how to introduce a new revolutionary product

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Robert

1935 ad for the new 16mm size Kodachrome

Toronto. Leitz, a few years earlier, taught photographers the virtues of an enlarged small negative to introduce their novel little camera with small negatives. Traditionally, much larger cameras were used. The camera size determined the size of the final print since most were contact prints.

The firm realized this was the critical thing to teach experienced photographers –  not what the little camera could do, but how a tiny negative could be enlarged to make a great print.

In a similar fashion, when Kodak released Kodachrome in 1935, it made colour movies far better and with much less fuss than its competitors. Potential customers had to be assured that existing equipment WITHOUT modification or accessories could take and show the new Kodachrome 16mm movies.

Kodak even went further to explain why films had to be returned to Rochester for  processing and why 35mm still film was not yet available. We owe a big thanks once more to that historian and retired cinematographer, George Dunbar, for sharing his findings with us (from an advertisement by Kodak in the May, 1935 issue of American Cinematographer, introducing their new and ground breaking colour film).

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De Cry of a desert victory

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Robert

Summer 1943 ad by DeVry for the movie “Desert Victory”

Toronto. When America joined in against the Axis in WW2, the Hollywood studios and British studios made movies to support government involvement (and keep some actors at home).  The scene at left is a still promoting the movie “Desert Victory” that was released c1943.

The full ad encourages the reader to buy/use DeVry movie cameras (used to record the film, a British documentary) and movie projectors. My thanks goes out to that retired cinematographer and PHSC member, George Dunbar, for sharing this bit of history from the June, 1943 issue of American Cinematographer magazine.

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copy cats

Posted on December 29, 2021 by Robert

1934 ad for Kodak minicams, darkroom gear, and enlarger

Toronto. I wonder who came up with the “small negative, big print” idea? I always thought it was Leitz as part of the minicam revolution and demonstrating that a negative can be tiny and still be enlarged for a great print.

This ad from the May, 1934 issue of Popular Mechanics gives Kodak’s twist on the concept. Before minicams and the use of 35mm motion picture film in short bits for stills, contact prints seemed to be the norm with the occasional enlargement of smaller prints. For example choosing one or two pocket size contact prints to be enlarged and framed for the mantle.

My thanks once again goes to my good friend and fellow PHSC member, George Dunbar. I would have trouble doing these posts without his ideas and suggestions!

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keeping an eye out for Hirohito and Adolf

Posted on December 28, 2021 by Robert

ad for Bell & Howell Eyemo movie cameras not offered to civilians in wartime

Toronto. When I was a little kid, WW2 was still active. I remember one little toy made of wooden pieces. When the strings were pulled, Tojo (Japanese PM in WW2) and Hitler took swings at each other.

While America considered the attack on Hawaii, our focus was on Europe and England. Just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Tojo was named PM by Japan’s Emperor Hirohito, himself a pacifist at heart.

On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and some other Asian sites. In reaction to war, American industry moved to military supply and advertised their role in the war (like Bell and Howell did in this ad from the July, 1943 issue of American Cinematography magazine).

My sincere thanks to good friend and retired cinematographer, George Dunbar, for sharing this ad with the PHSC.

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zoom before zoom

Posted on December 27, 2021 by Robert

Voigtlander ZOOMAR Zoom lens for 35mm still cameras c1959. Photograph by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr

Toronto. Today, when we speak of ZOOM, we usually mean the app used to video conference by computer and internet. In this time of COVID-19, live meetings in person have been replaced by computer conferencing using special apps like ZOOM (which we use for both executive meetings and presentations last held in a facility in North York).

To snap photos, most of us use digital smartphones and their built-in camera(s). Some fancier ‘phones can even merge two of the lenses/cameras to create a hybrid zoom sense.

Before mid last century, photographers used a bag full of fixed focal length lenses and moved back and forth to frame a scene. By the late 1950s, the ZOOMAR lens became available – the first commercially successful Zoom lens for 35mm SLR cameras. Like many things photographic, new ideas and concepts came to the cinematographers first.

For the 35mm photographer, his trusty fixed focal length lenses were much preferred over any idea of a zoom lens. In any case, weight, higher cost, lower speed (aperture),  poorer resolution and a lack of SLR cameras at the time limited the adoption of zooms. Worse, at the extremes of their focal length, zooms suffered geometric distortion (pin-cushion and barrel) as well.

Purists such as Leitz insisted on fixed focal length lenses like their Summicron series for their lighter weight, smaller size, far better photo resolution, and potentially faster design. But as SLR designs succeeded rangefinders, practical photographers preferred the convenience of Zoom lenses and their iffy resolution over a bag full of the sharper prime lenses.

In time, SLRs became the camera design of choice. Zoom lenses improved with a greater range of focal lengths, faster speeds and better resolution. Companies like DxO offered a digital means to correct geometric distortion. Later on almost every photo editor automatically corrected geometric distortion for an ever increasing range of lenses.

With the inroads of smartphone cameras, only the higher-end DSLRs and mirrorless digital cameras remained on offer, All with built-in geometric distortion correction for their own zoom lenses so the scene was corrected before it is even viewed or recorded as an image.

