double, double, toil and trouble…

Posted on October 1, 2017 by Robert

Toronto. As Shakspeare’s girls say while making bat-wing soup in Macbeth. I bought this delightful little book by Kodak in January, 1960 for $1.25 – and no tax.

I was busy absorbing all I could about the complexities of developing and printing B&W and colour as I did my own B&W and colour slides – and attempted colour printing using Ferraniacolour. I whipped up my own chemistry for B&W from basic ingredients – just like the Macbeth girls made their soup.

In the heyday of photography, magazines and books on the subject were plentiful and all wanted to teach you the many facets of photography. I had a pricy Exakta camera, a couple of added lenses, an old Federal enlarger with an iffy light conversion to a softer light for colour printing using two aluminum pie tins and a circular florescent bulb.

The little booklet Photo Chemistry gave me an introduction to the complexities of the art and science of photography in layman’s terms I could understand. And right there on page 12 facing left is our little wet plate man! In five brief pages the history pf photography was succinctly covered from the view-point of Eastman Kodak, Rochester, at the time the largest and most successful photography company of all.

Posted in book | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on double, double, toil and trouble…

a horse of a different colour…

Posted on September 30, 2017 by Robert

Ilford sample book c1974.
Click for David Hamilton – Horses

Toronto. Photographic paper companies often had samples of their products to help you chose a particular style. Once you chose a paper style, there was the physical size, weight, and the dynamic range (contrast) to consider. Of course nowadays you choose inkjet or laser printer paper of various weights and textures instead of photographic papers.

I initially used Kodak papers (didn’t everyone?) and then moved on to Ilford for black and white as they had the filters to vary the dynamic range of any Ilford paper you chose. Most often I used double weight 8×10 papers in 10 or 100 sheet packages. 8×10 could be cut to 4×5. Later on I bought 100 sheet boxes of 4×5 paper.

On October 5, 1974, I bought this lovely sample book published by Ilford and featuring their various papers as used by two professionals – David Hamilton (Ilfomar papers), and Tassilo Trost (Ilfobrom papers). The covers are yellowing now but the prints inside remain  their natural tones.

And the horse of the title? Click on the book cover icon to see David Hamilton’s shot of three horses printed on Ilfomar A 112 Paper (one is lying down near the black horse).

Posted in photos, processes | Tagged , , | Comments Off on a horse of a different colour…

getting to the end of the day…

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Robert

50mm FOCOTAR lens code DOOCQ c1960

Toronto. As a line from the TV series New Tricks says, this is the last of the Leitz enlarging and copying lenses offered as the film era quietly disappeared.

This is the famous FOCOTAR series (FOCOTAR, FOCOTAR 1, FOCOTAR 2, and WA FOCOTAR). My 1960 version is like new. It is a DOOCQ with a 17675x extension ring to convert it from a copy lens to an enlarging lens. It was bought on April 5, 1987 from the late Bill Belier.

The DOOCQ version of the FOCOTAR was made from  1953 to 1970. It is a  beautiful black lens with white lettering and like most non-camera photographic items is short on details.

According to some sources it is a five element optical design with a coating to reduce internal reflections. The FOCOTAR series of special lenses were made in 50mm, 60mm, and 100mm focal lengths at various times and with various code names. At one time the lens was made by Schneider-Kreuznach who made some other lenses for Leitz over the years. I used a 50mm Schneider Componon enlarging lens for many years. I also have a Tele-Arton 240mm lens in a Leica thread. The light Tele-Arton was a favourite of birders and came in various lens mounts.

Posted in lens | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on getting to the end of the day…

not your father’s Elmar…

Posted on September 28, 2017 by Robert

The Elmar lens in an enlarger and copy stand mount

Toronto. Post war, the Elmar went to the DOOGS. The little camera mounted collapsible Elmar was redesigned as a reproduction and enlarging lens in a much more practical lens mount and the elements were coated to reduce the internal reflections.

The DOOGS used an extension ring called a DOORX to extend the lens the correct distance for the enlarger. The lens and ring combination was coded as a DOOIT. Without that ring the lens was used as a reproduction lens. The design was a short lived (1951-1953) bridge from the VAROB and little collapsible Elmars to the FOCOTAR, the professional enlarging lens made by Leitz.

I bought my lens in August of 1986 from Roger Pelham.  It was an early version made in 1951. I tracked down the DOORX extension tube locally much earlier in February of 1979 at Henrys downtown when they had imported and were selling off a whack of stuff they bought from a Chicago store.

Posted in lens | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on not your father’s Elmar…

give me a ring…

Posted on September 27, 2017 by Robert

Pre war VALAU (left) and post-war VALOO (right)

Toronto. I mentioned in the previous post that Leitz made a special ring so the fiddly little aperture adjustment on the 5cm Elmar could be seen and moved by a ring that went around the accessory. This avoided the risk of poking a damp finger smack in the middle of the front lens element while trying to make an adjustment in the dark.

Unlike on the camera, on the enlarger one had to open the lens fully to focus and then shut down the aperture a stop or two for the sharpest results. Leitz made two rings for the famous little Elmar – pre-war there was the VALAU, a nickel plated gizmo that converted the aperture setting to a number.

Post war, Leitz offered a more elegant and heavier ring called a VALOO that adjusted the aperture but showed the actual aperture at the side of the lens. Beautiful! The deeper design was often used on the camera mounted lens as a sunshade when taking photos.

Of course those with deeper pockets and less inclined to fiddle could buy a lens made especially for the enlargers of the day.

Posted in lens | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on give me a ring…

Early Leitz enlarging lens VAROB

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Robert

Leitz VAROB – black and nickel made in 1939.

Toronto. In the fall of 1983 I had a call from Sam Schlifer. Sam wanted to know if I had a spare camera Elmar lens I could swap for an old enlarger lens by Leitz called a VAROB. I did and we made the swap.

