History of Photography (A Timeline of significant events)

[Kym]

Looks like we have an entry for every year since 1900!! Please feel free to suggest more

[yogestee]

1954 - Kodak Tri-X 400 first introduced..

A fast black and white film with relatively fine grain that became the favourite for photojournalists and reportage photographers throughout the world.

Remains relatively unchanged until today.

[yogestee]

1969 - Asahi Pentax releases the Asahi Pentax 67.

A medium format camera shoooting 6x7 format on 120/200 roll films. Modelled on a 35mm SLR only bigger. Like a 35mm SLR on steroids.

[Ionica]

1844 - Friedrich von Martens built a camera containing a swivelling lens that could take a panorama over an arc of 150 degrees.

1856 - John B. Dancer, an English optical instrument maker, patented a device that took two pictures simultaneously, through two lenses set slightly apart.

[KarenC]

1950 - Polaroid introduces a "electric eye shutter" that will automatically select shutter speeds 1/10 +1/1000 for fixed F5.4 lens. They also contract US Time Corp to produce Polaroid Land Cameras.

[yogestee]

1980 - Nikon releases the Nikon F3.

Nikon's first electronic professional camera with semi automatic mode, aperture priority. Also the first Nikon camera to feature the famous red stripe still seen today. Styled by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro who made is name designing cars especially Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Maserati.

[rafikicat]

Slightly lateral but if you are in Melbourne, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image is well worth a couple of hours.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day all ~ thanks for putting it al ltogether too

I have a soft spot for Frank Hurley. When I can get to his books I will verify ... but I think he was the 1st to use colour in wartime - to record WW-1
He was one of 8 (I think) WW-I photographers covering the Great War - 7 British + Hurley. After the war, the 7 others were knighted for their efforts. Hurley was sent home: as a 'colonial' he was not deemed 'worthy' of any awards

Regards, Phil

[nouveau1]

G'day all ~ thanks for putting it al ltogether too

I have a soft spot for Frank Hurley. When I can get to his books I will verify ... but I think he was the 1st to use colour in wartime - to record WW-1
He was one of 8 (I think) WW-I photographers covering the Great War - 7 British + Hurley. After the war, the 7 others were knighted for their efforts. Hurley was sent home: as a 'colonial' he was not deemed 'worthy' of any awards

Regards, Phil

Hi Phil, thanks for the tip, I'll check it out. Thought you might be interested that some of Albert Khan's photographers used Lumiere autochrome in WW1, (but don't know who was first); anyway, some extraordinary images if you ever get the chance.

[Kym]

I've put http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Hurley entries in for 1902 and 1917

[Bilgola]

As a newbie to this forum I have to say you have done a great job on the history. I thought I might be able to contribute "The Family of Man" exhibition in 1955 but you already have it. You may not know that the book of the exhibition is still available, or it was in 1994. Attached is a copy of the cover, (ISBN-0671-55411-5, Published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Distributed by Simon and Schuster). I saw the exhibition in England as a 15 year old and it amazed me, even then I recognised the brilliance of those photographers. All monochrome of course mostly shot on 35mm and blown up to unbelievably large sizes and technically and artistically perfect.

Keep up the good work, Mike

[Kym]

Added 1838: Boulevard du Temple, Paris, Ille arrondissement, Daguerreotype. The purportedly first picture of a living person.

[Kym]

Late 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/us/30film.html?_r=1

For Kodachrome Fans, Road Ends at Photo Lab in Kansas

PARSONS, Kan. — An unlikely pilgrimage is under way to Dwayne’s Photo, a small family business that has through luck and persistence become the last processor in the world of Kodachrome, the first successful color film and still the most beloved.
Dwayne’s Photo, in Parsons, Kan., will be processing the final rolls of it Thursday.

That celebrated 75-year run from mainstream to niche photography is scheduled to come to an end on Thursday when the last processing machine is shut down here to be sold for scrap.

In the last weeks, dozens of visitors and thousands of overnight packages have raced here, transforming this small prairie-bound city not far from the Oklahoma border for a brief time into a center of nostalgia for the days when photographs appeared not in the sterile frame of a computer screen or in a pack of flimsy prints from the local drugstore but in the warm glow of a projector pulling an image from a carousel of vivid slides.

