Category Archives: history

stereopticon

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Over the years people have christened their weird and wonderful optical marvels with odd names like “stereopticon” for a mechanical projector of 3D and 2D images. When I looked up the definition of the name in a dictionary, it … Continue reading →

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that’s how the light gets in – II

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. When the Daguerreotype process was announced in January 1839, it was so slow that only still life and landscape views could be recorded. The news of the process speed resulted in a two direction thrust: chemically, to enhance the … Continue reading →

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that’s how the light gets in

Posted on October 7, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Did you ever wonder how Chevalier managed to make the first camera for Daguerre complete with a lens before 1839 ? The lens had been designed a quarter century earlier c1812 by the  Englishman Wollaston as a landscape lens … Continue reading →

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sand in the works

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. The digital revolution is driven by sand. Silicon is nothing more than reconstituted sand, after all. We in photography are all too aware of the severe impact digital has had on our industry. Film, chemicals, darkrooms, traditional cameras, lighting … Continue reading →

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who ya gonna call – II?

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Who ya gonna call when you want people in middle class America to know about your fresh egg and do some digging? LIFE magazine, that’s who! In the March 8, 1969 issue, a full page ad on page 19 … Continue reading →

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something to sit upon

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Well, what do you know? Here is another special members-only supplement (vol 1-4). This one is on posing chairs of all things. In a more leisurely era, a studio portrait took a few seconds of absolute stillness to capture. … Continue reading →

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don’t let the light get in

Posted on October 2, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Cameras are all the same in one sense whether they cost pennies or thousands of dollars: they are a light tight box separating a light sensitive medium from a lens so that any object at infinity is in focus … Continue reading →

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faster than a speeding bullet

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. When photography was invented, exposures were measured in minutes. Between then and the end of film’s popularity something happened: Speed. The light sensitive media and lenses through research and innovation became much faster. In fact, after dry plates arrived, … Continue reading →

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slow train

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. In the early years of the minicam, leaf shutters were often used to allow for slow speeds. The early focal plane shutter Leicas had speeds from about   1/500 second down to about 1/20th second when both curtains were … Continue reading →

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Okey-Bokehy

Posted on September 29, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. A recent post on depth of field prompted a note from my friend George Dunbar along with a photo for a red IBM  Selectric typewriter (remember those machines with the flying golf balls of interchangeable typefaces?). For the ad, … Continue reading →

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