Vicksburg with Color Film 2017 (test of a Hasselblad)

Clay Street, Vicksburg (also known as the ugliest street in America), 150mm Sonnar lens.

My friend generously loaned me his Hasselblad camera and gave me some Fuji NHG400 color film to try. The Hasselblad is a 6×6 film camera, like my older Rolleiflex, but instead has a modular design. The reflex mirror is in a rectangular box. A lens mounts on one side, a film-holder on the opposite, and a viewfinder on top. You can switch and swap components as needed, and all these parts click together with remarkable tolerances (similar to how 50-year-old Leica lenses work perfectly on a new body).

Hasselblad 501CM, A12 film back, and Zeiss 80mm f/2.8 CB lens (all 1999 production).

Kansas City Southern railroad line from the Confederate Avenue bridge, Vicksburg Military Park, 150mm lens.

The Hasselblad has a big advantage over the Rolleiflex: you can change lenses. My friend's 150mm Sonnar lens, although about 40 years old, has beautiful color fidelity. It gave a field of view approximately equivalent to an 80 mm lens in 35mm terms.

501 Fairground Street, 150mm lens.

503 Fairground Street.

The five matching houses on Fairground street are typical 1920s cottages. They are wider than shotgun houses but similarly intended as inexpensive housing for urban working families. I have photographed them before many times.

Fairground Street bridge, 150mm lens (flare is from a  light leak in the film back).

The Fairground street bridge is now closed to car or foot traffic and is deteriorating. One span was built by the Keystone Bridge Company and was erected here in 1895. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

KCS railroad cut from Washington Street, 150mm lens.

Gent with his bicycle, 150mm lens.

I often like to photograph the Kansas City Southern railroad line where it passes under Washington Street and runs through a deep valley between Belmont and Pine Streets. The gent on the bicycle was coming down the sidewalk and we chatted. He graciously let me take his portrait.

Tri-State Tire, 2209 Washington Street, Vicksburg.

This building with its Spanish motif was once an ice cream shop but has been a tire store since the 1970s.

Stairs on the east side of the unused Mercy Hospital, Grove Street, 80mm Planar lens.

The former Mercy Hospital is closed and locked, but must have a lot of photographic potential. Some background on the hospital is in this Preservation Mississippi post.

2314 Grove Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 80mm lens. (Update Dec. 2019: the house is empty but still standing)

This is a typical early 20th century cottage. This was once been a duplex, but one door has been removed.

Thank you, Bob, for letting me use your camera and lenses. But now that I have sampled a Hasselblad, I want to buy one (Hmmm, an element of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) at play here.....).

From the Archives: Washington-Hoover Airport, Arlington, Virginia 1941 or 1942

Eastern Airlines DC-2.

The Washington-Hoover Airport served Washington, DC, from the mid-1930s until 1941, when it was closed and replaced by the modern National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport). Hoover was located about where the south parking lot of the Pentagon is situated. Construction of the Pentagon began on on November 8, 1941, dating these photographs a few months earlier.

When I first looked at these negatives, I thought they depicted National Airport. But a friend (a gent in his 80s) from Alexandria, Virginia, was highly certain that this was not National. The Wikipedia web page describes the closure of the older airport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington-Hoover_Airport. That would date my dad's pictures to late-1941, which is possible because I read in one of his 1941 diary entries that he was thinking of buying a 35mm format camera. He bought an American-made Perfex camera, made by the Candid Camera Corporation of Chicago. I assume this roll of film was one of his early tests. The Cameraquest web page describes the Perfex cameras if you are interested.

The film was in terrible condition. Whoever developed it used the brush method, which was described in older photography magazines. No wonder it fell out of favor. My Silverfast Ai scanning software has anti-scratch software, but it could only do so much with these. Still, I am surprised how much detail is visible. The film edge said Kodak Safety Film Plus-X ("Safety" meaning not nitrate-based film, which was unstable and highly flammable).

Unfortunately, there were only 5 frames on this roll with air field photographs. The other frames were rather mundane tourist scenes in Washington (statue of heroic soldier on horse, etc.). This serves as a lesson that as the years pass, scenes or topics that seem ordinary often take on historical importance, or at least interest. But standard tourist sites are rather unchanging unless you include cultural artifacts, such as parked cars or signs.

Framed photograph in the Mayflower Hotel, photographer and date unknown.

The old Washington-Hoover airport was soundly criticized by pilots and almost everyone as being dangerous and hopelessly inadequate as the airport for the nation's capital. The runways were short, a nearby dump that was on fire made plumes of thick smoke, nearby radio antennas were a hazard, and Military Road had to be blocked by guards when planes landed or took off. At one time, there was a swimming pool, which children reached by crossing the runway.

