Posted by Ed Kiser on August 08, 2009 at 16:15:45 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: Dick's camera (was Re: Richard Morrison in The Times) posted by Ed Kiser on August 07, 2009 at 02:21:17:
Dick's camera was used in BS and in GN, but not in any other
story with Dick in it.
Dick's camera was not the simple "box camera" with its "easy
to use" yet limited capabilities. His went beyond the basic
"point and click" amateur approach to photography.
In BS CH11:
--------------
"Focus fifteen yards," said Dick aloud, getting his camera
ready. "Exposure one fiftieth... Stop six point three..."
"You haven't set the shutter," said Dorothea.
--------------
From this, we can see that his camera was quite
sophisticated, with a variety of adjustments and settings to
be done before the photo can be taken.
His camera had:
1. Adjustable focus
2. Adjustable shutter speed (what range of selection, don't know)
3. Adjustable F-stop (size of lens opening)
To make these adjustments properly took some expertise and
experience on the part of the photographer, as getting
things set incorrectly could degrade the quality of the
resulting picture considerably.
From the above quote, we see that the shutter needed to be
cocked, to tension its spring so when released, that spring
could open and close the shutter at the pre-set speed.
There is another adjustment his camera supported, and that
is defining the type of shutter action. The "shutter speed"
is significant only when using the "click" option, which is
pressing the shutter release once and the spring opens and
closes the shutter automatically with that one press. In
the case of this all-important picture however, another type
of option was used, that of requiring two pressings of the
shutter release button, the first opens the shutter, then
the second press closing the shutter, with the operator
controlling the length of time that the shutter remains
open.
This is for extreme low light situations, and requires the
camera be held perfectly still during that exposure to avoid
blurring of the subject. Dick did use a tripod to hold it
for this important photo, and it was taken at night with
hardly any other light on the subject.
To properly illuminate the scene, Dick used flash powder,
probably powdered magnesium, ignited by a flint wheel, much
as a cigarette lighter is done in some types of that present
day device. The wheel rubs against the ignition materal,
called the "flint" (but not really a piece of rock known as
flint) to cause a spark which ignites the powder, much as is
done in a flint lock muzzle loader gun, which however does
use the flint rock, striking steel. This flash lasts only a
very short time, casting its light on the subject for a
brief moment, hopefully for a short enough time to "freeze"
the action of any movement by the subject.
It seems that the flash device was an object modified by
Dick as a enhanced flash which originally was intended for
use inside a room with light reflecting from the walls, and
the subject being not too far away, but probably did not
have the capacity to hold the amount of flash powder needed
to light up an outdoor scene where the subject matter was
some distance away. He had to create the reflector to
project the light to the subject, as well as a larger holder
of the larger amount of powder to do the job. It took some
scientific guess work on Dick's part to come up with
deciding just how much flash powder was going to be needed.
It is not clear that his camera supported the ability of
synchronized flash, where clicking the shutter also
triggered the firing of the flash. If it did have this
ability, he could not use this feature, because he wanted
the flash to be well away from the camera itself to avoid
having the camera discoverd by the bad guys.
It seems that perhaps there was not at that time the ability
to automate the coordination between the opening of the
shutter and the firing of the flash, as such seemed to be
done manually. Dick described this procedure in how wild
life pictures were taken at night, in:
BS CH11:
--------------
"Flashlight," said Dorothea. "He's got a thing that strikes
a spark and flares up a lot of powder."
"People use it for photographing wild animals," said Dick.
"They fix up their cameras at a salt lick or a ford where the
animals come, and wait in the dark, and then let off the flash
when they know the animals are there."
-------------
This implies that all that was done was to set off the
flash, with no mention of opening the shutter, so it seems
that the shutter was in the open position for some time,
with the short duration of the flash capturing the subject.
So, just as is done when photographing wild animals, to
properly synchronize the light of the flash with the
shutter, Dick chose the double click option, one to open,
and the other to close. With hardly any other light in the
area, nothing was recorded while in the open state, but
being open, could capture the scene from the light of the
flash. The photo taken, once that flash was done, now the
shutter could be closed. So it took three properly executed
steps: open, fire the flash, close - and don't get caught.
And hopefully, hope that shutter was COCKED before this
sequence took place.
And don't forget to wind the film to the next frame before
attempting the next shot. Not that Pete had to worry about
this feature, as there was no next shot for him to take.
Ed Kiser, Kentucky