Retro Thing

Blackbird, Fly: A Slightly Weird TLR Camera

Don't let the awkward name scare you off. The Blackbird, Fly is a rather nifty little plastic Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) from Japan.

A TLR has two objective lenses. One captures the photo, while the other projects almost the same image onto a matte focusing screen surrounded by a hood on top of the camera. If you don't wish to hold the camera self-consciously at waist height, you can also use the gunsight-like finder on top to line up your shot.

Unlike most TLRs which require hard to find medium-format film, the Blackbird, Fly uses standard 35mm rolls. There are three image masks which let you choose between standard 35mm (24 x 36mm), square (24 x24mm) and large format (36 x 36mm, extending past the sprocket holes) frames.

As you might expect, the controls are basic. There are only two aperture settings - f/7 (cloud) and f/11 (sun) and the shutter is fixed at 1/125 second. There's also a B-mode which lets you lock the shutter open to capture experimental images at night. The 33mm wide angle lens adjusts between 0.8 m and infinity.

The Fly is available in red, black, blue, orange and white for $119.99.

There. I never have to type that gormless name ever again.

Stereo Realist Projector Channels The Dark Side

The David White Stereo Realist 3D projector looks like it was designed with Lord Vader in mind. It's the companion to the Stereo Realist camera we featured earlier this year. Just remember, "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will." -- Yoda

STEREO REALIST - 3-D Slide Projector - Model 81 [eBay via Gizmodo]

Apple Quicktake 200 Digital Camera - 12 Years Too Early?

Apple made news recently by bolting a fairly low-quality video camera onto the iPod Nano.  Equipping the sleek Nano with a video camera is a fine idea, until you start watching the result. I wasn't expecting HD res, but VGA? I hasten to add that bunch of cliche-to-be animated overlay FX aren't a replacement for image quality. Given Apple's prior experience with digital imaging beyond webcams and iPhones, I was expecting something a bit better. All the way back in 1994 Apple launched the QuickTake line of digital cameras, one of the first consumer digital cameras ever. The market for conventional photography was 12 billion dollars that year, and Apple set out to stake their claim in the developing world of digital pictures.

Here we see the QuickTake 200, the second flavor of Apple branded cameras. It resembles a typical 35mm film packin' point & shoot (It was designed & manufactured by camera giant Fuji). I guess you kids will snicker and call it "garganto-huge-ormous", but it's fairly typical of the time. It's got an LCD on the back, runs on four AA batteries, and all this power yields (now here's where you can start laughing again) a still image of 640 x 480 Mac-flavored pixels. This came in at the impressive price of $600 back around 1997.

Today that's a laughable resolution. It's too small to yield a quality print-out, but for inclusion in an electronic document (how about a Hypercard Stack, old-timers?) or used in video applications (the camera has a handy composite video output) it would have been a huge leap forward in the role of day-to-day photography. There are plenty of tasks where you might need a picture for only a short time, and it's wasteful to process and print a snap you're only going to throw away. Of course this would also have been the fastest way to get a real-world image into the computer realm for digital manipulation.

I found some photos on the camera's slim 2 meg Smartmedia card (which my computer couldn't access), and then I also took a few pics myself. While not great, I've seen far worse from a contemporary multi-megapixel camera phone. You had also better bring along some sunshine in your pocket since there's no flash or accessory shoe.

This line of Apple cameras ended with this model in 1997, being one of the first products Steve Jobs abolished when he returned to Apple. The QuickTake camera is another occasion when Apple was a bit early with an invention. Perhaps the mid 90's was still too soon for consumers to embrace the start of a paradigm shift in imaging technology. I don't imagine discarding Quicktake had any lingering effects (except to become desirable collectibles), especially given Apple's record with consumer products over the past decade. Even new consumer products that shoot video at... ahem... 640 x 480.  Let's refer to that mode instead as "Quicktake heritage resolution".

related:
Apple's Quicktake 100 camera
The floppy drive that changed the world
Apple's brief moment of clarity

Argus A - The First American 35mm Camera

The affordable Argus A 35mm camera hit the market in 1936, at a time when Kodak was still focused on medium-format film. This $12.50 camera caused a sensation because 35mm photography was the domain of expensive German-engineered Leicas. The company sold 30,000 cameras in the first week and over 500,000 were made before production ceased 15 years later. In fact, the Argus A is probably the reason that amateur photography shifted to 35mm roll film.

