2011-05-31

Polaroid AutoProcessor 35mm manual

Another manual from my formerly vast Polaroid archives. I don't have my AutoProcessor anymore, but it's not a big loss since I was never able to procure any film for it. The AutoProcessor was used to process Polapan and Polachrome 35mm "instant" films. According to The Land List they used the same chemistry as the earlier, ill-fated Polavision movie system.

This one doesn't have any cool illustrations like the Polavision manual but hey, it is what it is. Enjoy!

Wikipedia has a bit of information about this system on their Polavision page.

Polaroid_35mm_AutoProcessor_manual.pdf - eight pages (1.8MB)

2011-05-28

An Old Stereoscope Slide

stereoscope view of turkish regimental band
Infantry regimental band with the Turkish army by Underwood & Underwood.

I was in an antique store yesterday, and picked up a few cheap, interesting old photos, including this great stereoscope slide of the Turkish army regimental band, ca. 1914-1918, from Underwood & Underwood. I've also helpfully made an annoying animated GIF version.

I don't have a stereoscope, but the slide is a nice object all on its own. There were a couple of stereoscopes in the store, but they were a little pricey.

Here the full text from the slide, it's a little hard to make out in the picture.

Underwood & Underwood, Publishers
New York, London, Toronto-Canada, Ottawa-Kansas
Works and Studios-
Arlington, N.J. - Westwood, N.J.
11856 - Infantry regimental band with the Turkish army.
© Underwood & Underwood. U-144695

2011-05-26

MS Optical Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 Mark II


MS Optical Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 Mark II

Japan Exposures has the Perar 3.5/35 Super-Triplet Mark II in stock. Order fast if you want one, the original version sold out quickly.

2011-05-25

Video: Early Morning Street Photography


I always enjoy the videos from DigitalRev. In the latest episode, Kai takes to the streets at 4am and talks about getting outside your photographic comfort zone.

2011-05-17

Christian Behr: Senior-Style Portraits


The Tamron email newsletter came in today, and there's a nice article, by Jennifer Gidman, about portrait photographer Christian Behr. It's focused on senior portraits. Not too much of a sales pitch, and a little practical advice. It also reminded me how much I sometimes miss being a portrait photographer.

2011-05-01

Camera and Lens Survey

Adobe Bridge CS5
Adobe Bridge CS5

I've got a folder where I save pictures I want to be able to look at again. Maybe for composition, lighting, Photoshop tricks, or maybe just because I like them. It's a mixture of Fashion, Street, Candid, Food...whatever. A lot of these images still have their EXIF data, so as I was looking through them in Bridge the other night I decided to write down all the camera models and focal lengths and put together a survey. I converted all the focal lengths from APS-C, APS-H and Medium Format to 35mm terms just to make it easier to read.

Cameras

20% - Canon EOS 5D Mark II
15% - Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
9% - Ricoh GR Digital III (this is probably an outlier)
7% - Nikon D3x
5% each - Nikon D3, Panasonic GF1
4% - Phase One P45+
3% each - Canon EOS 1D Mark III , Canon EOS 5D, Nikon D2x
2% each - Canon 1Ds Mark II, Nikon D300, Nikon D700, Nikon D90, Phase One P30+, Phase One P40+, Phase One P65+
1% or less each - Canon 30D, Canon 40D, Canon 450D, Canon 7D, Canon Rebel XS, Canon EOS Digital RebelXSi, Hasselblad H3DII-31, Hasselblad H3DII-39, Leica M8, Leica M9, Nikon D3s, Nikon D70, Nikon D70s, Nikon D80, Nikon D5000, Olympus E-300, Phase One H25, Phase One P25, Ricoh GR Digital II, Ricoh GXR P10, Sinar Hy6/Sinarback eMotion 75II, Sony DSC-F828

Nothing too surprising here, except perhaps the strong showing by Phase One. The GRD3 numbers are probably inflated because I have an interest in the camera. Let's move on the the lenses.

Focal Lengths

17% each - 50mm, 28mm
14% - 70mm
9% - 35mm
8% - 85mm
6% each - 24mm, 40mm
5% - 60mm
4% - 100mm
3% - 90mm
2% - 110mm

Everything else got one percent or less. Although there were a few trends even in that. If you add everything between 90mm and 110mm together, it's about eleven percent. Combined 70mm to 85mm is 24%. And there's another two or three percent bunched somewhere around 150mm. The shortest lens was 12mm and the longest 220mm.

This is all fairly unscientific. None of the images were chosen at random, they're images I like, but they're mostly from professional, working photographers.