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  #11  
Old 2nd September 2012, 01:01 AM
AlanJones AlanJones is offline
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Ian:

Classification under the manufacturer and would be fine for cameras. Just as Butkis has done in the US via search engine. But for some other more obscure items, darkroom in particular, it would be useful for someone looking to buy looking to buy an item to know its purpose.

People who have gone digital in my area, who know I am still keen on film, bring me analogue items and leave on my doorstep. Such a box of stuff a few months ago contained a Jobo Comparator which is an enlarging exposure meter and luckily it came with the instructions. I personally use the Ilford meter myself and did roughly know what it was had there been no instructions. But anyone else wanting a meter would find it useful to know of alternatives. Or, perhaps if someone is given one without instructions what it really does.

Strange none of the moderators have picked up on this topic with their input? So I take it that this idea is a non-starter or otherwise not possible. If so, how can the idea best be taken forward?
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  #12  
Old 2nd September 2012, 01:53 AM
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I'm actually quite keen on this idea. Butkus is great for old camera manuals but for more obscure darkroom and other equipment manuals there is nothing much out there already.

For the reasons already made, I don't see any legal problems with copying old manuals. Worst-case we simply delete any we get a complaint about.


A couple of practical difficulties do occur however:

1) How to get the manuals into a suitable on-line format.

Would people be expected to scan the manuals themselves before posting the results to the appropriate thread? What about those without scanners - or those with scanners but have problems creating suitable files who may want to contribute ?


2) How to organise such a collection.

There is no plug-in to the forum software that I am aware of that we can use for this sort of thing so it would have to be a set of threads, probably one per each type of equipment. This is doable but would make finding a particular item tricky - though we could always put a sticky post at the top of the thread with a list.


Cheers, Bob.
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  #13  
Old 2nd September 2012, 11:22 AM
marty marty is offline
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Hey, Bob.
What do you think of this: vBadvanced Dynamics? It features a file sharing utility, might just be what does it for us. Regarding file format I think pdf should be a reasonable choice.
Producing pdfs should not be that complicated for members scanner equipped and willing, just scan the manuals into small jpegs and then paste them into a word or open-office document and lastly export to pdf.

Cheers, M.
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  #14  
Old 2nd September 2012, 05:16 PM
AlanJones AlanJones is offline
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Thanks Bob. Several of us are very pleased you are sold on the idea.

I will willingly contribute about 35 manuals in .pdf form if wanted to get this started. I guess other contributors to this thread feel the same and will offer to do this as well. Perhaps, as the idea gains momentum it may be possible to ask other friends to contribute.

Sadly I am not well versed in computing so I can't contribute anything much on this. There should be enough here to make it a team effort.
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  #15  
Old 2nd September 2012, 08:38 PM
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We looked at vbAdvanced (as it was then) for several apparently good ideas it has but decided against it as it is rather limited and awkward to use. A quick look at the latest versions suggest it has not improved significantly - especially the file sharing part which is essentially just a normal forum section with the ability to upload attachments but no option to leave comments. I suspect the simplest route is to use threads as suggested before and if that becomes unwieldy we can revisit the possibilities.


What I will do in the next couple of days is create a forum structure that will allow people to upload pdfs etc to a number of threads I will create.

Initial thoughts for threads/sections are:
  • Enlargers
  • Timers
  • Processors
  • Other Darkroom Accessories
  • Cameras
  • Camera Accessories
  • Discussions (only uploads and a brief description of the upload in the other threads)

Any other suggestions?


Cheers, Bob.
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  #16  
Old 3rd September 2012, 12:41 PM
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I'm glad this idea's got off the ground. I've a few to contribute and am happy to create pdfs for anyone that doesn't have a scanner.
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  #17  
Old 3rd September 2012, 06:34 PM
madmike madmike is offline
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I belong to an Audio Forum and we have a library set up that members can down load copies that are PDF files, check it out http://thecarversite.com/yetanotherf...cs-carver.aspx
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  #18  
Old 3rd September 2012, 06:47 PM
DavidH DavidH is offline
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That site seems to work fine Mike. Information like that could be very handy.
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  #19  
Old 3rd September 2012, 07:52 PM
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Hi All, as this is all my fault, I guess you'd better count me in.

I'd better fire up the scanner, and see what I can do.

Regards
Ian
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  #20  
Old 18th September 2012, 11:42 PM
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I have created a series of sub-forums under "Equipment Manuals" for uploading manuals.

I created sub-forums for Cameras, Camera Equipment, Enlargers and Darkroom Equipment. There is also a Discussion forum. I suggest we restrict the upload forums to files *only* and keep all discussion to the discussion forum to keep the files forums clean.

I have uploaded a few manuals I have laying about on my PC but we currently have a 2MB restriction on upload size to the server. I will see about getting that increased soon.

Cheers, Bob.
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