a camera called Iris

Posted on February 3, 2022 by Robert

Ad for ill-fated IRIS “minicam” camera using special film.

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 camera, Univex decided to try a “Gillette Razor” business plan – use customized film made exclusively for use in the Univex Iris.

Great idea, bad timing. The company chose Gevaert in Belgium to make the film. In the fall of 1939, WW2 began and by 1941 America was at war too. Previously, Gevaert had combined with Agfa and Agfa (German owned) was seized as an enemy company. Good-bye Gevaert. Good-bye special film. Good-bye Iris sales.

Camera collectors may enjoy this site about camera patents (indirectly, it has somewhat confusing links to patents awarded to various camera makers – be careful on the downloads) and this pdf of patent 110,028 dated June 7, 1938 granted to Universal Camera for the outward design of their ill-fated Univex Iris.

A big thanks to good friend, George Dunbar, for sharing the above Popular Mechanics ad from its January, 1939 issue.

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a rip van winkle photograph

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Robert

“Days in the Sun” by Regina Valkenborgh (Photo: Regina Valkenborgh / University of Hertfordshire)

Toronto. Shades of pinhole photography! Madeleine Muzdakis wrote this article for “Modern Met” on December 15, 2020. The article, “University Discovers Photo With 8-Year-Long Exposure That Was Taken With a Beer Can“, describes the technique used.

The article begins, “The London 2012 Summer Olympics had its closing ceremonies in August 2012.

“Just one week after the athletes dispersed, a masters student in fine arts began a project at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. Regina Valkenborgh crafted a pinhole camera out of an aluminum beer can, duct tape, and light-sensitive photographic paper.

“Affixed facing skyward on the side of the university’s Bayfordbury Observatory, the camera was forgotten—weathering the elements for eight years and one month. David Campbell—the observatory’s Principal Technical officer—finally got around to removing the camera this fall.

“Inside, he discovered the longest-exposure image ever captured, showing eight years’ worth of solar paths across the sky.”

My thanks and a tip of the hat to good friend and fellow PHSC member Russ Forfar deep in the snow and woods of Central Ontario.

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in the days before CAD

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Robert

article about pre CAD days in the aircraft industry

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 could create specialized aircraft parts life size (the article sorta mixes cameras and projectors).

This article sparked the imagination in the time before we had computers per se (in Bletchley Park, England, Alan Turing used what were really computers to interpret data from the WW2 German Enigma machines, which were heavily encrypted). The computers used (called “Bombe”) were secretly destroyed after the war letting America tout itself as the inventor of computing, only learning of the Bombe and Alan Turing many years later.

George Dunbar, that intrepid photography historian spotted this article and very generously shared it with us. George retired from IBM which took on the American computing mantle and soon  became a world wide power-house in the computer industry.

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light up the night

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Robert

article about lighting up the sky for photos in 1941

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 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine. The camera was flown ‘a mile high’ at night while far below a bomb exploded illuminating a wide area to daylight brightness.

Photographs were taken and then processed. Various colours of light were used in the trials to bring out camouflaged areas. Years later, we had people like the late Ken Smith talk about the runs over both enemy and allied territory during the war and after to map out the terrain. Two runs of film could be aligned to create so called ‘hyper stereo’ images exaggerating hills and mountains to aide in mapping the country side.

We owe a thank you to that fine photographic historian, George Dunbar for sharing this snippet of history with us and bringing to mind some of the presentations  we were privileged to see and hear.

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we are all amateurs in something

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Robert

Thomas Bradt, Amateur Photographer – glass plates 1904-1910

Toronto. In the 1960s, my physics professor, Dr S___ came in one Monday morning with a very raspy voice. Being unfamiliar with alcohol, hangover remedies, or over the counter medication, he had picked up some Bromo-Seltzer tablets to ease a throbbing headache.

