After a few years without showing up, I decided to visit the 54th edition of Bièvres super fair. It is a fair organized by the Photoclub Paris Val-de-Bièvre and the Commune de Bièvres. I think my first visit was in 2002 and then I went there 6 times being the last one in 2009. I was even…
At the height of film photography the color amateur picture was mostly 10 x 15 cm (4 x 5 inches) on matte or glossy paper. The B & W photo persisted with the most enthusiastic on papers from Kodak, Agfa, Ilford and a few other brands. Even professionals used basically the same processes with bigger sizes and more…
George Eastman Museum is a multifaceted institution challenged by its own superlative assets in different branches of image making. There you find a fantastic library with historic material like the “Pencil of Nature” from Henry Fox Talbot, complete Camera Work (1903–1917) edited and published by Alfred Stieglitz, Josef Maria Eder yearbooks and handbooks, photographers’ annotations, manuscripts,…
Tessar | Carl Zeiss Jena – 360 mm | f:6,3 | 1911 – The very first Tessar Tessar is probably the lens design most produced ever. Introduced in 1902, it was created by Paul Rudolph, from Carl Zeiss. The construction concept has found applications from large format down to Minox size. Lenses using Tessar’s design reached the order of millions of…
Although published in 1954, this is not a very hard to find book for online purchase. Organised by H.J.Walls and edited by Focal Press it is one of the few books, intended for amateurs, that talks more in depth about optical principles, the nature of light, sensitometry and characteristics of lenses and photographic equipment in general….
Orthoskop | Voigtlander, the second Petzval – Orthoskop | Voigtlander | 1857/58 – This is the oldest lens in my collection. It came from an antiques shop in Santos – São Paulo, in a shoe box, wrapped in newspaper, with a Dagor 240 mm, a Tessar 300mm and some other non important photographic items. Unfortunately two elements are missing…
A digital file is like a score for an image to be automatically played on a printer. Otherwise, a digital print is as material as any silver gelatin picture.
Very good book about photographic lenses. Published in 1904, third edition, introduces the nature of light and goes directly to the issue of a photographic image. Explains the problems of aberration, angle of view, aperture and focus among other key concepts. It is a pragmatic text and relates designs with field of application like landscapes…
Simply a must for anyone researching about antique lenses, its construction, variations, characteristics, producers, genealogies and dates among other information. An incredible work, result of may years of work from authot Matthew Wilkinson, the Lens Vade Mecum is a posthumous publication finished by family and friends based on originals and notes. The electronic version can…
To put an end to the wild times of Flash Powder, magnesium ribbons and sheets, one had the ingenious idea to put the magnesium inside a glass bulb and light it up with an electric spark. It avoids the smoke and the handling of raw chemicals. But as the quantity of heat released in the…
Pacemaker 45 Crown Graphic | Graflex Graphic cameras, from Graflex, are the “press camera” par excellence. In any picture or movie from the 30 to 50’s, whenever you see a gathering of photo reporters, forming a front line and waiting for any special event or celebrity to show up, you will always find many of them holding a…
If you ever gave up about a camera because of missing or broken ground-glass you will regret about it after reading this post. It is very easy to produce a high quality ground-glass for replacement or for a new project for a large-format camera. Nowadays when old processes, old lenses and cameras are getting more…