taken with a grain of salt.

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Robert

A digital camera the size of a grain of salt

Toronto. Science seems to vacillate between analogue and digital concepts. The earliest radio receivers used digital – a “cat’s whisker” and a speck of solid state material.

Significant improvement occurred when technology shifted to analogue – vacuum tubes – then later last century back to digital again.

Similarly but on a much longer time scale, photography was initially analogue (films, glass plates, tintypes, daguerreotypes, salted paper) and then late last century and early this century, digital – with sensors getting smaller and denser raising both sensitivity and resolution.

The earliest photographic lenses too were analogue creating a very tight bundle of light. Multiple lens elements of different glass types and curves corrected distortion and created a flatness of field. Microscope objectives used tiny lenses – the diameter falling as the magnification increased and the NA – numeric aperture – decreased. But always with a great many elements – even more than in a photographic lens, especially as objective magnification and NA both increased.

Now (Monday, Nov 29, 2021) the Scientist Study web site reports results by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Washington that demonstrates a camera and lens the size of a grain of salt. The key to the design was creating a lens that reacted to light in a digital fashion! The result infers much higher resolution and smaller physical size than earlier devices offered.

The last colonoscopy I had, my surgeon offered a tiny camera in a pill capable of spotting a polyp about 5mm in size. Learning that the same pre-procedure cleansing process was used and any polyp discovered would need a colonoscopy anyway to remove it, I declined the pill since the cleansing was always the most onerous part of the procedure. Now a grain of salt size camera with higher resolution makes it time to reconsider ,,,,

My thanks to my friend Russ Forfar, deep in the wilds of southwestern Ontario, for suggesting this post and offering the above links.

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Wet Plate Social to be held here December 20th

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Robert

Come to this year’s Wet Plate Social at Horst Hergel’s studio

Toronto. You may recall our previous program co-ordinator, Yvette Bessels did wet plate photography. One of her contacts here in Toronto, Horst Herget, is holding a WET PLATE SOCIAL  this month in the east end of the city (Leaside).

Horst writes, “I wanted to reach out to you about an event I am planning for those interested in wet plate photography, details of which are below. If you have question, please do not hesitate to let me know.

“Best Regards,
Horst”

These are the details, courtesy of Horst –

“This month’s WET PLATE SOCIAL – WPS – is on Monday December 20th between 7-9pm at studio, @daylight_studio_toronto, in Leaside. For this get together we will be doing a Print Exchange. Please bring an 8×10” print of your work or cookies, chocolate, or something else altogether, totally up to you. Also, Horst will be photographing a few wet plate portraits. Tis the season for merriment so feel free to bring a beverage too.

“ABOUT: Wet Plate Social is a get together to talk, ask questions and share all things wet plate photography. From first timers to old timers, the event is open to all that are interested in the beautiful and humbling art. This event is hosted by Horst Herget @horst.herget, www.horsth.ca.

“WHEN: December 20th, from 7 to 9pm.

“LOCATION: Daylight Studio in Toronto: 28 Industrial Street off Laird, (off Laird, south of Eglinton), unit 222; @daylight_studio_toronto.

“TO ATTEND: please RSVP to @horst.herget or tintype@horstherget.com; DOUBLE vaccinated attendees only, please.

“CORRESPONDENCE AND UPDATES: please contact @horst.herget or tintype@horstherget.com

“FUTURE MEET-UPS: will continue to be held on the third Monday of the month forward into 2022.”

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celebrating 100 years of Bergenland as part of Austria

Posted on December 13, 2021 by Robert

Rust, farmer with harvested Burgundy beets, 1931 by Franz Swoboda

Toronto. Our friends in Westlicht, are mounting an exhibit originally planned for a November start but now beginning December 14, 2021 celebrating a century of Bergenland photographs, titled “BORDERLAND IN FOCUS. 100 YEARS BURGENLAND“. The exhibition was delayed by COVID. The famous auction house needs the help of us all to promote this event.

Westlicht explains, “As you know, we had to start the exhibition GRENZLAND IN FOKUS. 100 YEARS BURGENLAND postponed due to lockdown. 

“But now we want to be there again for our visitors. We are showing the remarkable exhibition from December 14th and would be delighted if you could support us with an announcement during this difficult time for all cultural establishments.

“The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Burgenland Cultural Companies and the Burgenland Provincial Archives and offers an exciting photographic journey through the history of the youngest Austrian federal state.”