Interesting end to 2010.

[Bennymiata]

1967(?) Canon release the first SLR with a stationary mirror, the Pelix, now copied by Sony.

[TOM]

1933: Canon release their first rangefinder camera, the Canon RF, which was a Leica replica or copy, and generally accomodated a Nikkor 50mm lens.

[TOM]

Added 1838: Boulevard du Temple, Paris, Ille arrondissement, Daguerreotype. The purportedly first picture of a living person.

and have you ever seen a portrait that looks as stunning as a Dageurreotype?

[Othrelos]

In 1966 - Leica introduced the Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/1.2 ASPH - Interestingly canon beat Leica by producing their M39 screwmount 50mm f/1.2 in 1957, What made the leica lens so exceptional at the time was that it was the first to use mass-produced hand-ground aspherical lens with two aspherical surfaces, which gave it a considerable advantage in optical performance over the canon lens. Canon held onto it's title of producer of the worlds fastest production 50mm lens they eventually produced the 50mm f/0.95 in 1961 which had a special mounting bayonet for the Canon 7s - five years before the Noctilux-M 50mm f/1.2 ASPH was produced. However the popularity of the canon 7s(z) rangefinder cameras waned with the growing popularity of SLR cameras which canon was also making at the time, and in the end, when the bottom completely fell out of the rangefinder market Leica was left standing almost completely alone in it's arena. In 1976 the Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/1.0 was released which was to the dismay of many leica aficionados; not an aspherical design. The new noctilux was given the cold shoulder by many leicaphiles due to this perceived shortcoming and demand for the older aspherical 50mm f/1.2 was very high (good luck finding one these days) The Noctilux-M 50mm f/1.0 became known for an effect that became known as the famous leica "glow" - (which was actually caused by carefully controlled spherical abberation) it is only in fairly recent history where Leica introduced the Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH in 2008 - but strangely enough demand for the "classic" noctilux-M 50mm f/1.0 hasn't waned at all in fact, it has increased because of it's special optical characteristics. The Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 is currently the fastest 35mm 50mm lens in production, but because of it's exorbitant price the noctilux remains a niche product.

[Kym]

Any interesting items to add to 2011?

[unistudent1962]

I think the imminent demise of Kodak, should it eventuate, will be a significant event in the history of photography.

From http://www.livemint.com/2012/01/1216...al-fl.html?h=B
”You press the button, we do the rest”.
"for most of the 20th century held a dominant position in photographic film and in 1976 had a 90% market share of photographic film sales in the US"
"Around six years ago, it introduced the ‘Kodak Picture Kiosk’"
"Kodak continued to be bullish about its ”traditional” business, which dealt with analogue cameras"
"It was surprising, since Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975 when one of its engineers developed a prototype that was as big as a toaster and captured black and white images."

[Kym]

A significant historical note that I received via email about Leica during WWII:

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product - precise,
minimalist, and utterly efficient.

Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned,
socially oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon
grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer
of Germany 's most famous photographic product, saved its Jews.

And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the
closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe , acted in such
a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler."

As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst
Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking
for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As
Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg
laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional
activities.

To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established
what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica
Freedom Train," a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the
guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas.

Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members
were "assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France , Britain , Hong Kong
and the United States

Leitz's activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938,
during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany ..

Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner
Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office
of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the
photographic industry.

Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom - a
new Leica.

The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this
migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers
and writers for the photographic press.


Keeping the story quiet

The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939,
delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with
the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.

By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America ,
thanks to the Leitzes' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get
away with it?

Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected
credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced range-finders
and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi
government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's
single biggest market for optical goods was the United States .

Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good
works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help
Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe.

Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after
she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into
Switzerland . She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in
the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted
to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave
laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant
during the 1940s.

(After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her
humanitarian efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palms Academic
from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy
in the 1970s.)

Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman
Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no
publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the last member of the
Leitz family was dead did the "Leica Freedom Train" finally come to light.

It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz
Family: The Leica Freedom Train," by Frank Dabba Smith

Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leica_Freedom_Train
http://www.amazon.com/greatest-inven.../dp/B0006RZDJA (Currently out of print)