Tag Archives: lens

zoom before zoom

Posted on December 27, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Today, when we speak of ZOOM, we usually mean the app used to video conference by computer and internet. In this time of COVID-19, live meetings in person have been replaced by computer conferencing using special apps like ZOOM … Continue reading →

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when f/2 was super fast

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. In the 1930s, the films and plates were very slow by today’s standards. Normal lenses were usually around f/3.5. To help this lack of sensitivity, Leitz designed a new lens around 1933. The 6 element lens was a modified … Continue reading →

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a photographer’s magnifier

Posted on October 18, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Anyone wanting to see a magnified view of a small object would likely use a simple magnifying glass – just like Sherlock Holmes in the many Conan Doyle stories. Predating photography, a projector (magic lantern) projected an enlarged view … Continue reading →

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cat’s eye

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Nearly a century ago, there was a race on to create a faster lens. Such a lens would allow photos  indoors and at night using natural light. In 1924 Ernemann announced the Ermanox plate camera (4.5×6 cm) with a … Continue reading →

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was ist das?

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Post WW2, umpteen American companies tried to hop on the American made camera bandwagon. One was the Vokar line made in Dexter, Michigan. The design was said to have originated pre war from the mind of Dick Bills. Mike … Continue reading →

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Voigtlander cameras are here again

Posted on August 3, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. How do you get back your market share when your country was on the losing side of the war? Well. you can try to advertise in a magazine that is read by your potential  market. Voigtlander did. The famous … Continue reading →

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caution, curves ahead.

Posted on July 3, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Traditional lens elements (before aspheric surfaces became economical) were all slices of a sphere making curvature of field common. Some added elements resolved this aberration to give a flat field at the film/sensor plane. Some cameras use a curved … Continue reading →

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a little slip of a thing …

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. … said my mother in describing a skinny young girl. She could just as easily have been describing a Waterhouse stop, or a leaf in a photographic iris diaphragm. In fact, have you ever wondered when and who invented … Continue reading →

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one camera’s wide angle …

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. … is another camera’s telephoto. Did you ever wonder why the tiny smart phone camera has an equivalent 35mm camera size? For example my iPod Touch camera has a 3.3mm, f/2.8 lens but images it takes are considered to … Continue reading →

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if not for you …

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. … my lens would unscrew. Photographers know that the infinity focus setting sets the lens at its closest to the film/sensor plane. For close-ups, the lens is extended further from the film/sensor plane. Box cameras for film often had … Continue reading →

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