Edmonton Photographic Historical Society

     This ACCURA Deluxe tripod is a bit of a puzzle as tripods go. Besides the fact it has one tripod tip and a part of the head—you can see a threaded hole—missing, it seems to not follow normal tripod rules.      For example the legs are not fixed at their angle to the hub. This would be usual in an early “Field” tripod, one used on mountain slopes and in uneven flower beds, but table top tripods need some way to have the legs reasonably fixed at a set angle as even one slip of the leg would lose the camera off a height. So what makes me think this is a table top tripod?      Its limited height erected would lead me down that path. Fully extended with the legs at about a 30º angle the head is 1.07 m (42 inches) off the ground. This makes framing a shot a little difficult unless you are using a Twin Lens Reflex or a folding camera. Of course that is a good height for flower photographers.      With the legs collapsed and angle...

     I came across this Canon “deep” case in a bargain bin. It is an orphan item I don’t expect anyone else to love. Cases in general have very little caché, and most camera ever-ready cases are shucked by heavy shooters as not worth the trouble of having to remove them to change films.      Needless to say there are few heavy shooters left, so an ever-ready case is a fine item. I like the rarity of having something I would have had to order separately.      And this case is pretty unique for how it wraps the camera and motor drive into one block protected by thick leather from wear and bumps.  

The JVC   GZ-MS110 has a 45x zoom that can go as far as 800x digital using the full digital chip. It isn’t a huge chip, being ⅙ inch and a 800K pixel CCD. This produces standard video—it is a 2010 camera.   It sports   a Konica Minolta lens has Super LoLux sensitivity in low light an advanced Image Stabilizer has Time-Lapse recording featured one-touch uploading to You Tube™ (HD Compatible) auto LCD backlight control had a DATA battery used USB 2.0 High speed transfer   and had Bluetooth Wireless Technology        Software was provided for Windows machines, as Apple machines probably didn’t need software to view this camera’s video.      This particular camera was almost split in two, right down the centerline. It had its battery, but I haven’t found a way to charge the battery yet.* It accepts a power cord, but the connection is something I haven’t encountered before. It would be lovely to play with it, but common opinion says almo...

       This is a Bushnell 200mm f/3.5 in Canon FD mount . New it cost $79.97 when it was introduced. Now I have seen prices running from $40 to $16. It would be safe to say it doesn’t appear that desirable, selling at those prices.      I can’t really build a huge case for buying this particular lens. Bushnell wasn’t a major brand like Canon or Nikon. Bushnell didn’t make lenses. They had existing Japanese manufacturers—in this case Tamron or perhaps Tokina—manufacture lenses under their name and then they brought them to retail in North America.      Perhaps it would be easier to tout the advantages of a single focal length lens as opposed to a zooms. Most zooms have many more elements than a single focal length lens. Each element presents opportunities to make errors in grinding, centering, coating and assembly with the other elements. The typical 200mm lens has 4 to 6 elements. It has a slight speed advantage over 200mm zooms.  ...

     The Fujica ST701 was released in July of 1970.      This universal screw mount camera has several distinctions. It was the first camera to use silicon light meter cells.  It used two cells for averaging stop-down metering.      It used a mercury button cell—the E400N—that has not been available for many, many years.   It had a voltage of 1.35 VDC. Modern power sources can be used (air cells—the hearing aid MBX400— for example), while other power cells require under the hood (in this case under the top deck) modifications. Normally you wouldn’t fret this, as the through-the-lens metering has nothing to do with the camera’s operation. You can use an external meter to determine exposure.      Although the lens mount appears to be a simple thread mount, there is an additional tab on the mount used by the St801*, a wide open metering big cousin to the ST701. This extra tab can limit the Fujica’s lenses being used on ...

Christmas dinner 2025 two members brought gifts for everyone. One was homemade horseradish. That is hardly of interest to Society members interested in Photography History, but Ian should be congratulated for his powerful garnish!      Gerry, the other member, brought keychains that were all photographic in that they were all cameras. There were three different ones but this is the one I got.      All three keychain fobs are not actual cameras. They are more like illustrator's versions of cameras. Take my key fob for example—there are simply too many of everything from slow shutter speed dials to possible shutter releases. The camera looks vaguely like a European camera—as opposed to Japanese or American—but that is more for the way the controls are styled than any specific manufacturer’s products.      Gerry had to open all the packages and install the chains and rings before giving them to us. What a guy!      Thanks to all f...

I ran into a 1 quart CineStill Color Simplified 2-Bath Process kit at a thrift store for $7.99 (with tax $8.39). This seemed like a pretty reasonable price.   Amazon.ca has it listed for over $100! The box mentioned one kit could process up to 24-rolls!   We will return to that subject later. I have Nikkor tanks that have the main advantages of requiring small amounts of chemistry—a single 35mm tank takes just 8-oz, a single 120 tank takes 16-oz but will also take two 35mm reels as well as conducting heat well in water-baths you can also invert them for agitation.        I also have at least one Ansco plastic tank that requires slightly more chemistry and doesn’t warm up in water baths as quickly. These tanks are agitated with a stirring rod down the center.        We can leave the tanks subject for now. I only mentioned them to justify why I would buy the kit in the first place.      But then we get to the second piece of...

Recently the Edmonton Photographic Historical Society was given a collection of photographic items that had been handed down through a family for generations. While many of the items were complete, there were some items that were incomplete or simply collections of pieces.        This is a plastic bag titled “Camera Parts #2”. That came into my collection. I decided to unpack the bag and shoot every item. Some items required two shots so I could show both sides. I ended up taking 36-images!        There were less items than even taking both sides of most items because I took both a vertical and a horizontal of the way I filed the items. I used an egg container because it is a classic way of keeping track of camera parts as you disassemble a camera, so I thought it was appropriate.           There was a folded sheet of paper that had a collection of screws and metal bits.           That wa...