Category: History of Photography
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Who Invented the Telephoto Lens?
## Introduction When I wrote my series of articles on the history of lens development I largely covered the period around the turn of the century. By 1860, photographers had decent portrait lenses, and we discussed that most of the superb prime lenses in standard focal lengths we use today had…
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Cooking with Glass
Well, since I’ve titled my other two “History of Lenses” articles with puns, I figured I’d continue the trend. Although I’ll admit this is the worst. But I loves me some puns. This is the third and, for now at least, final article in the History of Lenses series. While the technology is still…
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The Schott Heard Around the World
OK, confessions first. My assignment for this piece was to write a Holiday Photography Article. And to do it quickly because my last article was overdue. And to make it something cheery and concise since my last article was a long technical piece on how to test a lens. I tried to come up with an…
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From Petzval’s Sum to Abbe’s Number
## A Brief History of Early Photographic Lenses I’m kind of a history buff, and those of you who are may enjoy this. Even those of you who aren’t into the history of photography may like this because the early lenses were attempts (actually amazingly good attempts) to solve the same problems we…
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The Polymath Photographer
A polymath (Greek polymath?s, “having learned much”) is a person whose expertise fills a significant number of subject areas. We more often call them Renaissance men, for the days when it was common for someone to be an artist, scientist, writer, etc. During the last several years, I’ve had the…
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It Takes More Than Skill
My last few articles have been about equipment and scientific photography, and I’ve been feeling the urge to talk about what I love (and hate), taking pictures. So bear with me, I’m going to have to do one of those psuedophilosophical articles again. It started when someone asked me if I considered…
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The More Things Change…
## A Tale of Two Photographers Yesterday I heard two things that amused me a lot. First was a full-time pro photographer who referred to one of the new multi-megapixel cameras as a “Doctor’s camera”, meaning it was a toy for rich hobbyists, not a tool for a professional like himself. He at least…