The Joy Of Being A Camera Nerd

That Kodak Moment, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

A screenshot from BBC TVs historical (hysterical) soap opera "The Village" episode 6 in which we are shown an interesting way to hold a Kodak box camera. (ie upside down)

Actually as the shutter button is in the right place I am guessing the front panel fell off and some props manager glued it back on upside down.
Though it could be a visual metaphor for the state of England immediately after the First World War.....................

I have described it as a Kodak but it can't be as I am unable to identify a metal bodied Kodak Box camera made before 1922 and the episode in question is set in 1920.

The camera is, as I am sure you all recognised, a No 2 Brownie Model F first produced in the USA in 1924.

How sweet to be a nerd.

Gandolfi - Flex prototype (1-4)

Gandolfi - Flex prototype (1-4), originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

 PHOTOGRAPHED AND WRITTEN IN HONOUR OF ALL FOOLS DAY - APRIL 1ST ON 1-4-2013. Revealed at 12pm on that date as a parody of all the worthy photographs of cameras I post with a dull as ditch-water text.

Built at the behest of Chancellor of the Exchequer and photography enthusiast, Denis Healey, as a way of reviving the fortunes of Birkenhead shipbuilders, Cammell Laird & Company Ltd.
The Gandolfi family had no input into the design of the camera other than lending their name - according to Healey in his memoirs "as a personal favour".
The project was abandoned in 1969 after some 7 and a half million pounds of taxpayers money had been spent with little more to show for it than some drawings.
The only other prototype known to still survive is in the collection at Barnard's Castle Museum.
The name Gandolfi-flex is very much a nickname given by enthusiasts and collectors, officially it was known only as project 1-4 and unofficially by civil servants at the Board of Trade as "Healey's Folly".

References:
Denis Healey en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Healey
Denis Healey - "The Time of My Life" Penguin 1990
The Gandolfi family and their cameras camera-wiki.org/wiki/Gandolfi
M L Lynchpyn & P Grieves - "European Camera Prototypes". Hove Foto Books. 1993.

Small revolution - not many killed

Small revolution - not many killed, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

Demonstration against the "bedroom tax", Norwich City Hall, March 30th 2013.

One was irresistibly reminded of the scene on the Odessa Steps in Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin"; those steps also did not have access for wheel chairs or mothers with prams as I recall.

I have been asked to point out that in last Saturdays demonstration the police did not fire upon the protesters but then neither did they in Odessa as the whole scene in the film was a bit of fantasy from the director's head. The coincidences and similarities between the two events just keep piling up and are a bit spooky really.

Agent Wendy Pleakley and the View-master Stanhope

Agent Wendy Pleakley and the View-master Stanhope, originally uploaded by Colonel Blink.

Originally a give-away with McDonald's' Family Meals 2002.
The character, Agent Wendy Pleakley, from the Walt Disney animated film Lilo And Stitch

A lever in the back of the character lifts the model View-master to the eye of the creature. The single eye becomes the viewing lens for a Stanhope showing scenes from the film. (Unfortunately NOT in 3D). 'Clicking' the lever of the View-master changes the view. There are eight scenes in total.

The photograph shows the same toy from more than one angle.

Markings
Embossed on View-master:
View-master
®
©2002 Mattel, Inc
Embossed on back of figure:
Made for McD's Corp 2002
Made in China C-FC
© Disney

References
Stanhopes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanhope_%28optical_bijou%29
Lilo & Stitch: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lilo_%26_Stitch_characters
McDonald's: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s
View-master: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewmaster