Mark Singer showed up with a Bolex Projector for 16mm and 9.5. The usual film for the 9.5mm machines was wound on 2.5 or 5 minute reels. The sprocket holes were in the centre of the film and allowed you to flip the reel over at the mid point to continue shooting. The images extended almost to the edge so it was close to the size of a 16mm frame but much less expensive a medium. 9.5 was mainly a European medium with some Canadian and a little USA usage.
There was no sound. A special mechanism permitted the use of flash frames - only a single frame was needed for a written message. The projector would "hold" the film for 10 seconds or so and then continue the motion.
Stan White brought an old piano roll by QRS -- and a Bakelite camera made by the same firm. He noted that the winding lever was easily broken. A member of the audience suggested a reference to a means to repair the winder. In addition, Stan added a stereo twist with a selection of stereo Christmas cards he has received over the years. The cards were made by modern day stereo enthusiasts.
John Downing studied photography at Ryerson Polytech were he made the Gum Bichromates shown here. This process was popular in the 19th century and again in the 1920s/30s. Dye layers are added to blank paper in a contact printing process with careful registration. The artist can choose archival papers for long life. It is a painter-like technique and the many layers of colour take hours to apply. The failure rate is high since each layer causes small paper shrinkage making registration difficult and you cannot undo a bad layer. Platinum can be used for the first layer to give the image a luminosity. The artist follows the painter's guide of light/warm colours first working up to dark/cool colours. The side view of girl's head shown below was platinum plus 3 or 4 colour layers. John added only a few layers because he needed a completed image to submit for marks and he couldn't risk the set back of a lost image.
Ron Anger brought a piece of apparatus made by Bausch & Lomb. No one could offer him the name of the item or its use. If you know, email the PHSC or Ron. He also brought an old Ernemann camera and some paper thin leathers he is using to restore the folding light shield on the cameras viewfinder. If you need a thin leather, see Ron.
Bill Kantymir reached into his collection and pulled out some miniature cameras. The Tuxi, distributed in the 1950s by Kunik of Frankfort came with a tripod also signed as a Tuxi, and a special cigarette lighter add on in brown enamel. This add on is shown in McKeown's covering another Kunik camera, the Petie. Bill discovered that the lighter accessory is worth more than the cameras!
His second show and tell was the little British Coronet Midget camera. These plastic 16mm cameras are novelty products sold at the beach in England in the 1930s. Bill had one of each of the five colours. Originally sold for about $2.50, today these little mementos sell for considerably more, especially the hard to find blue version.
Robert Wilson dashed off to the Big Apple a few weeks ago and while there he visited a chap who has some catalogue sheets from Underwood, the famous stereo card publisher in the late 1800s/early 1900s. The sheets appear to be factory references. Bob has matched many images of Switzerland to his copy of Underwood's 1905 - 1910 series on that country. He pointed out that the shots were cropped for printing and that the more popular scenes where photographed a number of times -- perhaps to ensure at least one good image.
Gerry Loban showed us a Rolleicord with a difference. He acquired it with other items from an estate. Later on, when he examined the camera, he discovered it was equipped with a Zeiss Planar lens which is usually only offered on the more costly Rolleiflex. And this Rolleicord was an older camera than the first Rolleiflex with a Planar lens. Gerry met another person who also has a Planar equipped Rolleicord. He suggested the cameras originated in Europe via a military PX store, possibly excess from a special run.
Phil Berkowitz arrived with his 1970s Fujica GL690 roll film 120/220 camera that looks like a giant size 35mm RF camera. It was the first camera Phil bought after joining the PHSC. The camera has both a leaf shutter in the lens (interchangeable lenses) and a simple film plane shutter which allows you to change either lens or film without losing a shot! The images are in the common 6x9 cm format.
Les Jones, who added another hat recently as a used book dealer encouraged members to check out old books and magazines listing novel cameras. He brought along a book which described a "rocket camera" c1889. The camera was shot into air and pulled back with a cord while suspended on a parachute. It was set to take a series of shots on the return to earth.
George Dunbar, while browsing through his library rediscovered the book "Canada - the missing years" which tells a story about the virtues of back up. Images taken from 1895 - 1924 and archived in Ottawa were destroyed in a fire. In recent times, copies were discovered in a British archive which was recipient of duplicate images as required by law many years ago. The book includes images from many of the saved photographs.
Mike Robinson wrapped up the evening with his beautiful home made 1/2 plate daguerreotype camera, complete with an authentic brass lens. Mike used an original camera as a model to make his camera exact down to the placement of saw cuts. The construction is a double box on a tail board with a bellows between the boxes. The camera is immaculately constructed with chamfered edges on three sides front and back. An interior "kit" for the plate holder allows Portrait or Landscape orientation in 1/2 or 1/4 plate size. Mike noted that due to flaws in the Petzval lens of the time, photographers often used 1/4 plates on 1/2 plate cameras to reduce distortion. Mike managed to swap a wet plate lens for a Holmes Booth Haydon brass lens s/n 878 manufactured about 1853. The lens has a radial drive focus common to North America although his source found it in England. It has no slot for waterhouse stops which is consistent with a daguerreotype lens (compared to a lens intended for the faster wet-plate medium). Inside the hood is engraved "J G Turner Toronto Mar 17, 1859". Turner was born in Ireland in 1832, emigrated to Toronto and had a studio at 53 King St E. One of his pictures was featured on the cover of Photographic Canadiana issue 26-1. The degree of wear on the focus mechanism suggests the lens was well used by Turner, perhaps even taking the cover image!
Click any image to see a 4x enlargement.
|
Bolex |
Converter |
QRS Music |
QRS Camera |
Stereo Xmas |
Stereo Frog |
Gum Bichromate |
Gum Bichromate |
B&L Gizmo |
Detail |
Leather |
Ernemann |
Tiny Tuxi |
Accessories |
Film |
Coronets |
Underwood |
Underwood |
Gerry |
Rolleicord |
Planar |
Phil |
Fuji GL690 |
Fuji Rollfilm |
Les |
George |
Dag Camera |
Engraving |
Turner Pix |
These pictures were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 990 and adjusted With Adobe Photoshop 5.5, except for the last image which is a scan from the journal front cover image created by Robert Lansdale. You will notice some images are black & white or sepia. They were badly undexposed. I tried to increase the image sensitivity setting and only succeeded in setting the camera to default to red-eye reduction causing a delay between the snap and the shot and messing up my timing (changing the "decisive moment" to the "decisive minute"). I recovered some of the underexposed images with Photoshop and buried the coloured artifacts by going monochrome.
Facelift & Design © 1999 Zero Cattle
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