Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/09/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Good points, Mark. Mitch Zeissler === Website: http://exploratorius.us/ On Sep 1, 2013, at 3:44 PM, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote: > Double frame digital! Full frame is double frame. Or what it was called at > first.. > And double frame is a very Leica like idea. > An idea Barnack considered critical to his concept. > Big pictures small negatives. > But to get those big pix from a small neg he'd need to use more of the > film. > More sprockets. stretch it sideways. Barnack innovation was he turned the > camera sideways. And got more on the frame of 35mm movie film than was > normally done at least in movies and on most of the 35mm cameras which had > already come out. > Actually quite a few of the 35mm cameras which had come out had an option > between single and double, half and full frame. And the trick for getting > any kind of quality at all was to just stick with the mask taken out and > going double frame with everything. Though these cameras were bulky and odd > and cumbersome. The opposite of the well machined elegance that the > Leica' s became. > In effect it was "Big pictures small camera". > A small camera you can make big pictures from and not embarrass yourself. > > Would 35mm film use have taken over photography if it had been half frame > then called single frame? I'd guess not. But it was well known the idea of > not just using the standard movie format from 35mm film 24x18mm for stills. > At that time an enlargement from double frame was bad enough. But single > frame was just intolerable. > I think as 5x7 was the most popular shooting format at the time they > enlarged to 35mm negs to 5x7 inch. And they looked ok. When they went > though > an 80 lip line screen the difference was minimized when photojournalism > was > born in the 1920s. > Nowadays in digital a 24x36mm frame gives you 24 hour shooting ability. Day > or night indoors in the darkest closet with no flash or tripod. 18x24 much > less so. There is not much of a reason why the cameras from those two > formats be right about the same size. Either could be pocketable or be a > metal munching monster.