Gravely Point, Virginia, with dredging underway to prepare artificial land for National Airport. From the Historic American Engineering Record, Library of Congress; United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division  digital ID hhh.va1677/photos.368605p. 

Construction of the new National Airport was mired in the standard political and budgetary malarky (nothing has changed in 75 years). There was even controversy about the boundary between Virginia and the District of Columbia. Read the sordid history in the link above. The new National Airport opened just before our entry into World War II. This was fortuitous timing because the world war resulted in a tremendous increase in air traffic into Washington and Virginia. 

From the History of Reagan National Airport:

When it opened, National Airport was considered the “last word” in airports – a concentration of the ultramodern developments in design of buildings, handling of planes, air traffic and field traffic control, field lighting, facilities for public comfort and convenience, and surface vehicle traffic control. 

Well, not quite. Across the ocean, in Berlin, the spectacular Templehof Airport was under construction and almost complete in 1941. Please see my 2016 article on Templehof.

Cities Services Gas Station in Meridian, Mississippi

Former Cities Services station, 3700 5th Street, Meridian, Mississippi

On May 19, Thomas Rosell wrote an interesting article in Preservation Mississippi about early 20th century filling stations built by the Cities Services Company (more recently known as Citgo). As Thomas wrote, "These Cities Service gas stations were designed to have a residential-like quality that draws from the Period Revival or Tudor Revival style with steeply pitched, cross-gabled roofs." A week later, I was exploring Meridian on my way home from North Carolina (my first time downtown as opposed to just rushing by on I-20), and I had just read his follow-up post on Gulf filling stations. So quite to my surprise, I rounded a corned on 5th Street, and there was one of the peaked-roof former Cities Services buildings. Some ladies were frying catfish out back, but it was only 10:00 am, so a bit early for lunch. But they graciously said I was welcome to photograph the brilliant blue paint. The frame above is from my Nexus 4 phone, but I also took a photograph on Panatomic-X film with my Hasselblad, which you will see later after the film is developed.

In North Carolina, I had driven part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, some of it in heavy rain and dense fog. But I did not patronize any Citgo stations this trip. Usually, I fill with ethanol-free gasoline, which tends to be found in local chains or independent stations in towns.

The Law House in film, Foote, Lake Washington, Mississippi

Overgrown drive welcomes paranormal investigators but no residents.

The Susie B. Law House, on Eastside Lake Washington Road, in Foote, Mississippi, has been empty for a decade or more and is deteriorating badly. I keep hearing that someone is renovating it but in April of 2017, it looked pretty bad. I wrote about the Law House in an 2014. Here are a few Panatomic-X film photographs of the house, taken on a gloomy day in 2014.

This was a handsome house originally, with symmetry and an imposing entry colonnade.

The original millwork came in kit form from Sears, Roebuck & Company.

Lake Washington from Foote.

The 2014 photographs were taken with a tripod-mounted Fuji GW690II rangefinder camera; light measured with a Luna-Pro SBC hand-held light meter. The square 2017 photograph is from a Mamiya C220 camera with 55mm Mamiya lens on Kodak Tri-X Professional 320 film.

Update: a very interesting web page describes the Sears Roebuck manufactured houses from the 1908-1940 era. The variety was amazing. Another web page, http://www.kithouse.org, describes research into kit houses around the USA.

Kodak Panatomic-X: the Best Black and White Film*

Introduction

This is the first of an irregular series of posts on discontinued film types ("Films from the Dead").

Bad news, there is only one brick of 120-size Kodak Panatomic-X film left in my freezer. So it goes - all good things must eventually end. I bought several bricks in the late-1990s from an eBay seller in California. As promised, they were in perfect condition. I was unaware when Kodak discontinued the product and therefore did not buy any stock at that time. The fellow in California was a lot smarter than I was. 

*Note: My title needs to be qualified. Panatomic-X might have been the best fine-grain black and white film, but the old standby, Kodak Tri-X, is superb when you need faster speed and do not need as fine grain. Film users have other favorites, such as TMax 100, Ilford Delta 100, or Fuji Acros.

120-size box from 1961, courtesy of Pacific Rim Camera

1951 box for 828 size Panatomic-X, courtesy of Pacific Rim Camera

1937 box for 3¼×4¼" pack film, courtesy of Pacific Rim Camera

Eastman Kodak Company introduced Panatomic in 1933 and discontinued it in 1987. The earliest version of Panatomic (not X) was on nitrate base, but the X version was on safety base, probably around 1937. Kodak packaged it in roll film sizes 117, 616, 620, 120, 127, 135 (standard metal cassettes), and 828 as well as in several film pack sizes. 

