The Friedman Archives Helps Solve a Mystery

Also in this issue:

• A7 V book is out in all formats!
• 
  The most complex camera ever made
• The Airplane Workstation

The A7 V book is out in all formats!

A few weeks ago the book on the A7 V - all 885 pages of technical goodness - was released in all formats: printed in color or B&W, and the 3-file bundle (.pdf, .epub, and .azw3 compatible with all e-readers).  If you haven't already you can purchase all formats here.  Get yours now!

The Friedman Archives Helps Solve a Mystery

If you grew up in the U.S. in the 1960's, you'd be familiar with the huge fiberglass "Muffler Man" statues across the country, advertising everything from tires to mufflers, or other items promoting various roadside businesses.

The statues are no longer made, but there are diehard fans who like to catalog and track down the giant statues that remain. 

So where do the archives come in?  A few months ago I received a query from one such diehard fan, asking about a picture I took back in 1981 which featured one of the "Uniroyal Gals"; female versions of these giant advertising statues.  (The image he found is at the top of this post.)

"Where was this picture taken?  What business was it advertising?", he asked.  Geez, that was 45 years ago!  How can I possibly remember that?

Spoiler alert: a big part of solving the mystery involved digging into proof sheets and scanning negatives that were incidental to the final image.  

I'll let the American Giants fan tell the story from here.  He made a youtube video showing the detective work that went into finding the answer.  Grab some popcorn and come along for the ride!

The Most Complex Camera Ever Made

Think modern cameras are gratuitously complex?  Check out the LeCoultre Compass Camera II, a 1940's era compact film camera which was built in Switzerland, supposedly as the result of a bet to create a full-featured camera small enough to fit in an empty cigarette pack.  It squeezes in a fixed 35mm f/3.5 lens, a rangefinder, a depth-of-field scale, 3 built-in color filters (orange, yellow, and green), a spirit level, and an exposure meter that didn't require any electronics called an "extinction meter".  It took both roll film or cut sheet film.  And its tripod socket was designed specifically to make stereo or panorama photos line up easily.

I really took notice when I read about the history of the person who designed it: His name was Noel Pemberton Billing was born in London. He originally designed military equipment in South Africa.  He built a casino in Mexico, became a publisher, actor, theatre manager, playwright, science-fiction author and property developer. He was a Member of Parliament for East Hertfordshire.

As if that wasn't enough, he also designed furniture, a typewriter, a flying boat and a single-seater fighting aircraft. He was responsible for a machine to make and pack self-lighting cigarettes, a movie projector that could be synchronised with a wind-up gramophone, a golf-practising device, a cloth-measuring tool and even a type of helicopter called a Durotofin.  A man after my own heart. :-)

Check out this youtube video which demonstrates the camera's operation in great detail:

The part I found particularly fascinating was the "extinction" exposure meter and the fact that the exposure was "automatically" tweaked when you changed the f/stop or when you dialed in a filter. 

The Airline Workstation

Atlantic Airways, 2022, where I couldn't even flatten
the tray table much less use a laptop on it.

Here's a quick one.  I'm still plagued by not being able to get work done on a plane.  You'll recall that I originally tried solving this problem back in 2020.  But that relied on obsolete hardware.  

American Airlines, 2020.

So I came up with a slightly different idea that actuallly works, and it utilizes a "convertible" laptop that can turn into a tablet.  I actually used it on my most recent trip to Uganda  It worked great!  Here's a very quick video:

This configuration saves your neck also.   What do you think?

(P.S. - There's another option that costs significantly more: Wear special glasses that project your laptop's display in front of your eyes.)

Next Time in Cameracraft Magazine

We test the Viltrox E to Z fully coupled adaptor which lets you use all your Sony lenses on a Nikon Z body, puzzle over the good points of the ‘not really hybrid at all’ Yashica FX-D 100, check out the ReflectionFrame which uses e-ink to display a changeable picture for months, reminisce with the Zeiss Werra 3 and Zorki 4 from back in the heyday of Iron Curtain cameras. And we have our first crossword - one which uses picture clues.  Finally, Gary publishes the images that made him seriously think about retiring.  

The latest issue of Cameracraft is free to read here at 144dpi resolution. Subscribers have been sent their download link for the 300dpi version which you can zoom in 2X or print to high quality as individual pages.  And if you like what you see you can subscribe here.  

Until next time,

Yours Truly, Gary Friedman

This is what's called a "Proof sheet".
The key to the mystery was found in here...