Feel free to copy this material. Browse the exhibit news on line via Google or your favourite search engine (eg. use the search words: GRENZLAND IN FOKUS. 100 YEARS BURGENLAND) .

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smaller can be better

Posted on December 12, 2021 by Robert

A typical aluminum fan-style flash reflector – the Leitz B-C “Chico” flash gun designed for camera accessory shoes or hot shoes (1954 – 1959).

Toronto. For many years flash bulbs were used to illuminate scenes at night or indoors.  Early flash guns were somewhat big and required fresh batteries to reliably trigger a flash bulb via a cable connecting flash gun and shutter sync. The biggest and bulkiest portion of the flash was usually its sturdy, solid metal reflector. Some capable engineer came up with the idea that the reflector could be collapsed like a fan made of aluminum, making the flash gun both more compact and lighter.

To compensate for amateurs and absent-minded professionals trying to use exhausted batteries, so called B-C flash guns came into vogue. This flash gun used a higher voltage battery plus a capacitor to store the charge needed to trigger a bulb. The more exhausted the battery, the longer it took to charge the capacitor, warning the photographer it was time to change batteries. Since the bulb was triggered by the capacitor voltage and current, success no longer relied on battery condition alone.

As flash guns became smaller and lighter, the camera’s accessory shoe could be used to mount the flash gun on top of the camera. Inevitably, the accessory shoe became a hot shoe and was linked to the shutter sync. Flash guns enabled for hot shoes eliminated any need for a cable between flash and camera.

In time electronic flash took over and the single use bulbs became history. As the size of the electronic flash dropped, it soon became a built-in part of the camera eliminating any need for the hot shoe. Low powered flash became a popular means to fill in shadows. On more expensive cameras, a sync socket was included so an external electronic flash gun  could be used off camera to soften  shadows.

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PHSC News newsletter for December 2021

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Robert

over 250,000 made and sold

Toronto. Recognize the Leica M3 at the right top of page 1 in this month’s PHSC News newsletter? The most famous of all Leicas, design was done before and during WW2. You can see the prototype Leica IV in the Leica museum in Solms, Germany.

December is nearing the mid point. People in the know are ruminating on a fifth wave of COVID. Yet   our editor, Sonja, and her team found the time to  produce this issue for you. World-wide, the Omicron variant threatens to be even more transmissible than the Delta. Here in Canada, changes have been somewhat eased by our vaccination levels (the third – a booster shot – gets underway this month) and a close adherence to common sense guidelines. Children under 12, and of school age, are being   vaccinated now.

PHSC News (21-06) has many thought provoking articles as usual – all short, crisp, and provocative. Why not take a few moments and read them, easing your  symptoms of virus lethargy.

Page 1 under “Comfort & Joy” discusses a photograph by 1950s and 60s society photographer Slim Aarons and the misidentification of its model in social media. Page 2 in “PHSC PRESENTS (virtually)” speaks of Queen Victoria’s massive 1894 Christmas Feast. This time page 3, under PHOTO BOOK 101 has the topic, “The Book for a Garage Mechanic Who has Everything”. Under Streamables on page 4, is an article on, “The Man Who Invented Christmas” or “You May Not Want to Have a Dickens of a Christmas“; while page 5 looks at how the British are coping with the supply chain mess in the food area in, “The OVERSEAS File“.

Page 6 covers, “Open Me First and Get Ready to Feel Inadequate“, or Christmas ads c1950s,  in David’s EQUIPMENT REVIEW.  David is followed  on page 7 by John Morden’s  thoughtful selection of WEB LINKS.

Page 8 features the poster for our popular annual (now ZOOM ) event  “A Show and Tell”.  We see those friends Ivy & Izzy, on page 9, trading quips on the topic  “Checking out Darwin’s Head“. As a wrapper, page 10 has John’s compilation of shows, events, and exhibitions of interest to collectors/photographers everywhere – take a look.

P.S. As usual, every link shown in the newsletter is a hot link just waiting for your click!

P.P.S. You can visit this issue by clicking here, or by g0ing to the menu item NEWSLETTER at the top of the page. There is a drop down menu that takes you to older issues dating back a couple of decades to the very beginning.

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1940’s creme de la creme

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Robert

Eastman film used for 1941’s ten best movies …

Toronto. 1940. America was a year away from being pushed into WW2 by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Color movies were very possible but very costly. That year, critic’s poll happened to choose black and white titles for the ‘top ten’ – all shot on Eastman negative film.

