Category Archives: history

gooey stuff

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. The positive/negative process most common in plate/film photography uses a characteristic of silver halides (silver salts). This characteristic is a sensitivity to light. The more light, the more silver halide bonds that are broken leaving more tiny atoms of … Continue reading →

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a darkening day

Posted on October 27, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Today, we are rather blasé about solar eclipses. but how were they handled over a century ago? A dark shield was still needed to protect eyes, but the cameras as shown here were far different. This scene of a … Continue reading →

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a Kodak projector – I swan

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Here is another pre-carousel projector from Kodak as shown in this rather wordy ad from the October, 1955 issue of Popular Mechanics. To promote the line of 2×2 transparency slide films,  Kodak made and sold well-designed and well-built 35mm … Continue reading →

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rhymes with rhinos

Posted on October 25, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. This article in one of the fall of 1955 issues of Popular Mechanics magazine is a puff piece for Bushnell binoculars. The article notes how the binoculars can be attached to a camera as a telephoto lens creating a … Continue reading →

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brother, can you spare $2.98 US?

Posted on October 24, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Post WW2, any miniature camera was usually called a ‘spy’ camera. Many American marketing companies brought in finished cameras from Occupied Japan and flogged them State-side. Usually the cameras were claimed to be ‘precision’ or ‘precision-made’ although most were … Continue reading →

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YAR (yet another rangefinder)

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Graflex had a great line of large format cameras, ruggedly made, and very popular. Many professional news and street photographers used one of the cameras day or night. One perceived shortfall was the lack of a means to focus … Continue reading →

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catch the wave II

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. A recent post, “catch the wave“, spoke of Kodak’s technique to ‘monetize’ the latest popularity of stereo in the 1950s. A brief (very brief) competitor emerged in 1955 – the Delta Stereo by Lennor Engineering Co in Illinois. The … Continue reading →

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.. and the kitchen sink

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. In the mid last century, Kodak was a giant in the photographic industry. The Feb 1955 Popular Mechanics ad shows just how all encompassing mighty Kodak was here in North America. The ad offers many darkroom tools that amateurs … Continue reading →

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catch the wave

Posted on October 18, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. As mentioned many posts back, stereo has a surge in popularity about once every half century as new technology improves the images. In the 1950s another surge hit with toys, cameras, books, articles, movies, slides, colour, viewers, and projectors … Continue reading →

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remember Stanley?

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. As a kid in grade school, I remember a photo in my geography book. It was taken in Stanley Park, BC and showed a huge fir tree trunk with an early automobile and people nestled inside at the bottom. … Continue reading →

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