The marvellous toy

The marvellous toy

Do you remember that Val Doonican song? I’d quote it, but the lyrics are a bit obscure: if you don’t know it, look it up on Deezer or Spotify…

Anyway, it’s come to mind because of the pictures I took for the Softar blog a few days ago: I realised that I needed to find something to hold a filter in mid-air. And I remembered something I bought a quarter of a century ago, and had never used: one of those gadgets that appear, get reviewed somewhere, and therefore get bought. It still goes on, especially around Christmas.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but what I had forgotten was that I didn’t, at the time, ever take still life pictures, so a gadget consisting of a weighted base and three adjustable miniature crocodile clips was of very limited use in my hobby. My son, who was quite young at the time, adjusted it so that it resembled a meerkat on sentry duty (we’ve had a thing about meerkats in the family since around 1990).

And so the marvellous gadget has adorned one or another bedroom shelf as the family’s major contribution to modern art, and never done an honest day’s work – until the other day. It held a filter by the rim, and did it magnificently.

There may be one or two other gadgets around that haven’t fulfilled too much of a useful function around the house: and there are certainly a few that haven’t fulfilled their primary purposes. I have quite strong views about the usefulness of the much-hyped Rotolight Neo (it’s a decent and adaptable light source for those of us happy to open the bidding at 6,400 ISO, but it’s not going to win any camera club prizes), but as a fill light, it has its place. Whether it’s worth £200 (they were £300) for that is a very open question when there are so many cheaper alternatives.

So it’s time to bring out your dead… Please tell me about the purchase that you regret – or the one that has only proved its worth long after you gave up thinking about it!