A little box of magic

Last weekend I found myself at a vintage fair in Perth's Salutation Hotel.  Horrendous Christmas music aside there was a wonderful array of stalls with all sorts of interesting things for sale.  A couple of nice vintage cameras caught my eye but lightness of wallet kept them where they were.  What I couldn't pass up however was a box of old magic lantern slides.

The magic lantern was an early type of image projector which in its simplest form consisted of a glass slide positioned between a candle and a lens.  The lantern would project a dim and fuzzy image on to a wall or sheet.  These devices built on thousands of years of experiments with projected images and paved the way for the development of photography and cinema many years later.

The Laterna Magica by Paul Sandby, 1760

As far as can be told, one of the first magic lantern demonstrations in the U.K. was witnessed on Sunday 19th August 1666 by diarist Samuel Pepys who wrote:

"Up and to my chamber, and there began to draw out fair and methodically my accounts of Tangier, in order to shew them to the Lords. But by and by comes by agreement Mr. Reeves, and after him Mr. Spong, and all day with them, both before and after dinner, till ten o’clock at night, upon opticke enquiries, he bringing me a frame he closes on, to see how the rays of light do cut one another, and in a darke room with smoake, which is very pretty. He did also bring a lanthorne with pictures in glasse, to make strange things appear on a wall, very pretty."

Three days later Pepys bought one of his own.

By the late 18th century elaborate horror shows were being staged, with devils, ghosts and wizards projected through a cloud of smoke by enterprising showmen. Come the following century small, cheap lanterns were available and the home entertainment system was born.

The slides I bought in Perth came in a sturdy wooden box with a leather strap and a brass securing arm at either end.  They seem to have been taken from at least two, possibly three, different sets.  The first set depicts a variety of scenes mainly of a gentleman riding very fast on horseback, the second some state occasion with soldiers in uniform and lavish carriages and another seemingly random slide of what appears to be a man pouring soup over his trousers.

These sets were often accompanied with some sort of reading, music, audience participation or a combination of all three.  Booklets were published with readings and direction for the showman as to which slide to project at which time.  I'd love to have an explanation of what's going on in these images, especially as several of the sets are incomplete, though I suspect in the case of the horse-riding gentleman this may be nothing more than a lengthy chase sequence.  The French Connection of its day perhaps.

The slides are all numbered, some with original figures painted on the glass, others with small stickers.  I have no idea how to go about dating them, though even in my ignorance there remains a surprising amount of enjoyment to be had from the single square slide of a dapper gent in polite company chucking his dinner over his lap.

Ye Olde Photoshoppe

Last year I picked up an interesting book snappily titled 'The Art of Retouching Negatives and Finishing and Colouring Photographs' by Robert Johnson.  This copy is a ninth edition, revised and brought up to date by T.S. Bruce and Alfred Braithwaite and dated 1918.

I always use this book when I'm teaching advertising analysis to our social science students.  Many are familiar with Photoshop and the problems with heavily manipulated advertising images though they are often surprised to learn that photographic manipulation is almost as old as photography itself.

Johnson's book gives a fascinating insight into the techniques that photographers were using nearly 100 years ago to do everything from alter the shape of a woman's neck to the removal of the veins in a sitter's hands.  Going into detail about some of the latest advances in retouching Johnson writes:

"The urgent need of something easier to use than the knife, and safer in the hands of the amateur, arose, and so "Negafake" Erasing Pencils were invented by Mr. J.W. D'Anter, a well-known and long-experienced London photographer, and have proved themselves a veritable boon to all retouchers, a great number of the leading trade and professional houses employing them extensively, and expressing the utmost satisfaction with the results."

