Month: July 2018

Show Notes E06 Focus

For this episode, Graham and Nick talk about focus and focusing mechanisms in cameras. Nick asks whether focusing is necessary and Graham talks about one of his favorite Flickr people, ChetBak59 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/129558209@N02) and his use of out-of-focus areas of images to great effect (9:15). Nick challenges Graham to take a photograph where the out-of-focus areas is the point of interest and the in-focus areas are secondary (14:58).

At 16:00 the boys finally get to the definition of focus and how the lens creates this focus on a film plane or sensor. They then talk about the different methods to adjust focus in a camera-lens system (26:41).

They also talk about how focus is verified so we get the result that is expected (38:25).

With all that silliness about focusing complete, talk turns to a camera Graham built over the previous week, the Sixty7 Woody (1:10:30)

Nick’s books this week are:

CAMERAS From Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures by Brian Coe (https://www.amazon.com/CAMERAS-Daguerreotypes-Instant-Pictures-Brian/dp/0517533812)

500 Cameras: 170 Years of Photographic Innovation by George Eastman House, Todd Gustavson (https://www.amazon.com/500-Cameras-Years-Photographic-Innovation/dp/1402780869/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532023200&sr=1-1&keywords=500+cameras)

Collecting and Using Classic Cameras By Ivor Matanle (https://www.amazon.com/Collecting-Using-Classic-Cameras-Matanle/dp/0500276560/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532023493&sr=1-1&keywords=collecting+and+using+classic+cameras)

Graham’s shout-outs go to Chetbak59 on Flickr (see link above) and moonchild1111 also on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/moonchild1111/)

Nick and Graham start off the show talking about slide film and the forthcoming Kodak Ektachrome along with some Agfachrome that Graham stumbled upon several years ago. They then begin with a description of what the purpose of a Film Transport Mechanism is and why it’s an important part of any camera build.

Graham describes the three major film handling systems in use today (14:39) and then goes on to talk about a bunch of different systems that are either no longer in use or represent only a tiny fraction of cameras in use today. He did forget completely the Disc camera system though you can probably understand why that one slipped his mind.

They talk about Heather Oelklaus (19:21)  and her pinhole panel truck Little Miss Sunshine and how she uses an array of paper negatives to produce large-scale pinhole images. You can visit her web page at CameraKarma.com to see a video of her truck and the process she uses for large-scale images.

Graham mentions Corey Canon of The Lensless Podcast and his discussion of building a single-shot 8X10 as a way of focusing the image-making process and eliminating distraction (1:08:00).

Nick talks about his dream film transport system that allows any spacing for any format in a single device. (1:10:45).

Nick reviews two books that he finds are valuable to the homemade camera builder (1:31:30), Adventures with Pinhole and Homemade Cameras, John Evans  and Experimental Photography, A Handbook of Techniques, Marco Antonini, Sergio Minniti, Francisco Gomez, and Gabriele Lungarella.

Nick floats the idea of a pinhole bird feeder (1:40:15), sure evidence that this episode has gone way too long.