Dear Thread,
I had a very unusual experience tonite. We had sweltering heat and tropical dew points this weekend and escaped to the local mall for dinner. As promised, I dropped off my 32 MB SanDisk CompactFlash card at Ritz with 25 select images pre-loaded. They have a deal where they will print 12 pictures for $9.99 or 25 pictures for $16.99 directly from the memory card. Although this is more than the on-line photo developers, it frees one from needing to upload images. Again, the processor is the same one that is used for standard film. (When I asked at Wolf Camera they said that these processors cost between $300,000 and $500,000 each and won't be coming to Wolf any time soon!) I dropped my card off and will pick up the prints tomorrow. They told me I could pick them up in 1 1/2 hours, but I decided I didn't want to wait around that long.
When I got to the store there were two women in line. Surprisingly, both had memory cards. This is no joke. Unfortunately both were SmartMedia cards. The first lady was in her late 50's. She said, "I have over 100 prints on this card. I only want the wedding photos printed." The sales guy shook his head side-to-side at first, then swiveled it around to signify it was OK. I'm not sure he was so happy about having to sort through all the photos on the card. The customer, sensing his displeasure, finally gave in. "Well, just print the last 25 shots and if you print some of our Europe trip it won't matter." She was very excited about the order. I asked her which camera she uses. It was a Toshiba 2.1 megapixel camera -- I think it was a PMR-5, or something like that. It was an impulsive purchase at Target last April, she added. Before she dropped the card on the counter she took out a plastic liner with 6 empty pockets and placed the SmartMedia card carefully inside one. She asked that they be treat it gently with it because she paid a lot of money for it. Then she left.
The second woman in line stepped up. She was about 25 years old and was in a hurry. She was picking up. She paid and took the prints to the other side of the register for review. I looked over her shoulder at the prints. They looked like regular film prints. I didn't know at first they were from a digital camera until she opened the return envelope and pulled out the SmartMedia card. Most of the shots were pictures of her boyfriend at a practice range with a semi-automatic rifle. She ordered copies of each photo on the card plus 5 copies of "#36". (I think "#36" was kind of like that famous pose of Lee Harvey Oswald after a successful day of target practice.) Unfortunately, the order got screwed up and the 5 copies were not of "#36". This gal went ballistic. The counter guy apologized and shook his head again from side-to-side. "I just take the orders. I am not responsible for the printing." She retorted, "Well, you must have written the order down wrong then." He then pulled out the handwritten order from the sleeve and showed her it was correct. She immediately turned her rage on a gal in the developing area and started ranting. She came just short of pulling a semi-automatic weapon out of her purse. Despite the verbal abuse the staff was quite nice. I covered my son's ears. If there had been sailors there they probably would have been blushing. They told her they would redo "#36". She left. I am sure they whispered a couple of NRA jokes back and forth after she left the store.
I was third in line. I took the card out of my pocket. It was in a plastic case I stole from my sister's Canon A50 purchase. Without the case I wasn't sure what to bring it in. My only other option was an extra-large Zip lock bag that my wife uses to freeze large chuncks of left over lasagna. That seemed like overkill. Most of all I was terrified that some piece of lint from my pocket might find its way into one of those 50 small holes and void my lifetime warranty from SanDisk. I have this theory that lint is the natural enemy of the PCMCIA card. Carrying the card in "naked" was not an option. I could just imagine the reply from the SanDisk repair service...
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I can just imagine it now...
Dear Mr. Ausdauer,
We are sorry to inform you that your CompactFlash card malfunctioned due to pocket lint. This type of damage is not covered in the SanDisk warranty. Had you been a company employee we may have made an exception. In the future consider doing your wash more often with one of the approved fabric softeners listed in the fine print of the package insert.
Too Bad,
Dr. Eli Harari
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When the guy at Ritz saw that I, too, had a memory card he started shaking his head more violently than the prior two times. "This is very unusual. Three-in-a-row." He rang me up. I was nice to him. It looked like he was having a rough afternoon.
Ausdauer |
