Energized by the recent talk of shutter speed testing and bored with a lack of targets at my weekly rat shoot at the dump, Vlad my companion and I decided to test the shutter on my old lens. By this time it was 2:00 am and we were pretty well oiled with Vlad's home made liquor. I couldn't clearly remember all the instructions but I remembered something about counting lines on a b&w tv and driving fast in a parking lot so we loaded my mom's 19" Electrohome into Vlad's '58 Dodge Dart and headed to Walmart. I set up the camera on the tripod and Vlad plugged his home made DC-AC power inverter into the cigarette lighter and the tv into the inverter. The local channel was running an infomercial for 'Hair in a can' spraypaint which we thought would do ok. Vlad began his first and only run and that's when things fell apart. He held the driver's door open with his left foot, held the TV out the door with his left hand, was steering with his right leg and holding his drink in his right hand. We don't know what happened first but somehow he got off course, hit a concrete lane divider which got the car airborne and the impact made him drop his drink onto the power converter. I believe I got the shot but I haven't seen the negative yet because the police are holding it as evidence but there were two flashes of sparks - one from the exploding tv and another one from the exploding power converter. So we won't be able to count the lines on the tv but we will have plenty of light trails to measure and I hope to be able to do that during the trial. Anyway I'll let everyone know if this works in a real world situation once the trial starts. Greg Fraser http://www.geocities.com/fraserg1962
