Zeiss Vario-Sonnar on a Sony F828 camera
Toronto. In 1926 Zeiss formed Zeiss-Ikon for its government. The goal was to streamline the redundant over-lapping cameras made by the German camera factories. Belatedly, about a decade later, Zeiss realized that the minicam had taken over the amateur box/folder market and in some cases the unwieldily and heavy professional cameras too.
To compete with the tiny Leica, Zeiss designed and manufactured the Contax line of 35mm cameras determined to beat Leitz in every technical decision. When Leitz introduced interchangeable lenses, Zeiss was there. For years the two companies locked horns on who had the better cameras; the better lenses. To this battle, Zeiss offered many lenses including the famous Sonnar series.
Long after the second war, Zeiss dropped all cameras but continued to sell lenses. One of the companies using these high quality lenses was Sony in Japan. The lens above is a beautiful Zeiss Vario-Sonnar with a focussing range 0f 7.1mm to 51mm with a maximum aperture of f/2 to f/2.8 and the Zeiss company’s patented T* element coating which seriously reduced the internal reflections allowing much high contrast images to be made. Using a relatively small 4 colour, 8 megapixel, sensor, the lens was rated as 28mm to 200mm in 35mm film camera equivalents.
The F828 went on the market in 2003 replacing the flagship Sony F717 model. Sadly the camera suffered from purple fringing in some light and the Vario-Sonnar had serious geometric distortion at either end of the zoom range in the days when it took special software to correct distortion. two years later in 2005 it was replaced by the even shorter lived Sony R1. The R1 had a quieter and larger sensor using a 3 colour pixel configuration, a bit larger than the size of the so called 4/3 sensors used in non Sony mirrorless cameras.
The 717/828/R1 cameras were robust professional models known as bridge cameras. They lost out to the market desire for DSLR cameras. Sony bought out the Minolta SLR line from Konica to leap-frog into the DSLR market in 2006, replacing the R1 with the Sony Alpha models. When Sony did embrace the mirrorless market for amateurs with the NEX-3 and NEX-5, they chose to use the APS-C size sensor which was even larger than that in the 4/3 system.
Toronto. What do you do when the light is too low for a photo? Use a flash! Years before electronic flash, or even flash bulbs, flash powder was used in variety of holders. See what was used for flash illumination in this special members-only supplement (vol 1-5).
PHSC News for November 2020
Pentax Optio NB1000
Toronto. Pentax made the Optio NB1000 camera for the Japanese market. It’s featured on page 1 of our newsletter this month (top right).
Is this really November 2020 ? The month began with a down-right chill in the air. But the last week my wife and I have been raking up leaves in the back yard in weather more like early September than November. Previously, a couple of near zero nights and a brisk wind caused all our trees to drop their leaves again.
Meantime, our editor extraordinaire, Sonja Pushchak, and her team have composed this latest issue of PHSC News (20-05 – November 2020). As the roaring comeback of the corona virus increases in volume, and the perplexing American vote was held (Trump close? really?) Anyway, just read these articles in our latest newsletter to ease your troubles and cares!
Page 1 tips its hat to COVID-19 with the article titled Pro-Maskers; followed by a brief tale of cameras and astronauts in place of the usual PHSC Presents. Page 3 remembers a favourite James Bond – Sean Connery; while page 4 looks at Arthurian Erotica in Anomalies at Work. Page 5 is a howler with a tongue in cheek shot at Trump and his porkies on the COVID19 as recorded in the documentary “Virus? What Virus?”. Then David takes a shot at nomograms, tissue paper instructions for roll film, and a GraLab timer in his Equipment Review, followed by a page of his trio of web links in aid of his partner Louise.
Page 8 features a poster on the impact of the pandemic on our in-person events. On page 9, Ivy & Izzy talk about Andy Warhol. And as usual, we wrap up with the classifieds on page 10. P.S. Every link shown in the newsletter is a hot link just waiting for you to 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.