doing a Don McLean …

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Robert

Marlene Cook courtesy of the Toronto Star article

Toronto. Les Jones sent me a note that Marlene Cook will be closing  her antique market. On Sunday, May 29th,  Victoria Gibson, the Affordable Housing Reporter for the Toronto Star wrote an article in the Star titled, “Sunday Antique Market at St. Lawrence says goodbye after three decades“.

In it, she interviews Ms Cook (I bought some glass plates from Marlene many years ago at one of our fairs). Marlene says in part, ‘“I’m closing this Sunday, because I want to go out with a positive market for all my dealers,”  She says she, “fears lack of traffic to help the show get back on track …”.

PHSC member Hans Kotiesen is also in the article, ‘”When Hans Kotiesen started selling from his old film camera collection, he listed the items on the likes of eBay and Craigslist. But as time wore on, Kotiesen said he wanted to do something more active and personal.

“I’m retired and I thought, you know, I don’t want to be out of touch with people, and sock myself away somewhere and just think about the past,” Kotiesen said, sitting at his table on Sunday. “So, I checked into the market. That was about ten years ago.”

“There’s a rush from talking to people, and explaining things, and cracking a few jokes. There’s a lot of human communication going on,” he said. Picking up a camera, he noted the various mechanisms and the way they let light in. He sees the old machines as a “reflection of history.””

Oh, and you may remember McLean’s song, “American Pie“. I bought the CD of the same name many years ago.

Posted in history | Tagged , | Comments Off on doing a Don McLean …

Photo-Era: photography over a century ago

Posted on June 1, 2022 by Robert

Cover shot of the 1901 magazine “Photo-Era”

Toronto. Photography was an exciting avocation just over a century ago. One of the magazines of the time was called Photo-Era (The American Journal of Photography). This illustrated monthly covered the photographic scene in America. This example was first published some two decades after technology shifted to America and its vast resources like the George Eastman company with its roll films, Kodaks, and Brownies. You can read excerpts from volumes 7-8 here.

We don’t always realize how wonderful things are today with high sensitivity, full colour, auto everything, world wide transmission in seconds, etc. on almost every smart phone.  Magazine articles like those in Photo-Era take one back to the days when photography was a hard learned skill and art form for those clever enough to adopt a new technology. With Kodaks,  Brownies, and roll film, we began to see the rapid growth of amateur photographers and ‘snap-shooters’.

We owe this find to our good friend, George Dunbar, and his unceasing research into the history of our favourite topic.

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Photo-Era: photography over a century ago

a flash in the (colour) pan

Posted on May 31, 2022 by Robert

part of the brief history of the Multicolour process

Toronto. Did ya ever hear about Multicolor? It was just a flash in the pan – on market in 1929 and dead in 1932. In those days, colour sequences were EXPENSIVE so movies were mainly shot in B&W with short bits in colour to ‘enhance’ the story.

“A 15-second, behind-the-scenes clip in Multicolor of the Marx Brothers filmed on the set of Animal Crackers (1930) exists as part of a Cinecolor short subject entitled Wonderland of California.”

This ‘two colour’ process could be used in regular movie cameras, hence the ad text extolling its virtue. The ad shown here is from the January, 1930 issue of American Cinematographer magazine and is courtesy of my good friend and diligent researcher, George Dunbar. Who knew we had so many flexible ‘wanna be’ color processes before Kodachrome and Ansco arrived on the market just before WW2 broke out?

And of course, today’s smartphone user just can’t see what all the fuss was about – just to create colour!

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on a flash in the (colour) pan

in case you missed …

Posted on May 30, 2022 by Robert

another ad to introduce the 8mm movie concept in 1932

Toronto. Kodak was really serious about their 8mm camera and projector line and the opening of home movies to a far wider audience. With 4x the running time per foot of film vs. 16mm gear, Kodak was aiming at the enthusiasts who felt 16mm was just too expensive for their pocket book – especially during a depression.

Of course today’s smartphone carrying chatterboxes just do not see why the introduction of 8mm movies was so epic – black and white, 24 frames, squinty, need for special gear and a darkened room, poor resolution, etc. just doesn’t compare to full colour, 1080p quality, ready to share with everyone world wide. But that was then and this is now! in 1932, 8mm was truly revolutionary making home movies possible to a far wider audience of snap-shooters.

Like the previous post, this one is based on an American Cinematographer ad in the magazine’s August, 1932 issue. And it too is thanks to the diligence and sharing nature of my good friend, George Dunbar!

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on in case you missed …

when economy trumped quality

Posted on May 29, 2022 by Robert

New 8mm wide home movies created by using a special inexpensive and compact 16mm camera (1932)

Toronto. In the summer of 1932, the great depression was well underway and grabbing the countries of the world in a death grip, eased a few years later by a world-wide war. In  the August, 1932 issue of American Cinematographer, Kodak proudly announced a new camera, one that loaded 25 feet of 16mm film, that after processing and slicing by Kodak became 50 feet of 8mm film ready for projection, running as long as 100 feet of 16mm film.

Kodak’s emphasis was on how much the camera would save, implying that, “The quality of the resulting motion pictures is pronounced very high by persons who have seen them projected in Rochester.”

I can remember 8mm later on when 16mm Kodachrome was available for them. Not so sure “quality” describes the projected image … . Nevertheless, my good friend, George Dunbar, himself a cinematographer as well as a still photographer is commended for discovering and sharing this announcement of the new 8mm movie format aimed at an audience of would-be movie makers less concerned with quality than with economy in the dark days of the 1930s.

