Category Archives: history

an article with a view (master)

Posted on February 5, 2022 by Robert

Toronto.  Over time, stereo has popped up as a fad – as photo cards in the late 1890s, as cameras in the 1950s, as movies, as TVs and in 1939 as a child’s toy called a View-Master. This wonderful toy … Continue reading →

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a camera called Iris

Posted on February 3, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. After the minicam revolution took off, some camera makers tried to ‘fake’ their products as great minicams. Univex in the States tried a number of different models and business plans (guessing this from models and ads). For the Iris … Continue reading →

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in the days before CAD

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. Computer Aided Design (CAD) made huge changes in how products were manufactured.  Before CAD, photography stepped in to speed up aircraft production. This article from the February 1941 edition of Popular Mechanic explained how a giant camera and projector … Continue reading →

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light up the night

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. Photography played a key roll in WW2. High flying aircraft with aerial cameras mapped the ground searching for enemy troops and armaments. A bright idea, tested over upper NY State, was the ‘light bomb’ described in this January 1941 … Continue reading →

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to catch a spy

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. During WW2, photography found many ways to be of service. This article in the January 1941 issue of Popular Mechanics shows photography making photo I.D. passes that helped separate the workers from the ‘spies’ in America during the war … Continue reading →

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four flasher

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Robert

Toronto.  … or more than one way to skin a cat (sorry cat fanciers). In the February 1941 issue of Popular Mechanics, a filler article suggests using two  special synchronizers for a Graphic camera to quadruple the light output over … Continue reading →

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read da fine print, dummy

Posted on January 27, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. The February, 1941 issue of Popular Mechanics came out when I was a little kid still figuring out when to use a spoon (not really). Six years later, I took a bus ride with the rest of my grade … Continue reading →

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when I grow too old to dream …

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. … I’ll have you to remember. Or so the song says. To try for memory beyond a generation or two, people relied on a photograph – then and now! George, like anyone with a curiosity – and access to … Continue reading →

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the Graflex of movie cameras

Posted on January 25, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. Professional camera men in Hollywood for the most part used Mitchell cameras. The Mitchell was to Hollywood cameramen like a Graflex camera was to newshounds – Fully professional and a sturdy work horse. In 1922, when silents were still … Continue reading →

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the jig’s up

Posted on January 24, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. My good friend, George Dunbar, spotted this 1947 ad by Kodak portraying Mr Hitler dancing an inappropriate jig in 1940 during the fall of France. George high-lighted one line in the advertisement which proclaimed, “with unique reality and objectivity”. … Continue reading →

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