07-02-2019, 06:33 PM
(07-02-2019, 03:18 PM)Hugh Barnes Wrote: What always staggers me is the clarity of the period photos. The one of the chap on his motorcycle 4 or 5 down from the top fair cracks off the page...
That's mainly because they were shot on large format film cameras. By the 1930's lenses were pretty darn good and pictures like these were captured on negatives perhaps 4" x 5" rather than a measly 24 x 36mm. That meant they could be printed 1:1, without all the losses that enlargement entails. Truly large format cameras - I have one which can shoot 10" x 12" negatives - are capable of capturing extraordinary detail. The other thing is that the long lenses needed to shoot big film had very shallow depth of focus, so the background was thrown into a pleasing and complementary blur, enhancing the effect. Cameras have developed in the direction of accessibility and ease of use, not in image quality.