Originally posted by Renfield:
Also, wartime quality was generally less than your premium film/paper. I've seen gun camera shots that look pretty close to some of those.
Certainly there were higher quality pictures taken - the Wizard of Oz was 1939 wasn't it? - but a lot depended on storage environment.
For those who are interested in WW2 Photos:The common "color" film at the time was Technicolor. (Wizard of Oz used this)
The pictures were shot simultaneously on 3 reels of B&W film in a large/complex camera.
Each reel was then developed and color dyed individually (R/B/G) then mated into a single reel. (UGH)
In 1935 Kodak introduced 16mm Kodachrome single process movie film and 35mm/28mm slide film.
In 1939 an improved version that lasted longer was produced. (the images were expected to last 15 years, BUT they have lasted OVER 60 years.)
Since the development process was hard to control in the field and due to the fact that the kodachrome movie film speed was 10(hard to shoot moving objects), it never caught on with the pros.
Kodak was requested to set up field stations for reconnaissance, but the processing problems killed that idea.
But the ordinary army/air/navy guys with an interest in photography, loved it.
They didn't take enough pictures to care how hard it was to develop.
Photo taken on August 11, 1943COPYRIGHT JEFFERY ETHELL PHOTO COLLECTION
Check out the whole site:
http://www.ethell.com/jethell/ww2color/index.htm These a just a few of over 20,000 photos in the collection. Check out his books. Especially "There Once Was A War" ISBN 0-670-86044-1
This photo book amazed me.
I was able to get it at chapters.ca for $10
Regards,
Snoopi