Tag Archives: design

it’s twins

Toronto. Even before the  minicam revolution, many cameras suffered from tiny squinty viewfinders to frame a subject. In 1929, a German company came up with an idea that changed everything – at least once their camera design became popular. The … Continue reading

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boxer

Toronto. And here we are once again at an official boxing day! To commemorate this event, at left is an old film box camera from a recent auction lot. Box cameras are the basic camera design: a fixed focus lens … Continue reading

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honey, I shrunk the lens

Toronto. Photographic lenses as you likely know once used various elements to eliminate distortion and flatten the field. Early cameras were large and bulky with terribly slow sensitive media. As general rule, the long focal length, slow lens designs required … Continue reading

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the good, the bad, and the ugly – again

Toronto. The last time I used this title. it was for a Leica accessory . This time it is camera design at and after the mid 1930s and the minicam revolution. Good camera design encompasses many considerations. Ergonomically designed, utilitarian, light, … Continue reading

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riding the rails

Toronto. View or Field cameras and Kodak folders, etc used a rail or two rails in parallel to move the lens, lens board (and shutter, if part of the lens) away from or closer to the sensitive media to capture … Continue reading

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Imitation… Flattery… and all that

Toronto. Cameras basically offer a light-tight means to hold a sensitive media the correct distance from the lens, plus offering a means to allow a calculated  brief bit of light through the lens to properly illuminate the light sensitive media … Continue reading

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