Black is Beautiful

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Robert

1937 Black Leica II shown with a 1936 Elmar 5cm f/3.5 chrome lens

Toronto. The early Leicas were mostly black – black enamel – and if well used had “brassing” or edges where the enamel wore through to the brass. Shown is a beautiful  example of a clean 1937 Leica II (no slow speed dial on the front) with black enamel body plates and chrome plated knobs.. It has a period correct Elmar 50mm lens made a year earlier in 1936. The lens has the usual bright chrome and satin chrome coatings over brass. This example and the lens will be auctioned in our November 19th event this fall.

The satin chrome process was used at least in 1932 on camera body plates. All camera knobs were satin chrome as well. The satin chrome was much harder than the black enamel and less likely to “brass” with the same amount of use. This made the satin chrome cameras far more desirable (and years later the black enamel cameras much rarer).

Continue reading →

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Polaroid – before the cameras

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Robert

Polaroid before they made their revolutionary “picture in a minute” cameras.

Toronto. In 1948 Edwin Land began marketing the amazing “picture in a minute” camera. In the early days demand far exceeded supply making the new cameras very scarce.

But what happened before the cameras? Why are they called Polaroid cameras, or Polaroid Land cameras?

Edwin Land was a very creative inventor. In 1932 he and his Harvard physics instructor established a company to make the polarizing filters Land invented. In 1937 the company was renamed Polaroid Corporation.

This is a 1946 ad from LIFE magazine (thanks to George Dunbar). The ad promotes the then innovative see-through sun shade for cars using the polaroid filter sheet. Two years later Land came out with his camera and film making history. The cameras were all called Polaroid-Land until 1982 when Land resigned from his company.

Most people had or were photographed with a Polaroid camera. Few people continued to use the camera (other than professionals who used the larger size Polaroid films to test exposure and view before using the even more costly colour material). For the amateur, pictures in a minute were attractive. The cost was not.

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More Fish than Fowl – Leica IIIg

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Robert

Toronto. 1956 was an exciting year for Leitz Germany and Leitz Canada, the small factory established in Midland as Ernst Leitz Canada. The company made the IIIf, IIIg, and M3 in Germany and assembled them there and in Canada. For traditionalists, a screw mount IIIf was offered and for the brave innovators, the post war designed M3 using the new bayonet mount was offered. (My doctor’s father, a Mr Holzapfel emigrated to Midland after the war and became one of the sales representatives for Leicas and Leitz.)

Those who wanted some of the new features of the M series but were reluctant to leave the screw mount cameras behind, could buy a IIIg. It was small like the IIIf and its ancestors, but had a better viewfinder, easier flash synchronization, and more modern speed dial steps. Those who felt only Germany made “true” Leicas could buy a Wetzlar camera, others could buy a Midland made camera (usually marked as GMBH Wetzlar Germany in those days, anyway).

If you missed out but want one for your collection, our fall auction this November the 19th will feature a 1956 IIIg and an f/2 collapsible Summitar lens with a six leaf aperture. Yes, many sites show the IIIg as manufactured beginning in 1957, but the serial number confirms it as a 1956 camera as do both Rogliatti and Lager. This body is marked Wetzlar but the serial number was allocated to Midland. The camera has is a bit of verdigris from the zipper of the Benser case used to protect it but a careful wiping should restore it to its original sheen. Made for just a few years, the IIIg was the last of the screw mount cameras. The M series took over sales with a bang!

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Seven come Eleven…

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Robert

Canon 7s with 50mm f/1.4 lens c1966

Toronto. A late rangefinder model Canon was introduced   as the Canon 7 in 1961. This was replace by the Canon 7s shown here in 1965 and made until the summer of 1967. The 7s had two improvements over the Canon 7 – an accessory shoe, and a built in CdS photocell in place of the much less sensitive selenium cell.

At our fall auction (November 19, 2017) we have a beautiful example of the 7s to offer plus a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens in a separate lot. This was the first Canon rangefinder model with a built-in battery powered CdS cell exposure meter. The 50mm lens is  also very collectible.

Once again this camera uses a Leica compatible screw mount for the lens.

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Some Canons shoot pictures…

Posted on August 1, 2017 by Robert

Canon P – 35mm camera using a Leica M39 screw mount Lens mount

Toronto. The Canon P shown here with a Canon f/1.2 lens will appear in our fall auction (Nov 19, 2017). If you don’t have one in your collection, or would like the super fast f/1.2 lens now is your chance! The model P cameras are well built cameras with a steel foil focal plane shutter. This model was only made for a few years – from 1958  to 1961. It was intended to be the less expensive version of Canon at the time.

This example has the hard to find f/1.2 50mm lens with its very shallow depth of focus and depth of field used wide open.

This was one of the last rangefinder models made by Canon and is a clean example meant for both collectors and film users.

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Full Circle

Posted on July 31, 2017 by Robert

Minolta Super-A 1957 35mm camera.