Kodak posted this ad in the February, 1941 issue of International Photographer. Big Yellow Father touted three of its B&W films, two of which were familiar to 35mm camera aficionados:  Plus-X, and Super-XX (the third film was  Background-X).

A special thanks to my good friend, George Dunbar, for sharing this wonderful ad with us. While not all of us are well known industrial cinematographers like George, most of us did use Kodak negative films at one time or another until the digital wave embraced us – except for that tiny niche group who rely on film (and our fairs and shows for gear and inspiration).

 

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flash dance

Posted on December 9, 2021 by Robert

Ad for the motion stopping Kodatron electronic flash system.

Toronto. In this 1949 ad from the April issue of International Photographer shows what can be done with the amazing Kodatron Speed Lamp by Kodak. Edgerton had demonstrated the use of the technology for photography a few years earlier at M.I.T.

In this ad, Kodak was addressing Hollywood and the movie crowd. The electronic flash was for professional studio illumination at the time. A heavy portable flash was available for professionals too, Amateur snappers and many professionals on the move resorted to the much cheaper one-use flash bulbs. It was after WW2 that electronic flash was finally cheap enough and portable enough to be widely used outside the studio environment.

A big thanks once again to my good friend and retired cinematographer, George Dunbar. George came across this ad while researching photographic history as denoted in both poplar and photographic magazines of last century.

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the way we were

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Robert

Slow Photography by Dennis Minty

Toronto. In the days of film, shots cost money so the prudent photographer was careful to crop, frame, and expose at just what Cartier- Bresson called, “the decisive moment”.  In this book, “Slow Photography –  Images with Intent” Dennis Minty of Newfoundland and Labrador takes us back to that time in Photography eschewing the “10 is good so 100 must be better” mindset of the average digital snap shooter and smart phone user.

Dennis Minty, out on the Rock, writes of his ebook, “Slow Photography, Images with Intent represents Dennis Minty’s thoughts after more than fifty years experience as a photographer, with twenty-five as a professional.

“Slow photography is an attitude, an approach, a philosophy and a methodology. It’s about slowing down, being thoughtful and reflective, considerate and intentional. It strives towards authenticity and connection and transforms photography from reflex to ritual.

“‘With slow photography, we hone our compositions and try to make our images personal, more a reflection of who we are and what we care about…Slow photography goes beyond the impulse to record, to the need to feel more deeply.’

“Minty describes and illustrates why slow photography is important both to the images we create and to our personal contentment. He explains how to go about it so that any shooting experience brings long-lasting fulfilment, and he provides simple exercises that reinforce the ideas behind slow photography. Almost ever one of the 240 pages holds one or more photos carefully chosen both for visual impact and for their utility at illustrating the ideas behind slow photography. This book is for anyone who enjoys photography either as a viewer or as a practitioner.”

While Dennis asks for a modest fee for the pdf file, he offers a preview for those of us who like to ‘kick the tires’. Here’s the link to see a preview: https://payhip.com/b/4zOx5

 

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for the ditherers of last century

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Robert

An Alpa Reflex II 35mm camera

Toronto.  Back on May 10, 2019 before we were engulfed in COVID, I did a different post on the Alpa line of cameras.

Those 35mm photographers who couldn’t decide whether the rangefinder or SLR style was best, could always have both by choosing an Alpa camera with both means of focus. This unusual design came with what were considered excellent lenses.

At one time I was offered an Alpa in exchange for my Rittrick IIa but for some quirky reason, I declined the swap. While the Alpa camera line was only around a few decades, the elaborate hand-assembled technique and Swiss precision made it a formidable line of 35mm cameras.

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a pro’s pro line

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Robert

March 1941 ad for the famous Graflex line

Toronto. In North America, most newshounds or wanna be’s used one brand of camera and accessories: Graflex. In the International Photographer for March 1941 on page 17, Folmer Graflex touted its line of cameras and accessories as ‘prize winning’ and ‘American Made’, statements most photographers of the day considered truthful.

We can all remember the trusty Speed Graphic or Graflex with its iconic flash gun in the hands of a photographer at every news worthy event. Ken Metcalf down in North Carolina publishes a Journal (Graflex Journal) devoted to this remarkable line,

A big thanks goes out to PHSC member, good friend, and photographic historian, George Dunbar, for sharing this advertisement from some 80 years ago!

 

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