Dear Martin
As someone who was around 40 years ago I remember the switch from 95% B&W to 100% Colour. Things were a lot cruder then. Was it E2? As an assistant I remember controlling a big Rheostat by hand while watching a voltage meter to make sure we had the tungsten lamps running at the correct voltage. I also remember the many tests I had to do to get the correct filtration pack for each batch of film. E3 was the worst and needed very special lighting to get anything like quality from it.
That was the days of Kodak and Ilford allowing photographers to have direct accounts to buy film. Ilford went downhill in my opinion when they closed their London trade counter a short while after progressively closing all photographer accounts. My Ilford account was closed a month after I had won the Ilford Award for that year! Both also had professional reps who called in person to have a coffee and talk about new developments and materials. I remember Brian Sanderson of Kodak well but Ilford reps did not last as long.
Interestingly trade accounts at both Kodak and Ilford were considered essential for any photographer. When a US photographer moved to London and announced at AFAEP that he used credit cards to finance his assignments we all thought he was mad. Now the company card is used for everything from cameras to computers.
Fortunately we now have self-help newsgroups which have become invaluable for dealing with the technicalities of going digital. I don't know if I would have managed, without the internet, to learn anything in the past eight years.
I do think that the struggles we had years ago to wrest the best quality from the materials available pushed lighting and other techniques to the limits. I think we will lose something when every file is 'fixed' in the software instead of the hypo.
Bob Croxford
On 26 Aug 2004, at 09:50, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Do you know - if this forum was around say about 40 years ago,I reckon there would be a thread on "do I go colour neg or stay with B/W".
=============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
