Category Archives: history

lighting up history

Posted on January 22, 2019 by Robert

Toronto. Around a century ago and earlier, cameras used glass plates to hold the sensitive media. Since the luminance values were reversed, the image on the plate was a negative. To view the image you needed an educated eye, and … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on lighting up history

lighting the way

Posted on January 17, 2019 by Robert

Toronto. Tom Edison’s company got into the blossoming flashbulb era of the 1950s and 60s as shown in a September 6, 1954 LIFE magazine two page spread (pp30, 31). One of our society’s presidents and founders, the late Larry Boccioletti, shown … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on lighting the way

you do remember movies, don’t you?

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. In 1922 Europe, a French company developed a home projector to show copies of commercial 35mm movies at home in a new format called 9.5mm. Shortly after their projectors retailed, Pathé introduced a companion movie camera using the same standard. … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on you do remember movies, don’t you?

Sarah and George

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. It was spring, 1954 and I was in what would become my last year of formal school for a decade. In its April 26, 1954 issue,  LIFE magazine offered two stimulating articles for photographers and photo-historians. The portrait of … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sarah and George

food for thought

Posted on December 5, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. During the US civil war, Mathew Brady became famous for his battle field wet plate photography. The process demanded that the plate be sensitized, exposed and processed while still wet or its sensitivity would disappear like the morning mist … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on food for thought

a spark of light

Posted on November 20, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. We all (almost all) can remember Dr Harold Edgerton of M.I.T. and his famous speed light shots in the early days of electronic flash. These shots allowed us to see phenomenon that was too brief for the human eye … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on a spark of light

high five

Posted on November 9, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. Before the fall of Germany at the end of WW2, Dresden was a major camera manufacturing centre. Ernemann built its famous Pentacon tower building and upon the founding of Zeiss-Ikon, it became the central manufacturing works of Zeiss-Ikon.  Sadly, … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on high five

a century ago

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. A century ago the Great War in Europe was winding down. Many of my ancestors and those of my wife actively participated in the war. I can remember asking my grandfather Kelsey why he joined since he had a … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on a century ago

when home movies were analogue

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. Before fancy digital cameras and smartphones became common place, photography needed film. To address the blossoming interest in home movies (and to sell the special movie film) camera companies offered special movie cameras that accepted the tiny reels of 16mm … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on when home movies were analogue

rapid rectilinear lens design

Posted on August 18, 2018 by Robert

Toronto.After the announcement of photography early in 1839, there was a flurry of competing lens designs across Europe, each design trying to better the resolution and error correction qualities of the other. In 1866, two Germans, one an immigrant to … Continue reading →

Posted in history, lens | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on rapid rectilinear lens design