Imagine my surprise in Harrogate last weekend when I discovered a genuine independent camera shop, just fifty yards from Jessops!

Well, I couldn't resist and dropped in for a chat. It seems that they are an official Nikon dealer, as well as carrying a range of other brands, squeezed into a very small shop. As I'm currently camera-d up I couldn't help a great deal with their profits, but I did buy a few rolls of 120 to tide them over.

If you are in Harrogate any time (it's a nice place!), look them up - directions at www.bassandbligh.com

Adrian

 

Used to be in Leeds, and were responsible for my love affair with Contax SLRs. Wonderful that they're still going.

 

I too remember the Leeds branch. I was back up that way in the summer of 1986 for a week seeing my folks and availed myself of an offer they were doing, two lenses for the price of one by the long-forgotten Clubman brand. A 28mm f2.8 and 80-200 f4.5-5.5, in M42 fit for my Zenith 11. We lived in simpler times then......

 

I too remember the Leeds shop. I got my first Contax there in 85 or 86. The camera went on eBay a few years ago, but I've still got the 50mm Zeiss it came with. I'm not getting rid of that!

 

I wish now I'd not sold all my Contax gear a decade ago to fund the new digital stuff. Just checked the eBay "sold" prices for Contax and they still seem buoyant, up to 4 grand for a 645, 100 quid for a lens cap, £1800 for a T3 ...

 

I thought the Contax N dSLR was a very interesting piece of kit but it seems that the market didn't agree with me.

 

Leeds isn't without a decent independent camera shop though - West Yorkshire Cameras in the Corn Exchange building specialises in film cameras and is worth a look if you're in Leeds.

The last time I was in there I'd walked through the door with the vague idea of seeing whether they had a Nikon F that appealed to me - and ended up walking out with a Nikon F, a Nikkormat FT and an Olympus OM-2. I have to carefully ration my visits now because I know that when I get through the front door I'm like a kid in a sweet shop!

Cheers, Jeff

 

It was very interesting as the first full-frame DSLR, but was a complete disaster in so many ways. It took 2 years after announcement to get to market. Being based on the N series, lens availability was poor. It was rather expensive, especially considering the spec. But above all else, image quality was terrible at any setting other than ISO100 - the reason why Pentax never launched their full frame DSLR with the same sensor. Kyocera then prevented many people from reviewing the camera, which didn't help sales, and by the time it did launch, competitors were just about ready to launch their own models; Kodak had the Pro 14n, which also suffered at higher ISO levels but had more than twice the pixels and was much cheaper, and Canon were just about ready with the 1Ds, which was more expensive but a vastly superior camera. It's an object lesson in how not to succeed.

 

I've not visited Leeds since 2010, it was Dale that had all the temptations then, and will still have I suspect.

 

Dale are still in the Merrion Centre in Leeds.

Bass & Bligh in Harrogate sell a lot of reconditioned older stuff.

 

I remember Bass and Bligh in Leeds and Harrogate. Some years ago I bought a small item of second hand Nikon gear in the Harrogate shop and the staff wer were very good in spite of the small purchase. I was with my late mother, and often took her to Harrogate from Leeds for an outing from her care home. I remember her eyes popping at the sums of money overheard as another customer traded in some upmarket stuff for even more upmarket stuff. I wish them well.The signs are not good; their web site doesn't work.

 

Exactly, I have used Dale Photographic for about thirty years, there might be cheaper but there isn't better.