I was blissfully unaware of all this until Hrad Kuzyk passed on a link to his site. Here's what he has to say:

"Why use an Argus A? Simple. They're plentiful and cheap. They're vintage (1936-1951). They're easy to fix. They're stylish and eye-catching. They use off-the-shelf 35mm film. Why not?"

To demonstrate how rugged these old workhorses are, Kuzyk took an A2B to Iraq. His site's Photos section features several dozen shots from the desert. He comments that the vignetting in some images is most likely from ambient dust; a reminder how hostile that environment is to photographic equipment.

If you'd like to know more about these cameras, Kuzyk offers an excellent 75-page guide called 35mm For The Proletariat: A Modern User's Guide To The Argus A/A2 Camera for free download. I wish more people would do things like this to popularize vintage gear. Argus is still in business today, although their modern cameras don't have the charm of these classics. [Thanks, Hrad. Stay safe.]

The Argus A/A2 Camera Page
35mm For The Proletariat (User's Guide for the A/A2)

New Nikon S1000pj Not First Camera/Projector Convergence

Nikon has been making waves with the announcement of their Coolpix S1000pj; a new digital still camera with a built in projector. Imagine... you take some digi snaps, and instead of crowding around a tiny little screen to share the fun, you can project those images on the nearest wall/t-shirt/bone china. It's a logical progression in digital camera tech. You can only cram so many megapixels into your pocket, so manufacturers piled on extras like facial recognition, printers, even GPS.

A convertible camera/projector is a fine idea - so fine that it's been done before. In 1957, famous jeweler Wittnauer introduced the Cine-Twin. It was an 8mm camera that bolted onto a special base to become a projector. The idea wasn't new in '57 either. In 1895 French inventors Louis and August Lumiere patented the "Cinematographe" combination movie camera & projector.

Developed by John Oxberry (Oxberry gained industry wide fame by developing a special animation camera stand that is still used by some animators today), the camera-projector combination was remarkably clever. Unfortunately that innovation comes at a price. The Cine-Twin was terribly expensive in its day, and was sold exclusively in jewelry stores. The exclusivity and novelty of the Cine-Twin outpaced any practical desire for such a device. Needless to say that neither this specific camera, nor the fusion of projector & camera made much of a mark in the decades since.

The camera was quite large for an 8mm model, even for the late 50's. It took a monstrous three D cells. The shooter was freed from winding the clockwork motor every few moments, but it did add dramatically to the overall weight. Adding to the fragility is that the delicate projector bulb of course rode shotgun inside the camera. Obviously you never want to knock any sort of camera around, but one with an expensive glass bulb inside?

The Cine-Twin is emblematic of the difficulties of convergence. Frequently the combo device doesn't offer the advantages of the separate original devices. One positive I can see is that in projector mode the unit is smaller than many stand-alone projectors, but would lack the throw or brightness of a larger dedicated unit. Perhaps there was an amateur filmmaker who benefited from having a compact way to shoot and share movies, but it came at a very high price.

The Nikon Coolpix S1000pj camera/projector combination is certainly a breakthrough in convergence devices (I hope that it can project motion video too). Unusually, I don't see the down side in this particular digital alliance. It looks to me like the Coolpix will be able to deliver the fun that the Cine-Twin just couldn't. While the idea of combining these two types of devices is well over 100 years old, sometimes it just takes a while to get the details right.

YouTube video demonstrating the Cine-Twin
Alan Kattelle's superlative book on home movies, including cameras

related:
Marvelously minuscule Minolta Mini-35 slide projector
Bare bones Pekoscope 16mm projector from 1932
Bell & Howell film cassette projector

Build Your Own Sextant

This clever £17.99 kit lets you assemble a working cardboard sextant. It's crafted from pre-punched card stock and includes the solar filter and mirrors. You provide the glue.

"For years, this was part of the essential equipment on every ship, which helped the process of navigation.

A sextant allows you to work out the height of a celestial object, typically the sun, above the marine horizon, in degrees. By 'shooting the sun' as it is called, you can determine the point when the sun is at its highest, which is local noon, and also how high the sun is above the horizon in degrees, which allows you to work out your latitude."

