photography

Super slides (1957 – early 1980s)

So-called super slides use photographic film mounted in a standard 2-inch square slide frame. They offered a larger film area than standard 135 film slides, and when projected in a standard slide projector could offer a much larger image.

Frank Rizzatti at Burleigh-Brooks in New York came up with the idea of super slides sometime around 1956-57, at a time when shooting 135 transparency film to mount in slides was very popular and many homes had a slide projector. Initially, he used 120 film cut down to size to fit in 2-inch square slide frame, but someone had the idea of using 127 format film.

Although 127 film has been around since 1912, it was not popular by the end of the 1950s. The introduction of cameras such as the Baby Rollei in 1957, followed by cameras from other manufacturers including Kodak (with models such as the Brownie Super 27) and the Sawyer’s Mark IV, meant a resurgance in 127 film sales.

Super slides using 127 format film offered an area 85% larger (40 mm × 40mm) than 135 format slides (24 mm × 36 mm) and offered greater clarity or a larger projected image. They would also fit in standard slide projectors.

The novelty of super slides faded after the mid-1960s and Kodak discontinued its 127 format cameras around 1970, probably in part due to the introduction in 1963 of its Instamatic range of cameras that used 126 cartridge film.

Super slides continued longer in the form of slide sets available for sale at tourist attractions, such as the Pana-Vue range produced by Sawyer’s Inc. (and later GAF) into the early 1980s.

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16 mm microfilm (1925 – 2000s)

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16 mm microfilm was used to store reduced-size photographs of documents that can then be viewed in a microfilm reader that magnifies the image to a readable size. 16 mm microfilm was generally used to store images of documents that were A3, A4, or Letter size, or even smaller sizes such as bank cheques or betting slips, whereas 35 mm microfilm tended to be used for larger documents such as newspapers or engineering drawings.

16 mm microfilm was first used commercially to take pictures of bank cheques, and a machine called the Checkograph was introduced in 1925 for this purpose. The 16 mm film format was relatively new at this stage, having been introduced in 1923.

The film itself is unperforated, and may have one continuous strip of images (simplex) or two lines of images where the front and back need to be stored together (duplex). It generally comes in lengths of 100 feet, 130 feet or 215 feet. Film in 215 foot lengths was thinner and tended to be used for duplex microfilming of documents such as bank cheques, insurance documents or and medical forms.

The film could be stored on an open reel, or it could be housed inside a cartridge.

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Autochrome Lumière (1907 – 1955)

Paris: Aux Champs Elyseés, 1914. On glass Verascope Stereoview

Autochrome was one of the very first practical method of colour photography (the similar Jougla Omnicolore was introduced a few months previously) and was first marketed by the Lumière brothers in 1907, becoming widely used before the advent of subtractive colour film in the 1930s.

Autochrome used an additive method, with a glass plate coated in microscopic grains of potato starch that were dyed red-orange, green, or blue-violet, underneath a panchromatic photographic emulsion. The plates needed longer exposures than contemporary black and white photography (about thirty times more). Although there was no need for any special camera, there was a need for a yellow filter to correct the over-sensitivity to blue light, and a tripod was needed for the long exposures.

The resulting positive image was quite dark and needed bright light for viewing. Autochrome plates could be viewed with a special stand called a diascope, that offered a brighter image, or they could be projected with a magic lantern but they needed a very powerful light. Unfortunately, Autochrome images on glass plates were difficult for artistic photographers to exhibit and so most autochromes were taken by amateur photographers.

The Autochrome process produces images that are considered very attractive and dreamlike. Stereoscopic Autochromes were available, and combined both colour and depth.

Despite being much more expensive that monochrome plates, the Lumière factory was making 6,000 autochrome plates a day by 1913, in a range of different sizes.

From 1932, film versions of Autochrome became available, but faced competition from new subtractive colour films such as Kodachrome and Agfacolour Neu. Autochrome film was finally discontinued in 1955.

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Minox film slides (late 1940s – 2003)

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The Minox camera was a subminiature camera first produced in 1937. It used very small film cartridges with unperforated film that produced images just 8 × 11 mm in size.

Initially produced in Latvia, production stopped in 1943 and was then restarted in Germany in 1948. The camera was high-quality and expensive, and become both a luxury item and a tool for spying. The Minox camera was developed over time through several versions, and added features such as autoexposure, as well as a range of accessories including a projector for use with Minox slides.

It is unclear when the first black and white slide (reversal) films were made available for Minox cameras, but since the first slide projector was introduced in 1950, it may have been prior to this. The first colour slide film for the Minox was made by Agfacolor in 1954.

The first projector, introduced in 1950, was made by the Hollyslide Company at the request of the American Minox subsidiary. It could project direct from the transparency holder, or from Minox slide film mounted in standard 2-inch slide mounts.

The Minox HP30 projector line followed in 1954, and this was followed by the HP24 in 1970. Some models offered semi-automatic operation, autofocus and remote control, and the HP24 offered the ability to connect a cassette player to control the projector (rather like a tape-slide set). Some models could project slides from 16 mm film or 110 film.

Minox discontinued production of the HP24 slide projector in 1988, but continued to produce Minochrome slide film until 2003.

It is still possible to obtain reversal film (and negative film) for the Minox from some sources, or it is possible to use a film slitter to make film for the Minox from 35 mm film.

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Jougla Omnicolore (1907 – 1912)

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Omnicolore was a very early additive colour photography process that produced positive images on glass plates.

It was based on a process patented by Louis Ducos du Hauron in 1906 and was introduced to the market in 1907 by the Jougla company in France, a few months before the Autochrome process was introduced by the Lumière brothers.

Omnicolore used the screen process like Autochrome, but used a grid of lines (blue lines with broken lines of red and green) to form the colour screen rather than random starch grains. This made them more sensitive than Autochrome and allowed for shorter exposure times, but the colour quality was reduced over Autochrome.

Jougla produced Omnicolore plates in a range of sizes, and also in stereoscopic formats, but due to competition in the small market for colour photography, Jougla merged with Lumière in 1911 and the Autochrome process won out with Omnicolore disappearing in 1912.

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Radex Stereo Stories (early 1950s – 1960s)

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Radex Stereo Stories (also known as Story Time in 3-D) consisted of a set of colour stereoscopic slide pairs that could be viewed in an inexpensive plastic viewer, and were introduced by the Radex Stereo Company of California in the early 1950s.

Radex already made an up-market metal-bodied stereoscopic viewer called the Binocular Scope, and this used a special adaptor for two separate 35mm stereo slides for which Radex produced a catalogue of slide titles.

The Radex Stereo Stories viewer was very much simpler, and the stereo images were contained in a single cardboard mount. The system was aimed at children, and the stories consisted of six pairs of images of dioramas, with a description written on the mount. Some sets were on white card, while others were on brown card with cut-outs at the top, the purpose of which is unclear.

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Stereo Realist (1947 – late 1980s)

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The Stereo Realist camera was introduced in 1947, and took stereoscopic images on 35 mm film which could then be mounted in special slide holders. It allowed people to take their own stereo photographs, and stereo photography became briefly very popular, leading to many competitors launching similar cameras.

The cameras used standard 135 slide film, often Kodachrome, with images that were 5 sprockets wide leading to it being known as 5p stereo format or Realist format. This format offered 16 pairs of images on a 20-exposure film cartridge.

The David White company that produced the cameras also produced mounting kits, projectors and viewers. Eventually, other companies also produced mounting kits for Stereo Realist slides.

Stereo Realist slides were mounted in cardboard, plastic or aluminium frames.

Although Stereo Realist cameras ceased production in 1971, stereo slides continued to be created, and stereo slide mounting services such as those offered by Kodak continued in the late 1980s.

In the UK, Sterolist was a version of the Stereo Realist format, with its own viewer.

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Kinora (1900 – 1914)

The Kinora was a means of viewing moving images by using a flip-book technique on a series of black and white still photographs on card. They were used in a viewer machine that was designed for home use by one person at a time, and a lens enlarged the image for viewing.

Invented by the Lumière brothers in France in 1895, it wasn’t until the idea was passed to Gaumont in France in 1900 that it was commercially developed. Gaumont released around 100 reels in 1900, and then in 1902 it was launched in Britain by The British Mutoscope & Biograph Co. Ltd.

The system became popular with the middle classes, and around 600 Kinora reels were available, along with 12 different models of viewer. In 1907, a new company, Kinora Co. Ltd. was created by The British Mutoscope & Biograph Co. Ltd. to market the system, and in 1908, an amateur Kinora camera was introduced, The camera allowed people to create their own set of photographs to be processed by Kinora to create a reel. It was also possible to visit a Kinora studio to create an ‘animated family portrait’.

In 1914 the Kinora factory in Letchworth was destroyed in a fire, and since cinema was at that time becoming increasingly popular, the factory was not re-opened.

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Pocket Rotoscope (1902 – late 1900s)

Card from Imperial 'Serie XII'

The Pocket Rotoscope was introduced during the first years of the 1900s, and a patent was applied for in 1902. It was a stereoview device for viewing small stereoscopic photographs.

Like most stereoviews, the cards contained two photographic images which when viewed in the viewer gave the impression of 3D. They also contained a third image in the centre with branding. The often said Rotoscope or Pocket Rotoscope, but sometime just had the branding of the company that sold the cards, such as Imperial.

It seems a number of companies produced cards and compatible viewers, including Imperial of New York, and the Rotary Photographic Company of London. There were also viewers and cards branded to promote products such as Suchard Chocolate.

The viewer was made of tin, with glass lenses for magnification, and many could fold flat while others folded into the shape of a book.

It’s unclear how long they were produced for, but they lasted at least until the Franco-British exhibition held in London in 1908.

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Dimensions: 69.5 mm × 31 mm

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Keystone View Company stereoview (1892 – 1963)

The Keystone View Company was formed by B. L. Singley in 1892 in Meadville, Pennsylvania to produce and sell stereoview cards, becoming the largest producer of stereoviews by 1905 at which point it offered 20,000 different views and also started selling educational lantern slides.

Most of their stereview cards were, like other stereoviews, two photographs mounted on card that when viewed with a stereoscope viewer produced a 3D effect. Keystone also produced the cheaper Keystone Junior stereographs that were much smaller images on photographic paper without the cardboard backing.

Between 1915 and 1921, the Keystone View Company bought the negatives of most of the their competitors, including Underwood & Underwood. The Keystone View Company was bought by Mast Development Company in 1963 and finally ceased distribution of stereoviews.

In 1978, the Keystone View Company’s negatives and prints were donated to the University of California and formed the Keystone-Mast collection of around 350,000 prints and original glass and film negatives, some of which is now available online.

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