when f/2 was super fast

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Robert

Screw mount Leica c1937 with Summar lens

Toronto. In the 1930s, the films and plates were very slow by today’s standards. Normal lenses were usually around f/3.5. To help this lack of sensitivity, Leitz designed a new lens around 1933. The 6 element lens was a modified Gauss design. With an aperture of f/2  wide open, the 5cm lens was a stop and a half faster than the little 4 element 5cm Elmar.

The new standard lens, called “Summar”, was promoted in advertisements such as this one on page 469 of the March, 1934 issue of American Cinematographer magazine. The Summar was originally a rigid lens in nickel as shown in this ad. It was changed to a collapsible nickel or chrome lens in 1934. An example of the collapsible lens is the 1937 version shown above.

I snapped the Leica and Summar with my iPod Touch and cropped and adjusted it in Affinity Photo with the Focus Magic Plug-in. The advertisement is a scan courtesy of good friend, George Dunbar, himself a retired Industrial Cinematographer and Photographer who has generously shared his historical research.

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on when f/2 was super fast

Bob’s Zeiss Miroflex

Posted on November 24, 2021 by Robert

Zeiss Miroflex press camera as an SLR

Toronto. Our late editor, Bob Lansdale favoured Canadian photographic history and photographs, especially Chromotypes, over cameras and hardware. He was always concerned that there would be too few hardware/camera articles in each issue of Photographic Canadiana. To this end, Bob chose to collect cameras of interest to him.

As an old news photographer mid last century, Bob picked up a nice Zeiss Miroflex. This European Press camera lived two lives – one as a standard ground glass back press camera with the vertical tower and viewer collapsed and the mirror locked up, and the other as a press SLR as shown here. Mike Butkus has a copy of the instruction manual (English) as a pdf file.

The above image is from Bob’s article in the 46-5 issue of the journal as included in the hard copy version, “Special 2020 Annual Issue”. 46-5 and the hard copy annual were only available to society members (and the hard copy version by request only).

Posted in camera | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Bob’s Zeiss Miroflex

an early marketing phrase …

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Robert

Summer 1933 as for a Leica ‘autofocal’ camera

Toronto. In the 1930s, the minicam rage was taking off, so how could you differentiate one camera from another? Leitz chose to call its camera an AUTOFOCAL camera in advertisements in various early 1930s magazines.

An example is this small ad from the June 1933 issue of American Cinematographer  found on page 67 in the amateur section (check out the jaw dropping list price for a Leica Standard or a Model D with an Elmar 5cm lens …).

The term ‘AUTOFOCAL’ was used to mean that focussing any interchangeable lens would automatically adjust the rangefinder setting to match the two images. At the time, many cameras allowed the rangefinder to be adjusted to bring a subject into focus and then distance was read off and the lens adjusted to that distance – added steps since lens and rangefinder were uncoupled.

Today, the era of auto everything digital cameras and smartphones leave one wondering at what all the fuss was about. Autofocal, indeed.

Thank you to good friend and fellow PHSC member for sharing this piece of photographic history with us. It reminded me that I saw a similar ad years earlier in an old National Geographic magazine. That ad too called the Leica an ‘AUTOFOCAL’ camera.

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on an early marketing phrase …

Kodak – not just photo supplies and cheap cameras

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Robert

Kodak 67mm f/2.7 Anastigmat 16mm movie camera telephoto lens

Toronto. We often think of Kodak in the film days as a maker of films and other photographic supplies along with a multitude of inexpensive cameras, both still and movie, and other accessories, projectors, etc.

However, Kodak also made a few high end cameras and lenses such as the Ektars once even used on Hasselblads as well as good quality cine lenses for its 16mm movie cameras.

The movie lenses were promoted to customers in advertisements like the one in this advertisement back in 1951.  The icon for this post is an earlier (c1943) uncoated black enamel Kodak 16mm cine lens called a Kodak Anastigmat. Its 63 mm focal length acted as a telephoto lens on a 16mm camera. As the ad shows, it was replaced by a satin chrome Cine Ektar mid last century.

A thank you goes to photographic historian and retired industrial cinematographer, George Dunbar,  for sharing this bit of photographic history with us. The ad appears in the June, 1951 issue of Popular Photography magazine on page 86.

Posted in history | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Kodak – not just photo supplies and cheap cameras

somewhere, over the rainbow …

Posted on November 21, 2021 by Robert

Color Your Life exhibit – courtesy of GADCOLLECTION Galeri

Toronto. This post is for image collectors. If you collect Americana photos, modern works, or otherwise, do take a look at the Paris Galerie of GADCOLLECTION.

The image here is the Biden/Harris Inauguration taken by Stephen Wilkes. It is one in the series on exhibit in Paris called ‘Day to Night’ that runs from Nov 9, 2021 (now) to January 9, 2022.

Have a look here or pop over to the City of Light. You just might add some photographs to your collection!

The post title is that famous 1939 song, sung by Judy Garland in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz“. I saw it (nearly a decade after it was made) in a second run theatre in a small Canadian town.

Posted in activities-other | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on somewhere, over the rainbow …

have you ever heard of typologies?