Of course, none of this is particularly useful if you live just down the road from the local Tesco, but it could come in handy if you ever find yourself lost on the high seas in a 16th century ship. Well, except for the fact that the sea is really wet, and wet cardboard is absolutely useless.

Sextant Kit at Grand Illusions

Argus Wet-110 Camera Goes To Bottom Of The Sea... Or Pool

It's vacation time in the USA, and many take the warm-ish weather as a sign to head for water. Folks try all manner of new underwater sports in these days, and while memories are water resistant, cameras usually aren't.

Today you can find a lot of affordable underwater digital cameras, but back in the film era they were rare and expensive items. While a digital camera has few moving parts that need waterproofing, a film camera needs a waterproof door for film access, the winding mechanism needs to be water resistant, along with battery hatches, etc. A $10 hermetically sealed digi-cam for kids can visit the depths, but you had to work a little harder to find an affordable underwater camera a few years back.

Kodachrome's Nice Bright Colors Fade To Black

Kodak has announced the final production run of Kodachrome 64 slide film. The irony is that vintage Kodachrome slides and movies will probably outlast modern digital images and prints by decades.

First introduced in 1935, the film is special in that the color dyes are added in three layers during the developing process. The technique is an environmental nightmare, but results in vibrant, colorfast images that should last a century or more without significant fading. Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas will process the film until the end of 2010.

The David White Stereo Realist

The David White Stereo Realist. It's a name better suited to an experimental jazz trio than a camera. Still, approximately 250,000 of these unusual 35mm cameras were manufactured from 1947-1971. Its 22 x 23mm image format became the standard for stereo slides and allows you to snap 19 stereo pairs on a standard 24 exposure film.

Why are there three lenses, you ask? The middle one is used for image framing and focusing, while the two outer lenses feature synchronized shutters that capture a pair of images onto the film. The big problem with having three lenses is that focusing has the potential to be a wild and imprecise panic. The Stereo Realist elegantly solved this problem by moving the film plane back and forth while leaving the lenses stationary.

The resulting 3D slides were viewed using a compact handheld Bakelite viewer that resembled a high-end ViewMaster. The process was elegant and simple.

Amazingly, this camera remained on the market for almost a quarter century with only several relatively minor revisions. These days, companies feel the need to pump out dozens of virtually identical camera models annually. Entire product ranges often share the same image processor and electronics with certain features disabled or crippled in lower-end devices. Perhaps the time has come for manufacturers to dramatically trim product lines and refocus on features and quality.

After all, they're selling precision optical devices, not ice cream.

Voigtlaender's New Medium Format Camera Revisits The Past

The Voigtländer Bessa III (€ 2,000 / $ 2,700) is a traditionally styled medium format camera with folding bellows lens. It shoots 6x6 (nominally 56mm x 56mm) or 6x7 (56mm x 70mm) images that squeeze every last grain of detail from a roll of 120 or 220 film. Of course, you'll only get a dozen or so hand-wound shots before having to change the roll.

The Bessa III is equipped with a manually focused six element f/3.5/80mm lens. Mercifully, the shutter is electronically controlled with speeds ranging from 4 to 1/500 seconds. The device also offers electronic center weighted average metering with exposure compensation. In short, it's a curious mix of vintage and modern design. Available May 2009.

Follow the jump for detailed specs.

Remy's Kodak Brownie Camera Collection

The last Kodak Brownie Flash II camera rolled off an Australian assembly line in 1962, over six decades after the first $1 Brownie box camera was manufactured in the USA. The earliest examples of these simple cameras were made from leatherette covered cardboard. They featured a slide-off back cover which resembled a shoebox lid more than a precision photographic component.  But they did the trick, and about 15,000 cameras were produced before the introduction of a hinged film door in March 1900.

The design and film format changed over the decades, although the simple boxlike design remained a comforting constant. The Brownie name lived on in name alone throughout the 1960s until the market shifted to favor Kodak's compact Instamatic cameras.

Remy Steller has compiled an impressive collection of Brownies, ranging all the way from early devices manufactured in Rochester at the turn of the 20th century to a late model flash camera outfit made in Australia in the early sixties. His site is definitely worth a visit, just to see what things were like a century before the camera phone obliterated traditional snapshot photography.

