This looks like an early Viewmaster.
POCKET STEREOSCOPE SHOWS VIEWS ON FILM
Gone is the old-fashioned parlor stereoscope of a generation ago, but its counterpart, in modern guise, has just made its appearance. The new pocket-sized form of the instrument, illustrated above, is as small as a pair of opera glasses and uses thirty-five-millimeter motion picture film instead of paper photographs. A shift lever causes the pictures to appear.
Photo Lens Registers Rays Predating Dinosaurs
BELIEVED by its makers to be the fastest in the world, a new astronomical photographic lens has been used at Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, Calif., for taking pictures of light rays which, scientists claim, left distant stars before dinosaurs trod the earth. In conjunction with the 100-inch reflector at Mt. Wilson, the new lens has photographed spectra of nebulae 30,000 times fainter than the faintest star visible to the unaided eye.
Dr. M. L. Humason, who conducted the Mt. Wilson Observatory tests, reported that the speed of the observatory’s spectrograph was doubled through use of the new lens, which has a speed of F. 0.59. Astronomical data placed the nebulae observed by Dr. Humason as being an estimated distance of 80 million light years from the earth. Through use of the new lens, scientists can now observe faint objects which have previously been deemed hopeless from an astronomical viewpoint, according to Dr. Humason.
Turning Out Photographs by the Million
Great Plants in All Parts of the Country Are Developed to Supply Quick Service and Assistance for Army of Amateurs
DEVOTED exclusively to developing films and printing pictures for an army of amateur camera enthusiasts, great plants have been built up in all parts of the country. During the “busy” months of June, July, August and September, when the weather is best suited to taking pictures, the seven largest finishing plants in Chicago handle more than 114,000 pictures daily. Several have an output of 8,000 to 12,000 every twenty-four hours, and many print more than 5,000,000 as an annual average.
In Cincinnati, a single company serves almost a hundred drug stores, employing a fleet of automobiles to collect the film and deliver the pictures to the proprietors who have found that the “side line” in film service is a profitable advertisement and brings in potential customers. In one week, one of the collectors for this company brought in 20,000 spools of film and as many as 17,500 prints have been distributed in a single day.
HOW CAMERA SHUTTERS WORK
CAMERAS are constructed to be light-tight, and yet in order to make an exposure it is necessary to let light into the camera and onto the film. This requires a special mechanism called the camera shutter. It is so designed that when a release is pressed, it will move, let light into the camera for a moment or so, and then close and protect the film again from the light. As films have been made more sensitive and shorter exposures made possible, the design and construction of camera shutters has been improved until today there are shutters that split seconds into almost unbelievably small fractions and let light into the camera for just that fractional part of a second. Most of the smaller hand cameras with which we are familiar are fitted with one, or even both, of two types of shutters.
Freak Movies Easy with New Amateur Camera
A NEW sixteen-millimeter movie camera now places the professional’s bag of tricks in the hands of the amateur. Fade-outs, double exposures, animations, and enlarged close-ups are only a few of the unusual shots that can be obtained merely by pressing buttons.
Besides lens turret and slow-motion shutter, this new product of the Eastman Kodak laboratories in Rochester, N. Y., has a number of other improvements not found on the ordinary high-grade home movie camera. A crank that runs the film through the camera backwards, an accurate, geared film footage indicator, a unique focusing device, and a shutter that can be opened or closed while the camera is operating are important features.
MM’S Cover from Painting to Magazine
Three photo negatives are made of 21″x30″ oil painting (below). At same time screen of 133 dots to inch is placed between plate and lens. On one negative all but blue color is filtered out, second all but red, and third yellow. Proof of type for the cover is photographed. Type on negative is masked for drawing.
Making Money with Your Pictures
WOULD you take $9,000 for that prize snapshot of yours? Well, would $13,000 interest you?
It’s not ridiculous. Good shots by amateurs with ordinary cameras have turned into “best sellers” earning money in four and five figures. In fact, some are worth more—and are recognized familiarly by more people—than a painting by an old master.
Who doesn’t remember, for example, that famous picture of the sinking of the “Vestris”? It was one of the best sellers of all time; earned more than a thousand dollars for the young pantry man who was the only person cool enough in the face of death to cock a camera and click the shutter; and undoubtedly earned thousands for the picture services distributing it to newspapers and magazines. It is still earning money ten years later—witness the fact that this magazine paid sixty-five dollars for the privilege of printing it here.
Single-Lens Camera Uses Reflex Principle
Composing, focusing and picture-taking are all accomplished through one lens of a new miniature camera that uses the single-lens reflex principle. Without increasing the convenient size of the miniature, the new design enables the photographer to focus with a brilliant, full-size image on a ground glass while holding the camera at eye level.
Stage Your PUBLICITY SHOT
By RICHARD W. EMERY
COMPETITION in the sale of publicity shots is keen and it takes more than just luck to sell an editor. The successful free-lance photographer knows that a good publicity shot must be built around a basic idea that will attract a great amount of attention. If not, his work will never see print. The basic idea may be to entertain, instruct or arouse curiosity, or its purpose may be to kindle a desire to possess something, to go somewhere or to do some particular thing.
There are many reasons for planning setup shots. Advanced planning enables you to create a picture in which the basic idea is presented forcefully and in such a manner that the picture completely tells a story or strongly conveys one thought.
Prince’s Weapon Is a Camera-Gun
When Prince Hanwant Singh, young maharajah of Jodhpur in India, goes hunting pictures, he is armed with a specially designed camera-gun that assures steady aiming. Designed to take various telescopic lenses, the rifle-butted camera brings distant subjects up close. The telescopic sight permits exact aiming on subjects a half mile away.
Camera Fan Lays Trap for Thief
Set a camera to catch a thief. That is the revised version of the old proverb which Joseph Marques, of Plymouth, Mass., used to trap a “phantom burglar” who had eluded police in fifteen robberies. An amateur photographer employed by a local theater, Marques rigged up a homemade camera trap and placed it in the office of the theater. As soon as the burglar forced a window and vaulted into the room, the mechanical sleuth went into action. In quick succession, a buzzer sounded, causing the thief to look in the direc^ tion of the camera; a magnet flipped open the shutter; and a relay set off photoflash bulbs. A bell frightened the intruder away before he could locate the camera. So clear was the resulting photograph that, within a few hours, the police announced the capture of the burglar.
Tricks of the Composite Photograph
by Paul Hadley
THE making of composite, or combination photos, is one of the simplest branches of trick photography, yet is one which the amateur photographer seldom attempts. Easier by far than the double exposure or distorted perspective pictures, the results are more unusual and bizarre, in that parts of any two or more photos may be combined to make a freakish result. Professionals often resort to this method in making “photomontages,” which are often seen in publications. Probably most of you have seen the novelty photo cards in which, for instance, a wagon is seen creaking under the weight of two giant apples which it is carrying to market, or perhaps an ear of corn being loaded on a flat car with a derrick. Many other variations of this type of picture are to be found, all of which were made by the simple method of combining parts of several prints to make a whole.
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