ay, yup – there’s an app fer that

Posted on October 14, 2021 by Robert

A smartphone Light Meter app lets your phone be the hand held meter for your film camera

Toronto. Smartphone users have it easy when it comes to photography. The biggest issue is how to find the camera button quickly! As we all know, smartphone cameras are nearly idiot-proof – ISO, speed, focus, white balance, and EXPOSURE are all set automatically.

For much of the ‘analogue’ era this wasn’t the case at all. The camera could be set for speed and aperture; the film et al determined the ISO, colour, white balance, etc. But most importantly, the human mind and an exposure meter determined the light intensity and what camera settings would give a decent result for a given film.

To use an old expression, when it comes to photography, the average smartphone user is, “fat, dumb, and happy”! The niche film geeks are something else. They quickly learn that unless their chosen film camera has a working built-in light meter, or they have a working hand held light meter, all film exposures are “by guess and by god”!

Now there’s an app for that. Last Sunday’s How-To Geek brings up  an article called, “How to Use a Light Meter App to Shoot Film” written by John Bogna on October 10th. Since I have both an Apple iPod Touch using iOS 15 and a Samsung smartphone using the latest release of the Android OS, it was appreciated that both systems have similar apps.

The app uses the smartphone’s exposure sensor to show what range of settings can be used on the film camera. This way, the smartphone becomes a hand held light meter (sensitivity depends on the smartphone used).  Now film geeks can use an app on their smartphone to set their film camera and get a decent exposure, Neat!

 

 

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another inexpensive German made camera

Posted on October 13, 2021 by Robert

ad for April 1951 ILOCA I camera

Toronto. Post war, the photographic industry was awash with inexpensive cameras made in Europe or Japan and sold by North American distributors. An example is the Iloca line made in Hamburg, Germany.

In the April 1951 issue of Popular Photography magazine, the cameras were advertised by the American distributor, Ercona Camera Corporation, on 5th Avenue in NYC. In later years Ercona imported cameras made in East Germany and got into a pot full of trouble with the American government over trademark issues (mainly Zeiss Jena, then in the communist controlled area).

The camera line was well built and often private branded to be sold by large American department stores and catalogue corporations.

My thanks to a good friend and fellow PHSC member for sharing this historical finding with us.

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tiny, I can see you

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Robert

Leica and focaslide for close-ups. Click image for advertisement.

Toronto. The makers of rangefinder cameras such as the Leica went to great lengths with accessories to allow the cameras to be used for any photographic project. On page 85 of the April 1951 Popular Photography magazine, Leitz NY ran an ad showing how the Leica could be used to photograph tiny objects so they appeared at much larger than life size in the photograph.

The advertisement’s set-up used the older style accessories available back in 1951. The ad was published about 3 years before the modern M series cameras were offered (beginning with the M3).  In May, 2020, I did a post showing a closeup of a bead of plant fertilizer. I used a tiny Tessar lens with a Leitz bellows, a Leitz Visoflex mirror box, a digital camera, and some adaptors.

My thanks to my good friend George Dunbar for suggesting this advertisement from the days when minicam rangefinder cameras were gaining popularity over larger film size cameras. At the time, very few SLR models existed and rangefinder camera makers offered accessory ‘mirror boxes’, extension tubes, and bellows to allow closeup work.

Note: the post title is a riff on a song from the 1969 rock opera and 1975 film Tommy by The Who. I previously used the actual song name as a title (Tommy, can you hear me).

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the 19th hole …

Posted on October 11, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Wow! It’s been over a year and a half and COVID is still with us. Our society has   avoided the FOURTH wave effect so far by resorting to very limited outdoor events plus using ZOOM. We found out that online has its own virtue – executive (or presenter, or audience) can be anywhere with no travel issues/costs.

There were very few big changes this month. The new OUTDOOR FALL FAIR at the same location as last month’s Trunk Sale – was a success for both us and our vendors although things slowed down markedly a bit after the munchies came out.

Celio has a new assistant for our Instagram page, one of the Ryerson post graduate students. David Bridge and Louise Freyburger have stepped in to the rather large shoes left by our Photographic Canadiana editor, the late Bob Lansdale. Bob’s leg work left files to act as a sound basis for forthcoming journal issues.

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another one bites the dust

Posted on October 10, 2021 by Robert

last one leaving, please turn out the light

Toronto. We were sorry to hear that we lost another magazine recently. PetaPixel carried an article on February 12, 2021 by Jaron Schneider titled, “Canadian Magazine Photo Life Has Shipped its Final Issue“.

Photo Life was around for many years and this past March it fell victim to declining sales during the pandemic that ravaged the world since late 2019.

It is unfortunate as we have all too few periodicals that carry stories with a Canadian perspective. Living next door to a powerful neighbour does have many advantages, but it also has disadvantages too. Our stories and accomplishments are so often drowned out by the loud commercial noises next door … Our late editor, Bob Lansdale, spent many years promoting a Canadian perspective on the photographic industry without trying to diminish the very real accomplishments of our brethren to the south.

Good bye, Photo Life!

Note: I chose Queen’s song of the same title for the title of this post.

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Canadian Photography magazine

Posted on October 9, 2021 by Robert

cinematographer George Dunbar in 1977

Toronto. Do you remember Canadian Photography magazine? It was a skinny magazine that survived for a few years around the 1970s against the thick American magazines which had a far greater range of advertisers available plus lots of writing talent.