Posted on November 20, 2021 by Robert

PhotoED magazine cover for Winter 2021-2022

Toronto. Rita Godlevskis is just a wealth of ideas, keeping  PhotoED both current and interesting with her savvy and creativity! The latest issue (Winter 2021/2022) is on the newsstands and in the mail. And there is that word again ‘TYPOLOGIES’ right there on the cover!

The above link shows this issue’s contents and has a call for submissions for the first issue in 2022. If you haven’t read an issue, you can subscribe for a hardcopy and peek at older issues online. Visit Rita’s PhotoED site now and scroll down to the bottom. Under ONLINE you will see DIGITAL EDITION. Click that and enjoy the Fall 2021 issue.

Posted in activities-other | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on have you ever heard of typologies?

burning bright – Lehr estate auction in Ohio Nov 20th

Posted on November 19, 2021 by Robert

Very Rare Antique Folmer & Schwing 5X7″ large format stereo camera . 10.5″ long x 7.5″ high – at Burns Auction this Saturday.

Toronto.  I got a note recently from an associated image and camera club – The Daguerreian Society. The estate (at least the photography portion) of their late member, Lewis Lehr, will go under the hammer this Saturday.

The email poster says in part, “Cameras and Images from the estate of Lewis Lehr are selling at 1pm November 20th in Ohio. This is a sale not to be missed. Over 350 items including ephemera he collected over the last 50 years.

“Lewis was a member of The Daguerreian Society since its inception. He  started collecting photography in the late 1960s with many road trips through Ohio searching for rare items.”  Click on the Burns Auction address below to see the lots. Read carefully the pick up address and added charges.

Note that the lots are mostly estimated at a very wide range of USD – not a reliable indicator of value (caveat emptor). Also, the auction house lists some items from previous auctions below the Lehr estate items on each page.

Burns Auction
3136 Kingsdale Center
Columbus, OH 43221

Posted in activities-other | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on burning bright – Lehr estate auction in Ohio Nov 20th

shining a light on an iconic American photographer

Posted on November 18, 2021 by Robert

Winston Link and George Thom with Part of Equipment Used in making Night Scenes with Synchronizer Flash, 1956 – courtesy of Jackson Fine Art

Toronto. O Winston Link lived from late 1914 to early 2001. A number of his photographs are offered by the Atlanta, GA gallery, Jackson Fine Art.

George Dunbar, also a photographer (and a retired industrial cinematographer) , saved Link’s obituary. George writes, “It seems that I’ve had this obit in my files for 20 years…….completely forgotten. Winston Link was the world famous photographer of trains in America. The tragic later years of his life were depicted in a documentary film, The Photographer, His Wife, Her Lover.”

Train fanciers and night photo enthusiasts alike will enjoy the saga and photographs of an iconic American photographer and his associates. Thanks to my good friend and fellow photo historian (amateur in my case), George Dunbar for saving Mr Link’s obituary these many years..

 

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on shining a light on an iconic American photographer

scoring in the frozen north

Posted on November 17, 2021 by Robert

Hockey team, Dawson City, 1905

Toronto. Brrrr, it was real cold in 1905. Up in Dawson City, the guys put down their sticks and stopped flinging the rubber disk around long enough to let a local snap-shooter take this group photograph.

David Shribman, published it in his review of Tim Falconer’s book. “Klondikers“, in the Globe and Mail’s October 7, 2021 edition. These guys played hockey as the Dawson City Nuggets and came to Ottawa to try winning Lord Stanley’s cup.

Shribman begins his review with this paragraph which nicely summarizes the team’s spirit, “If it is not the destination but the journey that matters, then consider the voyage a rag-tag assemblage undertook 116 years ago to Ottawa from Dawson City: on foot, on bicycles, on a narrow-gauge railway, on a steamer ship and on a dream and a prayer, across 5,630 kilometres by land and 1,600 by sea, all to lose two Stanley Cup matches of a primitive sport that nonetheless transformed the notion of hockey night in Canada into a national rite.”

Exciting stuff even today. Read the rest of the review, and if you can, grab the book (buy it or borrow it). My thanks to good friend, George Dunbar. for sharing this piece of Canadiana with us.

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on scoring in the frozen north

remembering Korda Camera Montreal

Posted on November 16, 2021 by Robert

Baby taken in Toronto summer 1972 with new M4

Toronto. I spent some time researching alternative Leica camera models in the early 1970s. After settling on the M4 as the best offered, I searched the camera shops for one (newer models were out by then and any new M4s were hard to find) and at a good price. I ended up at Korda (I think it was on Sherbrooke near rue Guy).

I quickly discovered the clerk knew less about the cameras he sold than me. He tried to sell me the lens hood as an extra until I pulled out a March 1971 catalogue and showed him that item 11 309 was the lens and its hood! He had confused the hood with the replacement hood item 12 504.

I was happy to head home with a Leica M4 body and a Summicron 5cm lens and hood. The body in chrome trim and the lens with black anodized trim – and the black hood. Camera body and lens/hood came in two separate boxes. My goal for the M4 was to photograph my second baby girl reliably indoors, something a bit uncertain with my aging eyes and the Exakta.

 

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on remembering Korda Camera Montreal