Tag Archives: rangefinder

hunt for the Nikon in darkest Toronto

Toronto. The late Fred Hunt was a professional photographer, a college teacher, a member of the PHSC, and a good friend of one of our co-founders, Larry Boccioletti. In issue 17-5 Fred wrote an interesting article titled, “On an expedition … Continue reading

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YAR (yet another rangefinder)

Toronto. Graflex had a great line of large format cameras, ruggedly made, and very popular. Many professional news and street photographers used one of the cameras day or night. One perceived shortfall was the lack of a means to focus … Continue reading

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ya can’t win ’em all …

Toronto. There’s an old saying, “one born every minute” attributed to P T Barnum but actually older. The resulting population subset forms the potential audience for the type of gadget advertised in a 1950 issue of Popular Mechanics. Utilitron, the … Continue reading

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when a built-in range finder was news

Toronto. Since  before the Leica, Leitz made and sold various range finders. In  the summer of 1932, Leitz announced a new model of their tiny camera with the range finder built-in. A magnification of the scene compensated for its short … 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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out of the blue

Toronto. Journalists reporting battles in the Korean War came across a very high quality, professional camera made in Japan. A well known maker of microscopes in Japan, Nippon Kogaku, expanded into cameras post war and were selling them under the … Continue reading

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some thoughts on rangefinders

Toronto. Did you know Leitz made telemeters, or rangefinders before making their famous Leicas? The Leitz telemeters had a 1 metre or half metre spacing and were used to measure distances. In the days of view cameras, rangefinders were unnecessary … Continue reading

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an automatic camera in 1932

Toronto. Today we don’t even think about focussing. On our digital camera or phone we just move the little green or yellow outline to the desired spot to focus, set white balance, set ISO, etc. The example below is from … Continue reading

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what the heck is a WINTU?

Toronto. A popular means of disguising a camera is to take a photo at right angles to your position. This was often done with still camera viewers in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One such right angle viewfinder was … Continue reading

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would you rather a Kodak 35 to a wet plate camera?

Toronto. In late October, 1950, LIFE magazine ran an ad for Seagram’s American version of  Gin called Ancient Bottle Gin. To promote it as a modern drink, the ad suggested you would more likely prefer a snappy modern Kodak 35 … Continue reading

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