Posted in history | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on when economy trumped quality

a practical use of Edgerton’s research

Posted on May 28, 2022 by Robert

set-up used to record the passage of an armour piercing shell through steel plate

Toronto. The July, 1945 issue of Popular Mechanics has a brief article on using rapid fire flash tubes to record the passage of a .50 calibre bullet through armour plate. The experiment was performed by the ATSC of the American Military. The experiment made practical use of the ‘strobe’ concepts arrived at by Harold Edgerton (M.I.T.)  just a few years earlier.

Old timers may recall ‘pentode’ tubes. These were vacuum tubes with three active grids between the cathode/heater and the plate (hence the name pentode or five active elements).

The last paragraph in the article refers to using high speed x-ray tubes developed by Westinghouse for a similar experiment.

Thanks go to my good friend and fellow PHSC member, George Dunbar, for discovering this slice of photographic history and sharing it with us.

Posted in history | Tagged , , | Comments Off on a practical use of Edgerton’s research

we have Contact

Posted on May 27, 2022 by Robert

courtesy of Nascipio Filho: Hannah from the series “In Silence”

Toronto. We always appreciate the efforts of our favourite editor, Rita Godlevskis, of PhotoEd.

Rita recently sent a notice out of her activities at PhotoEd including a section on this year’s Contact festival sponsored by Scotiabank.

I took the liberty of displaying the photo at left by Nascipio Filho – just one of the many photographs on display around the city this year.

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to see the fine works on display at Contact 2022.

Posted in activities-other | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on we have Contact

a niche in time

Posted on May 26, 2022 by Robert

Modern version of Chevalier’s landscape lens in Canon (or Nikon) mount.

Toronto. For the past couple of decades, die hard film (analogue) fans have flocked to our fairs and auctions to buy and use old cameras and film. The folks at Lomography have aided and abetted these die hards with cameras, lenses and films that allow people to dabble in photographic history and take photos reminiscent of over a century ago.

They have announced that the original Daguerreotype two element lens is coming on market again next month or so in either a black or satin aluminum mount designed to fit the modern digital camera (a Canon EF mount or Nikon F mount). The focal length has been shortened to 64mm and through the use of waterhouse stops, modern enthusiasts can use the lens not only at f/16 (f/15 originally) but at increments as wide as f/2.9 with all the glorious distortion corrected by stopping down to f/16.

From their most recent announcement I pulled this material, “Daguerreotype Achromat 2.9/64 Art Lens Aluminium Black, Canon EF Mount.

“A Modern Twist on a Revered Photographic Classic – enjoy the unique aesthetic of this historic Art Lens in a sleek black aluminium finish for your Canon EF mounts or mirrorless cameras using adapters.

  • “Enjoy the ethereal aesthetic of the Daguerreotype Achromat in a lustrous onyx black finish
  • “Experience the premium quality craftsmanship of the Lomography Art Lens family
  • “Discover a modern twist for the world’s first photographic optic lens
  • “Unlock total creative freedom and advanced experimentation”

Focal Length: 64 mm
Lens Aperture System: Waterhouse Aperture Plates
Closest Focusing Distance: 0.5 m
Lens Focussing: Manual Focusing Ring
Available Apertures: f/2.9, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16
Filter Thread: 40.5 mm
Lens Material: Multi–Coated Glass
Lens Body Material: Anodized Aluminum
lens_family: Daguerrotype Achromat

Estimated shipping: 2022-06

The post title is a riff on an old proverb, “a stitch in time saves nine“.

Posted in history | Tagged , , | Comments Off on a niche in time

selective lighting – no sync cable needed

Posted on May 25, 2022 by Robert

article on special aerial shutter in 1945

Toronto. The photo at left is from an article in the June, 1945 issue of Popular Mechanics. As the war in the Pacific neared its end (the war in Europe had already ended a few weeks earlier), American techies continued to work on aerial cameras to improve the images taken and reduce film waste.

One idea was this special shutter – on the camera at lower right but enlarged and shown at the centre of this photograph. The shutter saved film by allowing an exposure to be snapped only by the light of the ‘bomb flash’ from the aircraft carrying the camera – remaining insensitive to extraneous lights such as search lights, flak, etc.

A big thank you to my good friend, George Dunbar, for sharing this bit of history with us. Today, digital smartphones have simply made wires, glass photo cells, and mechanical devices forgotten bits of historical nostalgia for those of us who can still remember such things.

Posted in history | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on selective lighting – no sync cable needed

a brilliant idea

Posted on May 24, 2022 by Robert

1933 ad for a Voigtlander Brilliant TLR as an auxiliary still camera

Toronto. For most of the 20th century, film reigned supreme in photography. In 1933 for example, the cheap Voigtlander Brilliant TLR camera was touted as the “The New ‘Good Companion’ for Movie Directors” in the April, 1933 edition of the magazine, International  Photographer.  The ad suggested that a director could snap a scene as a still whenever he felt it worthy while his cameraman continued to record the move version.

This idea was done with many cameras over the years, sometimes with a still camera mounted directly on the movie camera set up. More recently, video cameras that record directly to solid state memory had an option to grab a still of any scene recorded – on the fly by simply tripping an auxiliary shutter – without stoping the video recording.

A thank you to good friend, George Dunbar, for suggesting this ad which brought to my mind other movie/still options used over the decades.  Modern day smartphones have lots of photo/camera options. I recently saw a movie short that had a massive movie/still ‘electronic’ camera featured as a ‘wave of the future’ – now-a-days a shirt or pants pocket can hold a ‘tiny’ smartphone with all the predicted features and more built-in!

We are blessed to live in such exciting times.

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on a brilliant idea