I bought a few issues of Canadian Photography, but mostly went for the big American magazines (Popular Photography, Modern Photography, Camera 35, etc.). There was the occasional European magazine too, like Zoom. Last century, before the internet and its wealth of information, they were the best source of what was new and exciting in photography. Picture magazines like National Geographic, Canadian Geographic, Life, Saturday Evening Post et al, often featured the work of well known photographers like Karsh of Ottawa or Halsman in the Big Apple.

In 1977, Canadian Photography did a spread on the IBM facility over in Don Mills where George Dunbar did industrial movies and stills for the Canadian branch of the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). George came across this three page spread recently and shared it with me. Take a peak at page 1, page 2, and page 3 of the October, 1977 issue scanned by my good friend George and shared with us.

Note: I did a search online for the magazine, but came up empty, so I can’t link readers to the magazine contents nor its first and last issue dates.

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Generation Homeless – October PHSC Talk

Posted on October 8, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Toronto-based filmmaker Jason S. Cipparrone pursues the emotional truths behind living on the streets in Toronto. He has worked with the city’s homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic to document and reveal their stories.

Join us on October 20th, 2021 at 8 pm (we begin around 7:30 with a social get together – all welcome) via ZOOM. Read the poster below for more information. This poster was created by our PHSC News editor Sonja Pushchak and shows her delightful turn of words.

Go to Eventbrite for free tickets or to program@phsc.ca with any questions.

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aunt Tilly’s camera collection

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Robert

we all have an aunt Tilly … drawing is courtesy of Crabby Road comics

 

Toronto. Back in the 1980s, Don Douglas and I put on a dog and pony show to represent the PHSC. I did a slide show on milestones in the history of B&W photography up to the roll film era, while Don did the camera side with a show and tell using examples from his personal collection.

Everyone in the audience was excited to see Don’s cameras and hear just why they were important. At the time most of his collection consisted of Ansco cameras. This was on purpose: Ansco cameras were both innovative (number two always has to try harder) and they were made easy to use. Don was always keen to point out these benefits of Ansco cameras.

Case in point: Every family has an ‘Aunt Tilly” – a maiden aunt, a bit on in years and not terribly mechanical or photographically inclined. At any family outing, somebody would pass a camera to aunt Tilly so she could “take the gang”. According to Don, Ansco made this simple by having a prominently displayed red button shutter release. So you just pointed her to the group, said, hold it steady and squeeze the red button!

So I always consider inexpensive collections based on Ansco as “aunt Tilly’s camera collection”! Come by our fairs and other events and pick up some inexpensive Ansco cameras to build your own “aunt Tilly’s camera collection”. Of course there are lots of other cameras and accessories on offer …

Note: I too once used Ansco products – their 35mm transparency film (Anscochrome) and developers in the late 1950s. Their process was based on Agfa’s rather than Kodak’s Kodachrome which was extremely complex and finicky.  It was faster (ASA 32 vs ASA 10) and more flexible than Kodachrome mid last century, allowing serious amateurs to process exposed film at home. Sadly, the dyes used, especially those that created the yellows, faded fairly quickly making faded and purplish colour slides while Kodachrome transparencies remained brightly coloured showing little fading 50+ years on. Ektachrome slides often suffered the same fate as Anscochrome.

The icon I used here is courtesy of Crabby Road comics. The elderly lady is called Maxine.

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how to make good pictures in 1936

Posted on October 6, 2021 by Robert

Kodachrome film box in 1936

Toronto. 1936, what a great year! Mind you, I wasn’t around back then, but my dad upgraded his picture taking skills to a Kodak Junior Six-20. Kodak had reached the pinnacle of the photographic industry by mid last century – stating in one leaflet that it used the most silver of any company (all photographic processes at the time used silver as a basis for light sensitivity.

Kodak tried to be important to all photographers, making and selling plates, films, papers, chemicals, brochures, booklets, and books. One book was called, “How to Make Good Pictures“. I have  a hard cover version that states, “TWENTY-SECOND EDITION, REVISED, 1936“.  Not to be out done by the Europeans, Kodak acknowledged the ‘minicam‘ revolution by touting a 35mm still film version of Kodachrome for 35mm cameras and marked on the box as, “KODAK KODACHROME, SAFETY COLOR FILM, DAYLIGHT LOADING, MAGAZINE, FOR RETINA, CONTAX, AND LEICA CAMERAS”  This marking placed the European made Retina, recently bought by Kodak first and Leica which kicked off the whole darn revolution, last.

The book generously covers the multiplicity of Kodak cameras and products with a large number of black and white photos and illustrations, some really sound fundamentals of the art and lots of great photographs. Anyone who read and understood the 224 page book received a good grounding in the art (and the importance of using Kodak products).

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something else we no longer need …

Posted on October 5, 2021 by Robert

dust cover of Norman Rothschild’s 1962 book on Slide Dupes

Toronto. Photographs taken with any metal/glass/film based positive process have to be retaken or duplicated to make an added copies. Those of us who embraced the digital era have no need for such things – the digital process creates a file (usually RAW or jpeg) that can be duplicated endlessly with every copy identical unless purposely manipulated.

The Rothschild book (mine’s the 3rd edition, 3rd printing dated August 1977) goes back to the era of film and the many different gadgets that created duplicates, let you add titles, or even let you assemble selected positives as 35mm filmstrips to be shown by a projector (like the SVE line) that can accommodate film strips.

One of the earliest processes  was the Daguerreotype which created a positive image on the surface of a silver-plated copper sheet. If you are a niche film enthusiast, you may still desire duplicate transparencies using the gadgets covered in Rothschild’s book.

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