There are several plates illustrating the techniques and possibilities of using various knives, tools and inks on mainly portrait shots showing both before and after stages.  One of the big challenges facing photographers in the early 20th century was how to represent colour accurately.  That might seem like a strange statement, given that they were shooting exclusively in black and white, but the photographer had to consider how to treat, for example, red hair which photographed as black or fair hair which came out much darker than the customer might desire.  The owner of Johnson's handy guide had only to turn to the back from where 'Buildup', 'Buildub Black' and a 'Dixon 400' pencil could be ordered from The Vanguard "N" Co. of Maidenhead, England.  And if you didn't know how to use them?  No problem, just order some postal lessons from T.S. Bruce of Hampstead, London.  I wonder what T.S. Bruce would've made of YouTube....

Wardrobe Convos with the 35B

Occasionally I do some photography for Kim and Helen over at Wardrobe Conversations, usually shooting on either my Canon 600D or Helen's Panasonic G5.  So it was a nice change to try shooting some material on the Rollei 35B.  These shots weren't for use on their site, just for my own amusement.  Check out this post if you'd like to see the G5 versions.

Helen and I went for a day out in Dundee, taking a snoop round the grounds of DJCAD and also a visit to the world's smallest street market.  We managed to get some nice shots using cracked concrete and graffiti as backgrounds which always works well for fashion shoots.  The street market, organised by Richard Cook, took place on the site of one of Dundee's slums and now home to Richard's vintage spectacle shop.

 

Kodak No.2 Brownie Model F

Type:	Box
Year of release:	1931
Country of origin:	U.S.A.
Country of manufacture:	U.K.
Film:	120 roll film
Image size:	2 1/4 inches x 3 1/4 inches
Lens:	Meniscus
Viewfinder:	Reflecting waist level
Construction:	Aluminium
Available apertures:	3 available, small, medium & large
Available shutter speeds:	B, 1/50
Available ISO settings:	None
Accessory Shoe:	None
Tripod Bush:	Yes
Available accessories (manufacturer):	None
Wikipedia:	Click for Wikipedia entry
Manual (.pdf):	-

An old roll of Klick film.

Remember Klick?  Are they still on the go?  Turns out they are, only now owned by Max Speilmann which is owned in turn by Timpson which in turn, it appears, is about to be sucked into the gargantuan folds of Tesco.  Such is the wonderful world of choice promised by free market capitalism.

Stuffed away in a box in the garage I found a few old rolls of Klick's own brand 35mm film which I'm now putting through the Rollei 35B.  Although I sent my negs away to Peak Imaging for processing and printing (good, speedy service by the way) the whole process took me back to when I first started and would get my films developed on the high street.  Having to pay for each roll of film then pay for it to be processed meant that it cost far more to take a picture back then than it does today.  Not having much money, this is probably how I ended up developing my painfully slow shooting habit.  A habit, which despite having shot on digital for the last ten years, I'm just beginning to break, or rather evolve.

I don't consider my style to be slow in the way that fine art photographers spend hours working on every minute visual and technical detail.  I spend my time looking for emotional connections to my subject matter.  The actual taking of the photograph I often do in a very fast photojournalistic manner - shoot and move on.  But I like to spend time around the people or places I'm photographing, either physically or mentally.  Then once I've ever so slowly found that emotional resonance, snap and the photo's done.

Zeiss Ikon Nettar + Ilford Pan F Plus test shots

I got these shots back from the Ilford lab a few weeks ago but have been so busy I've not had time to do anything with them.  Overall I'm pretty impressed.  I struggled with the focusing on several of the close up shots and portraits so must get onto eBay and see if I can find a suitable rangefinder.  The portraits were also all shot indoors in really gloomy lighting - not the best for a 50 ISO film such as this, so my guess if that at least some of the blurriness is down to movement.  The group shot was done with my Ziess tripod and a modern cable release.  The tripod was fine once I got it on the carpet but a slippery devil on the laminate floor.

My scanner was having trouble recognising the medium format negatives so these shots are scanned from Ilford's prints.  No editing other than cropping and rotating has been done.

Eduardo Paolozzi sculpture at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Family portrait

Canal, Wakefield

Dad painting a bird table

Coming soon....Ektar 100 colour negs

That's my first roll of Pan F Plus in about 10 years off to Ilford for processing.  Freshly loaded in the Nettar is a roll of Ektar 100 colour negative film from Kodak.  Looking forward to seeing what I can achieve with "the world's finest grain color negative film".