If he had followed the instructions, one of the rather large pills would have been dissolved in a glass and then the fizzy water consumed. Unfamiliar as he was, he had attempted to swallow a pill but it stuck in his throat. Unthinkingly, he quickly drank a glass of water to wash it down. The pill immediately frothed and fizzed nearly suffocating the young man. Fortunately, by the time I had my afternoon lecture, his voice and throat were back to normal and we had another great lecture.

Dr David Kenny recently wrote and published a book on  amateur photography illustrated with photos taken by Thomas W Bradt in 1904-1910. Dr Kenny writes, “It was my intention that the ebook would be available under the PHSC Press section as a free download for anyone … . I have licensed it under a Creative Commons license allowing free download, attribution, non commercial, no derivatives. This way members of other camera clubs can access it.”   

The pdf version was recently sent to our members as a free bonus. A hard copy is available directly from Blurb. If you only need an electronic version and intend to use it under the Creative Commons guidelines, download it via our  PRESS menu item above.

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to catch a spy

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Robert

photography to the rescue

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 years.

A few decades later, a  polaroid colour setup with three differently coloured backdrops helped secure Bell’s data centres by controlling access to the computer area in the pre-internet days when physical damage was a prime threat.

Thanks to my friend and fellow PHSC member, George Dunbar,  for sharing this filler article from one of the truly popular magazines both pre-war, WW2, and post-war (I was a fan of the magazine in the 1950s).

Note: The post title is a riff on an excellent movie called, “To Catch a Thief” starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly (before she became royalty).

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four flasher

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Robert

article for four flashes on a Speed Graphic camera

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 a single flash unit.

This Rube Goldberg idea may have never taken off since this is the only place I saw such a gadget.

My thanks to George Dunbar for sharing this tidbit of history with us. The post title is a riff on the once common phrase “four-flusher“

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read da fine print, dummy

Posted on January 27, 2022 by Robert

Ad for Super-XX film for easy peasy (yeah, right) indoor and night photos

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 6 classmates to visit a couple of museums in villages a few miles north of home.

I took along my trusty Baby Brownie and since I was shooting some photos indoors I also bought Kodak Super-XX film which was the fastest film around back then – and Kodak said it was great indoors and at night. Boy, what a disappointment! The outdoor photos came out just fine as usual, but the indoor shots where all sadly underexposed … and like any little kid, I wondered what I did wrong. Now I know …

I didn’t read the fine print! I believed Kodak when they said any camera could take indoor and night shots as easy as outdoor shots if it could use Super XX film (just like mine). Now, seeing this ad and reading the fine print, it says in paragraph ‘B’, “Use a couple of inexpensive Mazda Photo flood lamps in Kodak handy reflectors … Kodak handy Measure included“. Hmfff! tell THAT to a kid-sized budding photographer!

Anyway, here we are over seven decades later. Water under the bridge. The ad that brought this to mind is courtesy of my good friend and fellow photo-historian, George Dunbar. It’s George’s abundant curiosity that makes the history of our art so darned  interesting.

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when I grow too old to dream …

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Robert

street photographer in Clapham Common, London, England 1877

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 the internet these days –  often discovers the unusual. In this case, George came across a tumblr website about photographic history.

When you visit the site (and tear yourself away from Muybridge’s work) you see a photograph and brief essay on an itinerant photographer in Clapham Common (England) where he earns his keep by photographing people such as babies for their nanny to take home to the parents. The photographer appears to be the proprietor of his own business.

As noted in the linked post above, when I was very young, we too were visited by an itinerant photographer – with a pony for a prop.  Thanks is due to my very good friend and fellow PHSC member, George Dunbar, for sharing his unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

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the Graflex of movie cameras

Posted on January 25, 2022 by Robert

1922 ad for Mitchell cameras

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 leading edge movies, Billy Bitzer took the time to write the Mitchel company and compliment their product. Decades later, well into the sound and colour era, Mitchell was still the professional’s movie camera of choice.

A heartfelt thank you to my good friend and fellow photographic history buff, George Dunbar, for sharing this advertisement from the August 1922 issue of American Cinematographer.

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