Warbird Information Exchange

I think more likely ASA 10.

August

1. Yes. A lot of people still use wartime and prewar medium and large format cameras. I use prewar medium format, and my largest such camera shoots a 6x11cm image, about half the size of the ones probably used for these Midway pics. 4x5 Speed Graphics and other large format are easy to get (ebay). In fact, you probably could duplicate the equipment used to take these Midway pics for less than the cost of an entry-level DSLR.

2. Kodachrome is not produced any more, but several good transparency films are, including in the larger formats. More recent Kodachrome would look different than the wartime stuff anyway. A little photoshopping can simulate the old film colors pretty well. What you can't simulate with photoshop, or anything else, is the optical characteristics of those larger format cameras.

3. Yes, it would be nice if air-to-air photographers experimented more with larger formats, not just to simulate the vintage look, but because they look good. I do not know of any who are doing it. If I got serious about doing air-to-air I certainly would set myself up with a Crown Graphic or similar kit. It would take a good deal of skill, though; more than most of today's air-to-air guys are used to employing.

4. When you think about the circumstances under which pics like these Midway shots were made, it's amazing we have them. The guy had to wrestle this huge camera in the back of an SBD. He had to change film after every shot. Slow film and slow lenses forced him down to around 1/100 shutter speed or slower (note how much prop blur there is), where, given the bumpy ride, only a low percentage of his shots were likely to be acceptably sharp. They could only be processed back in the States so he wouldn't know for weeks or months whether any came out decently; he might see them for the first time when published in the magazine. And yet we get fantastic images like this. These guys knew their stuff.

August

Much as I'm wary of taking a riff on August's opinion...

Couldn't the short depth of field be due to a wide aperture due to the slowness of Kodachrome film? Ergo, while I agree they are probably off large format cameras, that evidence doesn't prove it? (The format of the shots and quality of grain etc probably does...)

We know (IIRC) that the majority of colour RAF and FAA photographs were shot by Charles E Brown on a few rolls of Kodachrome in a 35mm camera (unlike his usual large format effort) sent by Life to the beleaguered UK. Thankfully we have at least those few, and they've stood enlargement to poster size well. (Incidentally, most of them do have a better depth of field...)

Cheers,

_________________
James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Remarkable stuff.......gotta wonder if one of
those SBDs is 2106..............

Great pics, that Life site is worth having a search through, there are some brilliantly clear colour Luftwaffe pics too. Also saw a few Bomber Command ones too

Yep, you are quite right...Kodachrome 25 didn't come out until the late 60s I believe. Brain fade on my part (too many years spent inhaling chemicals in darkrooms!)

James, as you point out, Brown's Kodachromes had more DOF than this. I forget what he shot his 35mm color with, either a Contax or Leica rqngefinder I think. I don't believe you can open the lens on such a camera wide enough to get the kind of selective focus we see here at a normal (actually slighly wide) focal length. At least I've never managed it and I'm sure I have faster lenses than Brown.

Brown was able to get 4x5 Kchrome postwar, and you can see the difference in some of his late 40s pics.

I'm not sure if Life would have printed 35mm pics at that time, even for the sake of using color. Even medium format roll film was beneath the standards of the better mags then, and 35mm was disparaged as a miniature format too small even for serious amateurs. As you've seen from the Brown enlargements, grain and detail in that early Kchrome was almost as good as today; it is standards that have changed. That said, if we are right about the Midway shots being 4x5, the original transparencies (and their poster potential) must be amazing.

August

P.S. It occurs to me that for many of you unacquainted with the Charles Brown legend, James and I are talking about the man who shot the famous air-to-airs of the B-17 "A Bit of Lace", Mustang Mk.I XV-U, Spitfire ZD-F and dozens of other wartime color shots that have been available as posters for many years. It is on my to-do list to put together an av photo web site that duly recognizes the masters of the genre of which Brown is right at the top.

August

In my sadly amateurish opinion, using a 4x5 format at altitude would be a rather hard thing to do well! The only 4x5 work I've done was in a fixed studio, with fixed lighting, and fixed artwork on the wall. Trying to get the camera set, focused, loaded and shot from a moving aircraft...THAT is skill and professionalism! Hats Off!

My sad, tired, dust covered 4x5

Is there a way to turn in corrections on the Life photo gallery? Just randomly keyword searching aircraft you'll see a bunch of the aircraft search hits mislabel the aircraft in the pictures.

_________________
F-84F Simulator Project
www.f-84f.org

I used a 4X5 Speed Graphic in the early 1960's as a high school yearbook photographer. I shot a lot of candids around campus (as candid as you can get lugging a Graphic around), a lot of sideline sports shots and many shots for the ads in the back. Due to cost, we shot exclusively B&W, Tri-X 400 for the action shots and Panatomic-X 125 for the candids and ad shots. We used electronic flash, so I didn't have to deal with flashbulbs, but the battery pack for it weighed about 10 pounds. All this gear, including the loaded film holders, went into a trunk the size of a big suitcase. Before a football game, we would load about 50 film holders, and shoot most of them.

I can just imagine what it would be like to try to take all this equipment into the back of an SBD. Holy Cow!

Walt