Specialist Photographic Shops in Leeds

[Barwicker]

I actually bought my first 35mm Camera,a Kodak Retinette, from Timothy Whites on Burley Hill before they were taken over by Boots probably late in the 1950s. Subsequently I had a later model of Retinette and a Voigtlander (still have this one). I then moved on to SLRs starting with a couple of Pentaxes before changing to Canon. I decided to change to digital,my first being a Canon 300D but I now own a 50D with which I am very pleased. This has 15.1 million pixels hiding somewhere. Oddly none of these cameras was bought in Central Leeds as I lived and worked in foreign (Southern) parts for many years. I did use Pearson & Denham for D & P work for a time. They had a good slogan..... P & D for D & P...... Later I processed my own B & W films but never attempted colour processing.Finally I have just acquired a specialist Scanner to enable me to scan all my B & W negatives and colour slides onto my PC,which will keep me busy all winter.

[chameleon]

Barwicker wrote: I actually bought my first 35mm Camera,a Kodak Retinette, from Timothy Whites on Burley Hill before they were taken over by Boots probably late in the 1950s. Subsequently I had a later model of Retinette and a Voigtlander (still have this one). I then moved on to SLRs starting with a couple of Pentaxes before changing to Canon. I decided to change to digital,my first being a Canon 300D but I now own a 50D with which I am very pleased. This has 15.1 million pixels hiding somewhere. Oddly none of these cameras was bought in Central Leeds as I lived and worked in foreign (Southern) parts for many years. I did use Pearson & Denham for D & P work for a time. They had a good slogan..... P & D for D & P...... Later I processed my own B & W films but never attempted colour processing.Finally I have just acquired a specialist Scanner to enable me to scan all my B & W negatives and colour slides onto my PC,which will keep me busy all winter. Sadly many of my negatives from earlier days are long gone - but I would be interested to hear about the results you get from this Barwicker.

[kenneth]

Barwicker wrote: I actually bought my first 35mm Camera,a Kodak Retinette, from Timothy Whites on Burley Hill before they were taken over by Boots probably late in the 1950s. Subsequently I had a later model of Retinette and a Voigtlander (still have this one). I then moved on to SLRs starting with a couple of Pentaxes before changing to Canon. I decided to change to digital,my first being a Canon 300D but I now own a 50D with which I am very pleased. This has 15.1 million pixels hiding somewhere. Oddly none of these cameras was bought in Central Leeds as I lived and worked in foreign (Southern) parts for many years. I did use Pearson & Denham for D & P work for a time. They had a good slogan..... P & D for D & P...... Later I processed my own B & W films but never attempted colour processing.Finally I have just acquired a specialist Scanner to enable me to scan all my B & W negatives and colour slides onto my PC,which will keep me busy all winter. Or you could go the whole hog and invest in some inexpensive darkroom equipmenthttp://www.paulpetterson.co.uk/

[buzzer999]

Hello Kenneth, it's a long time since you posted your message but I used to work at Beckett Film Services on the Headrow between 1967 and 1969, when were you there?

[Keg]

I bought my first SLR from Buckles near the red bus station. It was a Cosina CT1, similar to a Pentax K1000 but a lot cheaper.

[BLAKEY]

I've never been an expert photographer by any means, usually being content with the "point and click" regime, although I've been lucky and had many pretty decent pictures. However I did once get adventurous and bought a Russian camera, where you had to make all the best settings etc, from a little obliging shop called Brittenden's in Otley Road at Headingley near the North Lane junction. I can't remember the name of the camera now, but it was only a fraction of the usual cost of such equipment.

[Keg]

I remember them! The only one i can think of is a Zenith model Blakey.

[BLAKEY]

Thanks Keg for jogging the ancient fast failing memory here - yes, Zenith it was indeed, and it seemed to be extremely well made and finished regardless of the extremely low price.
Digressing slightly, the Russians for whatever reason seemed adept at producing marvellous things at rock bottom prices.. I was once in Littlewoods store in Blackpool, and went to one of the upper floors just to look at radios, TVs etc. From the distant far end of the floor came the most beautiful undistorted but very loud classicall music. Closer inspection revealed a Rigonda Symphony radiogram - this caused me to locate a Leeds dealer as I just HAD to have one. It was a low very wide affair made, as internal inspection revealed of the cheapest possible timber but finished in a dark superb dark gloss like a concert grand piano. It was a handsome and pleasing looking instrument and sported :- seventeen valves, several wavebands, motor driven tuning with, a "magic eye".for precision with difficult stations, and a superb record player for which a very reputable British manufacturer (Goldring) could provide replacement cartridges and stylii. The enormous separate loudspeakers, finished in the same beautiful manner as the set, contained three speaker units each and were filled with sand - the incredible true sound and power simply astonished all my visitors - and caused the rather grumpy next door neighbour (career grumpy about everything that breathed) to make wildly exaggerated claims about it. I've never owned anything which gave me so much real pleasure and, although it might seem far fetched, I don't think many of today's digital miraculous equipment is all that much better. The year was some time in the late 1960s !!

[Leodian]

Very true Blakey about the Russian-made items. I recall getting a very good (but bulky) Russian transistor radio when they began to become more common in use (mid to late 1960s?).

[buffaloskinner]

Hope you didn't buy one of those Russian Video Recorders off Del Trotter