Toronto. In 1957, I started the big adventure of my life. I joined Bell’s Tropospheric Scatter project which would bring telephone communications to remote areas of Northern Quebec and Labrador. Training was based in Montreal in the old Salada Tea building. For the first time I had the money, stores and initiative to buy a decent 35mm camera.

I chose the newly designed Minolta Super-A with an interchangeable f/2 50mm Rokkor Lens and a selenium cell exposure meter that clipped into the flash shoe and linked to the camera’s speed setting dial. I was impressed by the lens since I was in belief of the opinion back then that Japanese Camera makers could imitate but not design. Continue reading →

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When a Professional was a Professional!

Posted on July 30, 2017 by Robert

Photographers in Varsity Stadium for the 1956 Grey Cup game. Courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives.

Toronto. Every Canadian knows of the sudden death football game for the Grey Cup. In 1956 – about 60 years ago – a gaggle of professionals gussied up in mainly medium format cameras with attached flash, were in the Varsity stands ready to root for the Eskimos or the Alouettes. [spoiler – Edmonton won for the third time in a row].

In Canadian football, the two finalists may play in a venue not home to either team. Our own news photographer (retired) Bob Lansdale knew some of the denizens shown in this archival photograph.

My thanks to George Dunbar for bringing this City of Toronto Archives print to my attention. The CFL is still around and the best teams from East and West still play the fall classic for the Grey Cup but photographers no longer struggle with massive old cameras and cut films. Instead they, one and all, are adorned with DSLRs and telephoto zooms ready to capture that definitive shot in full colour. Winter coats and hats optional.

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Cutting the Clutter

Posted on July 29, 2017 by Robert

Cutting the Clutter (photo courtesy of AP)

Toronto. Remember the family album or the old shoe box of prints? Like all families, mine and my wife’s folks would take out an album or a box and lovingly go over the pictures bringing back fond and not so fond memories of times past. I used a film camera for many years and carefully saved each roll of negatives carefully inserted in sleeves marked with details like date, contents, developer, etc. vowing that when I retired I would have time to print all the negatives. Yeh, right.

Fortunately progress intervened and I bought a series of computers. ACD Systems offered the first digital album I bought finally allowing me to keyword and store my digital “negatives” and prints. Then Adobe Lightroom came along and I switched over to the ideal package for me. As the program progressed, it became more and more the ideal tool for a photographer allowing me to edit, keyword, comment, store and print every shot. When I moved from Windows to a Mac I discovered my Lightroom disk had both Windows and Mac programs on it. Continue reading →

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Dawson City: Frozen in Time

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Robert

Dawson City: Frozen in Time

Toronto. An annual feature of this city is its “Hot Docs” festival. At this year’s festival one of the documentaries was called “Dawson City: Frozen in Time“. This film covers the find up in that illustrious Yukon town of many silent movies buried up there in the frozen earth.

My good friend George Dunbar writes, ” Went to Hot Docs Cinema today [July 27th] to see Dawson City: Frozen In Time. It’s the story of the Yukon Gold Rush in the 1890s as well as featuring details of the 1978 discovery of long-lost silent movie film that was buried and preserved in the frozen ground under Dawson City for more than 50 years. The film and story are certainly interesting, but too long at two hours.”

“The old silent, feature films (1910s and 1920s) found beneath Dawson, in many cases, are the only copies of those classics that have ever been located. Some have been restored and are the basis of this feature documentary by Bill Morrison.

“It’s a fantastic tale of photography discovered and restored.

“Trailer here…………. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEbHM8Vsvlo“

PHSC member Scott Rickard lived and photographed in a Dawson City studio for many years before moving down to a small town near Toronto. At our September 2015 meeting Scott gave a talk and slide show of his experiences years earlier as he celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Chilkoot Trail by walking with a group of volunteers as its professional photographer, all the way from Skagway Alaska to the gold fields near Dawson City.

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Brave New World

Posted on July 27, 2017 by Robert

Photographers over Bikini Atoll during an Atomic explosion

Toronto. As a  youngster I can remember the early August 1945 newspapers headlining that America had dropped an atomic bomb on Japan. We read in awe about the devastation of Hiroshima, amazed that one small bomb could wreak such damage on a city. This event was quickly followed by a second one, a single bomb once again,  this time dropped on Nagasaki with the same result. Japan surrendered a few days later.

The war ended but the testing continued. We had no idea what radio activity meant, or how the bomb could cause such damage. A year later LIFE magazine (July 15, 1946 issue) published pictures airborne photographers recording the  blast over Bikini Atoll. And the issue the next week (July 22nd) showed the famous mushroom shaped cloud the photographers recorded.

My thanks to George Dunbar for noting the two key LIFE magazine photos from the summer of 1946. Between release of the two issues, I turned 9 years old… one of the last of the people born before the atomic era began with its songs of mushroom shaped clouds, bikini bathing suits, and massive paranoia.

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