The Remigijus Kodak Brownie Camera Collection

Budget Fisheye Photography

The $65 Demekin pocket fisheye camera is a tiny film camera not that much larger than a 110 film cartridge (still sold at Wal-Mart). The design is absolutely minimal, integrating a gunsight-style parallel viewfinder, 1/100 sec. shutter and fixed focus wide angle lens. It weighs a mere 50g, making an ideal travelling companion.

The only problem is the price, which should be $10, tops.

Demekin Pocket Fisheye Camera [via Gizmodo]

KGB Spy Cameras Come In From The Cold

 
Vladislav Kern recently introduced us to the USSRPhoto collection of Soviet KGB spy cameras. He also introduced us to the lovely Victoria, but that's a whole other story.

Many of the KGB's cameras were clever hacks, like the ingenious movie camera disguise that allowed users to covertly shoot photos of subjects standing directly beside them. The inner workings of a standard Super 8 movie camera were replaced with a tiny F-21 Electronic camera positioned with the lens aimed toward a window in the right side of the case.

Review + Giveaway: "Who We Were" Snapshots Of A Square America

"Who We Were" is a squarish book befitting the square snapshots within. The authors are collectors of black and white snapshots, or “vernacular photography” as the fancy set likes to say. I've come to know Nicholas Osborn through our mutual fondness of home movies. He's displayed his curated collection of photos at museums, galleries, and on his website at www.squareamerica.com. He and his co-authors have chosen 350 amateur photos spanning some 80 years to tell the story of America in "Who We Were".

Spanning the decades from about 1890 through the 70's, "Who We Were" is a collection of amateur anthropology. These random snapshots found at thrift stores and flea markets could be our relatives doing all the important stuff in life; waving to airplanes, drinking a beer... and of course taking pictures of it all. It's doubtful that the original photographers sought to create art, but somehow when collected together these private yet shared memories take on the qualities of art photography.

The photos capture regular people being themselves, and the book wisely lets the photos speak for themselves too. Most pages feature a single picture annotated with anecdotes from the original photographers, or a reproduction of text written on the back of the picture. It only takes a few pages to travel silently between the finer moments of family life and some of the most unfortunate and shameful times in our history.

I'm sure no one thought taking a picture of yet another doughy guy soaking up 50's leisure would be important in the future.  I'm grateful to both the photographer for taking the picture, and to the authors of "Who We Were" for doing such a good job of keeping these little bits of history alive.

We live in a time where it's cheaper and easier than ever to take loads of digital photos. The problem is that few people print out pictures anymore. That means no artifacts for future generations (even our own families) to find. "The Way We Were" shows the continued historic value of physical media. Years from now will amateur historians dig through the piles of discarded cell phones to try to dig out grainy low res pictures of life today? I hope so. This book reminds us of what we owe the future - inadvertent art

Here's some great news... The authors gave us an autographed copy of their book to give away to one lucky Retro Thing reader. All readers are eligible to enter. All you have to do is add a comment to this post talking about your favorite snapshot. If you'd like, you can even upload a little version of it to share with all of our readers. Just say a few words about what makes it special to you. On February 7th, we'll pick one comment at random to win the book.

One additional note. Just like our last giveaway, if you're from outside the US or Canada we welcome your entry, but require that you cover the shipping costs to your country. Thanks for understanding, and good luck to all of you!

Bring a little piece of square America home by purchasing "Who We Were" at ten dollars off the cover price. As a bonus you'll receive a genuine vintage snapshot and a DVD of some of Nick's home movie collection.

You can also find the book at Amazon.com

Polaroid Fanatics Gets Another Chance

A group of former Polaroid employees has formed Impossible b.v., aiming to resuscitate Polaroid's Instant Integral film plant in the Netherlands. I sincerely hope they succeed, although I can't help but wonder if this is more of an emotional decision than a sound business move.

The difficulty is that many die-hard Polaroid users bought as much instant film as they could afford when word broke that production was going to cease in the summer of 2008. That means the company's most lucrative customers might not purchase as much as hoped. Factor in a rotten economy and a lack of new cameras, it promises to be a tough slog.

Still, the company intends to work with Ilford Photo and Harman Technology to bring an innovative new type of film to market by 2010, "produced with a streamlined modern setup." Godspeed, gentlemen.

Link: The Impossible Project [thanks, Will Pinkham!]