Tag Archives: Kodachrome

flying cameras

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. This photo of a Montreal landmark, St Joseph’s Oratory on Queen Mary Road, was taken by an Exakta and 135mm Steinheil lens on Kodachrome from a CJAD news helicopter. Aerial photos have been taken since the late 1850s when … Continue reading →

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a baleful eye on historic events

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Not long after its invention, photography and photographers recorded exotic landscapes, famous people, disasters, wrecks, wars, etc.  Before the evolution of such photographs, we relied on wood cuts, steel cuts, and the written word to describe events near and … Continue reading →

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projecting a colourful 3D display

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. This article appeared in the September, 1940 issue of Popular Mechanics just a few years after Kodachrome arrived for 35mm transparencies created by an ordinary 35mm camera. Now these slides could be taken ready for 3D and projected so … Continue reading →

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celluloid memories

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. The October, 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine has a small article on a little plastic 35mm transparency or film strip viewer. I have a wooden transparency viewer of similar vintage that also uses a frosted screen to spread … Continue reading →

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go big or …

Posted on March 24, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. For decades, I thought of Kodachrome as home movie or 35mm slide film. Journal editor, the late Ev Roseborough, corrected me as did another journal editor, the late Bob Lansdale. When Kodachrome was introduced (1935) it was limited to … Continue reading →

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wow – home colour movies c 1936

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. A June 1936 ad in the American Cinematographer encouraged all amateur movie makers to buy the then revolutionary 8mm Kodachrome. For the wary, Kodak assured them no filters or special cameras or projectors were necessary – Just your regular … Continue reading →

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Polarization is good for photography

Posted on February 14, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. … but not so good politically. In the days of film, one of the tools available to the photographer was a polarizing filter. Judicious use of the filter could improve contrast and colour saturation by removing reflections from smooth … Continue reading →

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an article with a view (master)

Posted on February 5, 2022 by Robert

Toronto.  Over time, stereo has popped up as a fad – as photo cards in the late 1890s, as cameras in the 1950s, as movies, as TVs and in 1939 as a child’s toy called a View-Master. This wonderful toy … Continue reading →

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how to introduce a new revolutionary product

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Leitz, a few years earlier, taught photographers the virtues of an enlarged small negative to introduce their novel little camera with small negatives. Traditionally, much larger cameras were used. The camera size determined the size of the final print … Continue reading →

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a star is born

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Today, with modern digital cameras and smartphones, we take colour for granted and convert the results to B&W only for a ‘special effect’. It wasn’t always the case. For many decades various colour processes were tried. Some had good … Continue reading →

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