Zeiss Ikon 'Ikophot' light meter

Back in the days before convenient in-camera lightmeters became the norm, photographers could do one of two things to help themselves chose a suitable exposure for their photographs.  They could take their best guess, often judged from rough guidelines in their camera manual, or they could use a handheld lightmeter.  These often used a selenium cell which produced a voltage proportional to light exposure.  In a meter such as the Ikophot this exposure was represented by a needle jumping along a scale which could be read off against the previously assigned value for film speed, giving the user corresponding aperture and shutter speed values.  These were then set on the camera and voila! Perfect exposures every time...


The Ikophot sits in an attractive brown leather case with a short brass chain which allows the photographer to secure the lightmeter to the wrist.  The case flips open and folds back giving a bulk which makes the meter feel secure in the hand.  There's a little push-on hood secured to the case which can be slipped out and attached to the meter for taking incident meter readings.

One of the good things about selenium light meters is that the cell generates enough power to work alone without the need for additional batteries.  When I first got it, I wondered how accurate my Ikophot would be after all these years.  But with no battery to drain, I've tested it alongside the meter on my Canon 600D and got identical results.  Now we have to wait and see how the first roll of film shot with this little vintage meter turns out.  Watch this space.

Follow Backwards To The Modern World on Bloglovin

Yep that's right, get down with the hipster kids and follow my blog with Bloglovin.

In other news, the next piece of vintage kit to feature will be this lovely little light meter from Zeiss Ikon.

Zeiss Ikon pocket tripod

This vintage tripod from Zeiss Ikon would have been a very nice piece of kit in its day.  In fact it still is.  The leather case is well stitched with a strong yet discreet carrying strap, two horizontal slits on the rear for attaching to other straps and a Zeiss Ikon branded popper stud.  The length of the case, which snugly fits the retracted tripod is only 22 cm/8 5/8" and with tripod inside weighs a mere  284g/10oz so this is definitely a tripod that could be carried in your pocket with ease.

When fully retracted, the rounded feet on the 8-stage metal legs click into place keeping everything nice and secure.  The legs extend along a pair of matching grooves on each and lock into place with spring loaded studs.  At full extension the tripod will realistically offer about 105 cm/41 3/8" of height (at its lowest you get about 17.5 cm/6 7/8"). It's reassuringly stable both indoors and out, though offers nothing like the support of a modern tripod once the wind picks up. With its standard 1/4" thread you could also use it with any modern camera if so inclined.

Rollei 100 XLC flash

I picked up this nice little flash unit from eBay last year but have only shot one test with it, a couple of quick portrait snaps (just to test that the thing worked more than anything else).

For such a small unit, measuring only 67mm(H) x 60mm(W) x 42mm(D), it's surprisingly powerful.  Using it with the Rollei 35B is interesting because the camera's hotshoe is located on its underside meaning that the light from the flash enters the shot at a bit of an unusual angle.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing and you don't have to turn the camera upside down but it can result in faces with unflattering Dracula shadows if you choose not to.  Also, from a distance there's the risk of the light hitting the floor in front of your subject rather than the subject itself.  With practice though I'm pretty sure one could get used to shooting with an underslung flash, simply by adjusting framing to suit.

I've uploaded a .pdf of the manual here.
 

Building a Rollei 35B kit.....part 1

In the late 1970s my Dad bought a Rollei 35B.  The camera was attractive because despite its tiny size it possessed a number of sophisticated functions, making more creative photography possible.

More than 30 years later I'm now attempting to build up a Rollei 35B kit from the surviving camera, case and manual.  I've managed to get a flash unit which interestingly fits to a hot shoe on the underside of the camera, a space-saving measure which allows the top of the body to hold the shutter release, film winder, exposure meter and frame counter.  Not bad for a space of only 95x30mm!

Check out my post here for a full specification, link to a .pdf of the manual and further images.  Also go here to see some initial test shots.