Category Archives: history

gifts, Kodak, f/2 again

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Big Yellow Father was hitting on all cylinders when advertising for Christmas in the  January, 1934 issue of Popular Mechanics (page 114A and 115A in the Advertising section of the magazine) released before Christmas, 1933 of course. The ad … Continue reading →

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Curious Curtis Captures Indians

Posted on November 29, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. The late John Craig was a vendor at our early fairs. One one occasion, John commented about Edward  S. Curtis. One night, after doing our fair, John visited Barberian’s on Elm Street for a steak. To his delight, there … Continue reading →

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mounting a standard

Posted on November 27, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. A camera’s lens mount does many things: keeps the film to lens distance unchanged in spite of 1,000s of lens changes so one can reliably focus to infinity at any aperture opening; keeps the lens firmly attached to the … Continue reading →

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photographs at a museum

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. The Victoria and Albert Museum in the UK has a long and storied history.  The V&A has collected photographs for many decades (since 1852!). The image at left is a photograph of the notorious Christine Keeler taken in 1963 by … Continue reading →

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when f/2 was super fast

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. In the 1930s, the films and plates were very slow by today’s standards. Normal lenses were usually around f/3.5. To help this lack of sensitivity, Leitz designed a new lens around 1933. The 6 element lens was a modified … Continue reading →

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an early marketing phrase …

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. In the 1930s, the minicam rage was taking off, so how could you differentiate one camera from another? Leitz chose to call its camera an AUTOFOCAL camera in advertisements in various early 1930s magazines. An example is this small … Continue reading →

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Kodak – not just photo supplies and cheap cameras

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. We often think of Kodak in the film days as a maker of films and other photographic supplies along with a multitude of inexpensive cameras, both still and movie, and other accessories, projectors, etc. However, Kodak also made a … Continue reading →

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shining a light on an iconic American photographer

Posted on November 18, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. O Winston Link lived from late 1914 to early 2001. A number of his photographs are offered by the Atlanta, GA gallery, Jackson Fine Art. George Dunbar, also a photographer (and a retired industrial cinematographer) , saved Link’s obituary. … Continue reading →

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scoring in the frozen north

Posted on November 17, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Brrrr, it was real cold in 1905. Up in Dawson City, the guys put down their sticks and stopped flinging the rubber disk around long enough to let a local snap-shooter take this group photograph. David Shribman, published it … Continue reading →

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remembering Korda Camera Montreal

Posted on November 16, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. I spent some time researching alternative Leica camera models in the early 1970s. After settling on the M4 as the best offered, I searched the camera shops for one (newer models were out by then and any new M4s … Continue reading →

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