When Leitz first made the market with its Leica camera, they used the phrase”small negative, big print”. Within a few years Leitz made and sold a number of enlargers, some fixed focus, some variable.

They even touted using the famous 50mm Elmar camera lens as an enlarger lens once interchangeable lenses were possible (c1930). The big problem was adjusting the diaphragm with the fiddly and tiny front adjustment lever. The solution was the VALAU and later VALOO attachments that showed the f/stops more clearly in the gloom of the darkroom.

The ultimate solution was an Elmar lens made specifically for an enlarger – the VAROB. This lens uses stops that show the number times the exposure must increase for each stop reduction (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10).  A ring around the lens barrel circumference makes the adjustment a snap. Leitz uses a consecutive series of serial numbers for all lenses making it relatively easy to determine date of manufacture. Pre-1933 lenses were not numbered on the lens.

The site L-Camera-Forum on its Leicawiki page shows the VAROB as made from 1931 to 1938. My example extends the dates from 1931-1939. Initially an all nickel on brass lens, the later models like mine were black paint with a brass/nickel aperture ring and click stop. The second world war started the fall of 1939 and must have put an end to the VAROB.

Posted in lens | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Early Leitz enlarging lens VAROB

Peter Turner 1934 – 2017

Posted on September 25, 2017 by Robert

Giraffe in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, Africa by Pete Turner 1964

Toronto. My thanks to George Dunbar who emailed the sad news that Pete Turner died recently. His passing was noted with this insightful article in the New York Times. A New Yorker, Mr Turner was famous for his saturated colour photographs.

While his name may be unfamiliar to most readers, his photographs may well be familiar. Some of his photographs became cover shots for the LP records of the 1950s – 1980s era (give or take).

According to the NYT article, Turner began processing colour at the tender age of  14 – about 1948. In those days, the best one could achieve was a reasonable print or slide. In Canada, I processed Anscochrome and Ferraniacolour a decade later. Turner’s work was truly inspired and impressive. He was noted for his colour assignments world wide.

The NYT article begins, “When the photographer Pete Turner was on assignment in Amboseli National Park in Kenya in 1964, a lone giraffe galloped across the empty plain before him, and he captured it in all its solitude, its neck rising above the horizon.

“Mr. Turner’s resulting transparency was overexposed, but he saved it by rephotographing it and using filters to transform it into a spectacular and eerie new image.

“The giraffe now appeared to be part of a surreal painting, running across a purplish veld beneath a red sky.”

 

Posted in activities-other, people, photos | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Peter Turner 1934 – 2017

A tale of two cameras…

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Robert

Left from internet, right a special blue Retina 1

Toronto. Apologies to Mr Dickens again – he must be on my mind. My friend George Dunbar dropped me a note last Tuesday. George spotted an old Kodak Retina I on the internet and it reminded him of his first serious camera.

George writes, “Thought you may get a kick out of seeing my first “serious” camera – A Kodak Retina I. My parents bought it for me c.1948 from the Kodak store on Yonge St. Believe it cost about $75.00. ”

Surprisingly, the next night George mentioned that after he had the little Retina for a while the leather pasted to the metal body began to peel so he removed it and used a can of bright blue spray paint to create the one-of-a-kind camera you see here.

In 1980, at our October 19 meeting, I bought an old Retina II from the late Bill Belier for the same price. I took a few shots with it using XP-1 film to gain more leeway in exposures and allow me to leave an exposure meter behind.

The Retina series was Kodak’s entry into the high end 35mm camera world, a segment that began taking off in the 1930s. The cameras were initially designed and made by Dr.  August Nagel in Stuttgart, Germany. Kodak bought out both Nagel and his company at the end of 1931 using the name Kodak A.G. Dr Nagel developed the earlier pre war Retina cameras.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on A tale of two cameras…

Toronto then and now…

Posted on September 23, 2017 by Robert

Toronto Down town in 1931 and 2013.

Toronto. Then and now photos of the same part of a city have been appealing for many years. My good friend George Dunbar used various techniques over the years to allow this great city to be compared. I first saw this idea in books by Mike Filey years back.

More recently various photographers have interpreted the growth of both Toronto and Montreal by recording the today at the same cross street and with a modern camera and lens using roughly the same field of view so one can see the city’s progress (well, change anyway).

George experimented at times with photos that were part old monochrome images and modern day colour images carefully blended in Photoshop. This 1931 vs.2013 example looks to be a panorama shot of downtown Toronto. You can see parts of the same two buildings in each shot, and also part of the Lakeshore. Click on the small image or here to see the photos at a  more comfortable size.

Posted in photos | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Toronto then and now…

it was the season of Darkness

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Robert

A modern iPhone just past midnight

Toronto. A few days ago I suggested the smartphone camera is revolutionizing photography compared with what we grew up with in the days of film and 35mm cameras. This view was confirmed, emphasized and detailed by Matthew Panzarino’s definitive review of the iPhone 8 on Tech Crunch this past Tuesday, September 19th.

We watched (often from the sidelines) the ever growing digital revolution as it affected newspapers, mail delivery, retailing, film, music, books,  magazines and even the profession of photography. Panzarino’s article gives strong detail on just how the smartphone camera is revolutionizing photography today and in many cases eliminating the need for a professional. Read the article and give some thought to where we are headed as the digital world unfolds.

Today, I take digital images and effortlessly develop and key-word them on my computer. I notice many newer TV programs use what is obviously a drone to give a geographic overview of an area or show a key car chase. TV stations (and newspapers) use digital images bought inexpensively from an archive or even taken by an amateur and freely offered simply for the chance to be seen on TV – bragging rights. Continue reading →

Posted in miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on it was the season of Darkness