’s very supportive of what I do as it keeps me out of mischief.)
Anyway I’m starting to drift a bit, so in my last post back in 23 I think I stated that there were estimated in 2022 to be something like 45 Billion photo capture devices on the planet, enough for 5.5 units per person that inhabits this Ball floating in space, a phenomenal number. And now there are probably even more.
The traditional camera is being ditched though and as you can see in this graph supplied by Statista It is a seriously declining part of the consumer market.
The number of digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera shipments worldwide has been on a downhill ride since 2012. In 2023, a total of around 1.18 million DSLR cameras were shipped by *CIPA companies all over the world. Despite the decline in shipments, the average price of digital cameras per unit has continued to remain stable.
In eleven years the annual sales of a DSLR has dropped by almost 16 million units in 2012 to a paltry 1.18 million in 2023, as I’ve stated the sales of mobile devices have probably quadrupled and risen in the opposite direction.
The question is, are traditional cameras going to be more of an antiquity in the near future or will there always be a demand? There are so many out there that I can’t see them commanding any good price through rarity as there are just so many out there.
I learnt my trade in photography back in the late 70s early 80s. Back then we did everything by hand from mixing the chemicals, manually printing using enlargers and various types of papers, dryers and drums. Dodging and shading, manually touching up any defects as work was produced. We even made dupe trans, did letrasetting and made the boss man tea. A computer does it all now….apart from the tea but I bet that’s on the horizon.
The chemicals we mixed were in 100 litre batches and were pure poison. E6 Colour developer contained Hydroquinone, and the final bath (Stabiliser) all this chemical was pure formaldehyde, we never had masks or gloves back then and after mixing a batch of these chemicals you were out in the yard for a good half hour coughing your guts up. There were many other chemicals involving ammonia and powdered citric acid and these were just a few of what we used. If you could only imaging the shear hell we went through for you to get your photographs.
Probably why I have such bad Bronchitis and Asthma nearly 45 years on.
What I’m saying is the digital world of today is immense progression and removes all that danger away from the business. It’s killed the business as much as any other big business out there. But it’s probably not as much fun or as much pleasure as doing the whole process by hand using traditional skills. Heck I bet that will kick start a conversation between the traditionalists and modernists.
Whatever way we look at things, time moves on, progression is always going to occur and we must (Even though we don’t always want to) adapt to change. And it’s going to change for everyone big time in the next decade or so.
Even though it’s like saying goodbye for a final time to a dear old friend. I enjoyed my role I played in it.
Supplementary notes
*CIPA stands for “Camera & Imaging Products Association”, which is the trade association of the Japanese photo industry.
The section “digital cameras” includes the following producers: Olympus, Casio, Canon, Kodak, Sanyo Electric, Sigma, Seiko Epson, Sony, Tomy, Nikon, Panasonic, Fujifilm, Hoya, Ricoh.
Are you a leader or a follower?
Neither really, just like millions around the globe I’m a worker, a doer if you like getting things done.
Leaders are supposed to lead but in my experience they are usually of a poor calibre and the systems of selection means that we are trying or all wanting to be leaders. Am I a follower? no, I’m not apart from following my football team that’s the only group I follow. Does someone want to follow me in my work ethic? Grab a coat tail and enjoy the ride, you might learn something….if you want, or have a desire to.
Workers are what we need before all the skills are lost and the leaders will have no one to lead. And like wise no one to follow.
Have a good day
Foxes Den 
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