 

 

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boxing it up

Posted on December 26, 2021 by Robert

1935 Winter. “Hockey  Team” is the label grandma put on this snap. my future uncle is front centre. It was snapped across from her house on Gowan Street.

Toronto. The first half of the last century, most families used the humble box camera, and my grandmother was no different. The photographer in her small family, she recorded family members, friends, and neighbours over the years, the majority snapped outdoors in good light.

She saved the best family shots in an album, taking the photos between the wars as her family grew in size and height. Of course all the saved photos were black and white. I had the privilege of having the album for a time before I passed it on to a cousin.

The rather spotty photo of my uncle’s hockey “team” in 1935 is typical of the photos she  took wth an inexpensive Kodak box camera. In later years, the photos lessened. In time,  they were taken by relatives with fancier cameras, often in colour. But my grandmother’s old black and white photos – all annotated – remained favourites of mine for their exposure, framing and family history.

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Merry Christmas 2021

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Robert

19691226 81 Cumberland St Barrie

As the nasty COVID-19 rears its head one more time with the Omicron variation, I wish all viewers a safe holiday. This photo was taken by me over a half century ago with an Exakta VXIIa an hour north of the city. I grew up in a snow belt so winter snow at Christmas was not unusual.

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a really snowy white Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2021 by Robert

December 1941 snow fall in Toronto by Alexandra Studios courtesy of the Toronto Star

Toronto. On December 11, 1944 Toronto had its worst snowfall ever. Over a half metre of snow fell on the city. Nothing moved. A recently married future father-in-law and his friend traipsed blocks along the New Toronto streets to get to work – a story told to my wife when she was a child.

A photographer from the Alexandra studios captured the shot shown at left. It is one of a series called “125 Years of Star Photos” that appeared in the Toronto Star back on November 3, 2017 before this nasty virus arrived.

A big ‘thank you’ to one of the best camera repairmen in the city (now retired), Ulrich Barthel. Ulrich sent me an email with the link to the Star article. For many years Ulrich was a PHSC member – his Rollei collection was often on display at our fairs.

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nighthawks and newshounds

Posted on December 23, 2021 by Robert

1950s ad for Graphic camera – on time payments!

Toronto. As night descends on the city, sirens cry out warnings. Yellow crime tape surrounds parts of the city. Marking the spot where deaths, accidents, fires, or other maladys of humanity happened.

The area is lit up by brief flashes of bright light. Newshounds jostle for that prize winning shot. Hours later black and while photos are in city newspapers!

All this was common place in North America during the first half of last century. The camera of choice by most pros and wannabe newshounds was a Graphic by Graflex.

Today, newshounds have pretty much disappeared along with thick, informative newspapers, legions of reporters, black and white photographs … and Graphic cameras with their ubiquitous flash guns and flash bulbs. Today, short video takes in full colour command the TV viewers’ interest. These takes are often shot outside the city, or even the country – but they fill in the time between commercials quite nicely.

Once again my good friend and fellow PHSC member, George Dunbar, has shared a special advertising find, this time a Graflex ad on page 45 in the April, 1956 issue of Popular Photography during the period when Graflex offered new cameras in an attempt to retain and even gain market share by promoting cameras purchased on time. Note that the nighthawks in the title of this post brings to mind the famous painting by American Edward Hopper some 14 years earlier.

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lousy timing

Posted on December 22, 2021 by Robert

Agfa-Ansco factory in Binghamton NY went online in the summer of 1929.

Toronto. Ansco and its predecessors and future companies tried hard as number two to be better than Kodak in films, papers, cameras etc. In the 1920s, known as Agfa-Ansco, the company built a massive factory which went into production the summer of 1929 in NY state.

A few months later, the worst stock crash in history hit America followed by a decade of the worst world-wide depression ever. Nevertheless, Agfa-Ansco products expanded rapidly world-wide. The ‘dirty thirties’ depression finally ended with world war 2. The British Empire (including Canada), America (reluctantly), Russia, etc. took on the aggressor, Germany, and its supporters, Italy, and Japan.

The Agfa part of the company was German so in 1941, Agfa-Ansco was seized by the American government as an alien business. Post war, its secrets and formulae became public domain. Ansco lived on a few decades into the 1980s under various names like GAF before disappearing forever as a photographic power.

In the late 1950s, I used Ansco colour slide products since they were faster (film), cheaper, and an amateur could develop the slides. Unfortunately larger colour coupler molecules were used limiting the colour dye choices resulting in the loss of colour, especially yellows, over a few decades. The result was the common purplish, faded image. On the other hand, the far more complex Kodachrome used much smaller colour couplers allowing a wider range of dyes and far better stability over time but was slow and contrasty. It had to be mailed back to a factory for processing.

Years later (late 1960s, early 1970s), I used Agfa-Gevaert products. As a gift in late 1970, my father bought me the 4th edition of Heinz Berger’s excellent opus, “Agfacolor”  which I still have. The tipped in colour enlargement of a photo by the author on Agfacolor paper is slowly fading now, but it’s still reasonably clear and colourful.

My thanks to my good friend, George Dunbar, for sharing this advertisement. The ad/article appeared in the July, 1929 issue of The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER magazine. Seeing it brought back memories of my venture into the world of Ansco and Agfa.

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