colour! colour! colour!

Micro camera c1915

Toronto. Like Leonardo before him, a Frenchman came up with all the ways to create colour photography long before technology made them possible. One concept was to catch the image simultaneously on three B&W plates, each plate exposed through a filter.

This dream came true when plates could be made sensitive to a wider spectrum of visible light and cameras like the Hicro came to market.

In our journal, issue 38-1 (May-June 2012) editor Lansdale explains, “Our cover [see photo at left – adjusted with Topaz Photo AI] depicts a small camera from 1915 wherein Henry Hess and Frederic E. Ives tried to introduce a more simplified colour camera to the market.

“It produced three separate B&W separation negatives through a most ingenious system of mirror [and] tri-pa[c]k plates. It came to an end when America entered the First World War in 1917. See the full revelation starting on page 5.”

Bob found his Hicro camera in October, 2011 at the PhotoHistory Symposium down in Rochester, NY. The detailed and well researched article beginning on page 5 of this issue  was read in hard copy by members back then  – or if members joined more recently, on their personal DVD which we mailed (covers Photographic Canadiana volumes 1 – 40). Not a member? Just follow the steps to the right, or view the MEMBERSHIP menu item above. Sign up and the DVD will be sent to you via Canada Post. Note: both hard copy and the DVD version have some colour photographs created by the camera!

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