Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/06/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Make an appointment - go to the Foundation - you can see his negatives. That's a good way to find out - for certain. I've done it; I didn't specifically note the film types, but some were certainly XX. Marty On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 4:20 AM, Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin at gmail.com> wrote: > No one knows for sure what film HCB used in the 40s and 50s. However it was > probably one of the then popular high speed panchromatic emulsions. My > wayback machine tells me that in the late 40s this group consisted of Kodak > Super XX Pan, Koddak Plus X Pan, Ansco Supreme, Ansco Ultra Speed Pan, and > a > few European films by Ilford, Agfa, and Adox. These emulsions could all be > characterized as having low contrast, long scale, excellent exposure > latitude, and soft gradation. By modern standards they would be considered > grainy. The average speed of this group was listed as 40 to 80 ASA although > every working photographer at the time knew that the films could be pushed > to significantly higher speeds. > > > Interestingly, ten years later the same films were listed as having much > higher speeds. In the early 50s Super XX was advertised as an ASA 200 film. > Plus X an ASA 125 film. I don't know if this was an actual change in the > emulsion or a change in the speed rating system. Perhaps both. > > > Tri-X changed the game when it was introduced in 1954. It had a "no funny > business" ASA speed of 400 and literally blew Super XX away. I was a > working > photographer during this era and the difference between films was like day > and night. Kodak even published techniques for using Tri-X at speeds > equivalent to ASA 3200 or 6400, although at a considerable increase in > graininess. > > > So whatever film HCB used, you are not likely to find a duplicate unless > you > find a few rolls frozen in a glacier. Even if the name is the same, films > have changed a lot in the last 50 years. > > > Larry Z > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >