KODACHROME, EKTACHROME and TAKUMAR Lenses
Another recent rummage through the shelves of used bookshops - which, incidentally, seem to be diminishing in number around these parts - turned up another collection of Cowboy pictures; that's if you can call a few pages devoted to the subject a collection.
This notwithstanding, the book in which they feature was something of a find for several reasons.
Entitled, America, I love You, the author, the Swiss dentist and amateur photographer Milan Schijatschky, takes the reader on an extravagent pictorial tour of the USA; a selection of photographs edited from his several trips by car, coach and train criss crossing North America over several years.
Another great find! Milan Schijatschky's America, I Love You.
The book is in landscape format, about A3 plus in size. That means a double page spread is A2. Printed and published in 1988 with film separations and litho work on semi gloss paper in Germany, the book showcases some excellent repro becoming available at the time.
Just a few pages, but worth a look. The 50mm SMC Pentax lens has been added to give an idea of page size.
But more fascinating perhaps for some, will be the fact that a high proportion, or possibly all, of the images featured in this tome were originally shot on Pentax cameras and lenses using Kodachrome, Ektachrome and Tri-X film. The author is not specific about which Pentax models were used, although it seems fairly certain from close examination of the reproductions, the original images were exposed on 35mm film. One or two suffer a little from shake, but those which are free of it used across two pages show beyond any reasonable doubt what great lenses Asahi Pentax used to turn out and how well Milan used some of them.
All the colour pictures in this book were shot on Kodachrome or Ektachrome film stock; the few b+w images on Kodak Tri-X.
Pentax aficionados might be able to throw more light on the following, but I recall reading somewhere many years ago the company decided on the name Takumar for their lenses in honour of a great Japanese watercolour painter. They were not wrong in their assimilation and I have always thought their early glass computations held the promise of something special. It is epitomised in this book where the characteristic Takumar colour rendering is very well portrayed. The large scale reproductions are also a terrific example of the magical effect film lends to the image aesthetic, a synthetic version of which I have only seen so far on a small number of dslrs.
It looks straightforward, but exposure timing for this frame was spot on. Just shows what can be done with a great eye, simple kit and Pentax lenses. The spread is very sharp so I'd speculate the lens used might have been the SMC Takumar 24mm f/3.5.
Having reviewed and tested several of the modern digitally compatible Pentax objectives, I remain to be convinced they are all as good as some of the older mechanical lenses. A recent simple test using a 20 year old 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-A lens on a Pentax K10D body completely rubbished the fine detail resolving ability of a modern standard Pentax SMC DA 18-55 f/3.5 - 5.6 AL zoom kit lens while the newer SMC PENTAX -DA* 1:2.8 16-50mm ED AL(IF) SDM faired only marginally better at the 50mm setting. It will be interesting to see how both the modern and older designs fare on the Pentax K20D with it's higher resolution.
And it's not just scenics. Seems Milan could turn his hand to just about anything. The Jazz and Gospel sections are a mix of colour and b+w, probably Kodak Ektachrome for the colour, but he doesn't specify.
America, I Love You by Milan Schijatschky, was published in 1988 by Edition Q, Berlin and printed by Industrie und Presseklischee, Berlin. ISBN 3 9801163 4 4.
Other works previously mentioned on this blog include,
Vanishing Breed - Photographs of The Cowboy and The West by William Albert Allard was published in 1982 by the New York Graphic Society, Little Brown & Co., Boston and printed by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Italy. ISBN 0 8212 1505 1.
Cowboys - A Vanishing World, photographs by Jon Nicholson, was published in 2001 by Macmillan, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd, London and printed by The Bath Press in the UK. ISBN 0 333 90208 4.
Visitors, users and viewers of the foregoing content may copy and re-use it in other internet content sites on condition the source of all material so used is acknowledged with the attachment of the following.
Copyright; Jonathan Eastland
www.ajaxnetphoto.blogspot.com 2009.
www.ajaxnetphoto.com 2009.
This content may NOT be used in any media made available for commercial resale.
The products and companies named in this website content are trademarks , registered trademarks or servicemarks of their respective owners or licensed user.
This notwithstanding, the book in which they feature was something of a find for several reasons.
Entitled, America, I love You, the author, the Swiss dentist and amateur photographer Milan Schijatschky, takes the reader on an extravagent pictorial tour of the USA; a selection of photographs edited from his several trips by car, coach and train criss crossing North America over several years.
Another great find! Milan Schijatschky's America, I Love You.
The book is in landscape format, about A3 plus in size. That means a double page spread is A2. Printed and published in 1988 with film separations and litho work on semi gloss paper in Germany, the book showcases some excellent repro becoming available at the time.
Just a few pages, but worth a look. The 50mm SMC Pentax lens has been added to give an idea of page size.
But more fascinating perhaps for some, will be the fact that a high proportion, or possibly all, of the images featured in this tome were originally shot on Pentax cameras and lenses using Kodachrome, Ektachrome and Tri-X film. The author is not specific about which Pentax models were used, although it seems fairly certain from close examination of the reproductions, the original images were exposed on 35mm film. One or two suffer a little from shake, but those which are free of it used across two pages show beyond any reasonable doubt what great lenses Asahi Pentax used to turn out and how well Milan used some of them.
All the colour pictures in this book were shot on Kodachrome or Ektachrome film stock; the few b+w images on Kodak Tri-X.
Pentax aficionados might be able to throw more light on the following, but I recall reading somewhere many years ago the company decided on the name Takumar for their lenses in honour of a great Japanese watercolour painter. They were not wrong in their assimilation and I have always thought their early glass computations held the promise of something special. It is epitomised in this book where the characteristic Takumar colour rendering is very well portrayed. The large scale reproductions are also a terrific example of the magical effect film lends to the image aesthetic, a synthetic version of which I have only seen so far on a small number of dslrs.
It looks straightforward, but exposure timing for this frame was spot on. Just shows what can be done with a great eye, simple kit and Pentax lenses. The spread is very sharp so I'd speculate the lens used might have been the SMC Takumar 24mm f/3.5.
Having reviewed and tested several of the modern digitally compatible Pentax objectives, I remain to be convinced they are all as good as some of the older mechanical lenses. A recent simple test using a 20 year old 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-A lens on a Pentax K10D body completely rubbished the fine detail resolving ability of a modern standard Pentax SMC DA 18-55 f/3.5 - 5.6 AL zoom kit lens while the newer SMC PENTAX -DA* 1:2.8 16-50mm ED AL(IF) SDM faired only marginally better at the 50mm setting. It will be interesting to see how both the modern and older designs fare on the Pentax K20D with it's higher resolution.
And it's not just scenics. Seems Milan could turn his hand to just about anything. The Jazz and Gospel sections are a mix of colour and b+w, probably Kodak Ektachrome for the colour, but he doesn't specify.
America, I Love You by Milan Schijatschky, was published in 1988 by Edition Q, Berlin and printed by Industrie und Presseklischee, Berlin. ISBN 3 9801163 4 4.
Other works previously mentioned on this blog include,
Vanishing Breed - Photographs of The Cowboy and The West by William Albert Allard was published in 1982 by the New York Graphic Society, Little Brown & Co., Boston and printed by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Italy. ISBN 0 8212 1505 1.
Cowboys - A Vanishing World, photographs by Jon Nicholson, was published in 2001 by Macmillan, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd, London and printed by The Bath Press in the UK. ISBN 0 333 90208 4.
Visitors, users and viewers of the foregoing content may copy and re-use it in other internet content sites on condition the source of all material so used is acknowledged with the attachment of the following.
Copyright; Jonathan Eastland
www.ajaxnetphoto.blogspot.com 2009.
www.ajaxnetphoto.com 2009.
This content may NOT be used in any media made available for commercial resale.
The products and companies named in this website content are trademarks , registered trademarks or servicemarks of their respective owners or licensed user.
Labels: Black and white, Books, Camera, Film, Kodachrome, Kodacolor, Kodak, Lens, Pentax, Photographer, Photography
posted by Ajax at 6.4.09
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