It was designed to be an extremely fine grain film, which meant it could be enlarged for large prints and still retain details. This was of value to architectural, fine-art, and aerial photographers. Some 5- inch and 9-inch aerial photography film was a version of Panatomic-X known as AERECON II). 

Kodak reformulated the film during its five-decade existence, and my late production was different than the original. My 1980s version in 120 size was rated at ISO 32, but I shoot it at 20 or 25 and develop it in Agfa Rodinal at 1:50 dilution. Agfa's Rodinal is a developer that retains the grain structure and therefore looks "sharp" (i.e., it does not have solvent action to partly dissolve the edges of the grain clumps). Used with good lenses and careful technique (that means a tripod), the detail in a Panatomic-X negative is astonishing, even in this age of 36-megapixel digital cameras.

From the Archives

This is a photograph that my dad took somewhere in Burma on the Irrawaddy River. He used early Panatomic-X with his Leica IIIC rangefinder camera (still in operation).

1980s and 1990s Examples

These are 1982 examples from a farm in Clifton, Virginia. I had just bought a Rolleiflex 3.5E twin-lens reflex camera and was experimenting with different films. I wanted fine grain for architecture, and Panatomic-X was still in production. After experimenting, I settled on shooting it at EI (exposure index) 25 and developing it in Rodinal 1:50. I also experimented with Agfapan 25 but could never get the contrast right (but that was my error - Agfapan was a fine film).

My new 1959-vintage Rolleiflex 3.5E with 5-element 75mm ƒ/3.5 Schneider Xenotar lens

This is my present Rolleiflex 3.5E camera. It is similar to the one I used in the 1980s, which I should have never sold. The earlier one had a selenium light meter in the slot below the word "Rolleiflex." But my new one has better resolution; everything in its production chain worked out just right. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the factory tested every Rolleiflex camera with film before releasing the unit for sale. If there were any issues, the camera went back for adjustment or installation of new lenses. Rollei precisely matched the taking and viewing lenses in focal length.

Residence room in the Junius Ward YMCA, Clay Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi, early 1990

Panatomic-X film was excellent for detailed photography in old buildings, but you needed a tripod to support the camera for long exposures. In this example, I found an old chair in the hall and placed the camera on it. The Rolleiflex is suited for this work because it does not have a moving mirror and is therefore vibration-free.

Cemetery in Kalavrita, Greece, 1998, Leica M2 35mm camera.

I occasionally used Panatomic-X in 35mm cameras. This is an example from Kalavrita, a town in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. I should have used the 135 size film more often. (Update: Click the link for my 2021 article on 135-size Panatomic-X.)

2000s Examples

Shotgun houses in Grayson Court, Jackson, Mississippi, 2004

Grayson Court in Jackson was an old-fashioned alley with shotgun houses facing the common road. It has been torn down although the property owner did some renovating in the early 2000s. I took this photograph with my Fuji GW690II camera (the "Texas Leica") and its Fuji 90mm f/3.5 lens. The 6×9 negative (real size 54×82mm) scans to a 100 mbyte 16-bit TIFF file. More Fuji examples are below.

Junius Ward YMCA on Clay Street, Vicksburg, 2004. The Old Courthouse Museum is in the distance.

Shotgun houses on Bowmar Avenue, Vicksburg, 2005. Both have been torn down.

The New21 Club on Hwy 61, Valley Park, Mississippi, 2016

Blue Front Cafe, Bentonia, Mississippi, 2010

Administration building (1936) at former Bonner Campbell Institute, Edwards, Mississippi (click to see 2400 pixel frame) 

Unused Teen Center, 407 West Green Street, Tallulah, Louisiana, December 2016. Fuji GW690II camera.

Unused church in Hermanville, Mississippi, January 2017. Rolleiflex 3.5E camera.

Little Bayou Pierre, Port Gibson, Mississippi, February 2017. Rolleiflex 3.5E with 75mm Xenotar lens.

Port Gibson is the town that General Ulysses Grant did not burn during the U.S. Civil War because he admired the architecture so much. 

Crushing mill, Rte 3, Redwood, Mississippi, 2017. Rolleiflex 3.5E with 75mm Xenotar lens.

This is some sort of early 20th century crushing mill, long abandoned in the woods just off Hwy. 3 in Redwood. This is a 1 sec exposure at f/11. I resized this frame to 2400 pixels, so click the picture to see more detail.

2020s Examples

Private cemetery within Vicksburg National military Park. Rolleiflex 3.5E, yellow-green filter

Closing Notes

Kodak likely discontinued Panatomic-X for several reasons:

• Even by the 1980s, most photographers wanted faster film so that they would not need to use a tripod in low light. 
• Newer T-grain or tabular films like Kodak T-Max or Ilford Delta 100 offered almost as fine grain but with faster speed. (Note: many old-time photographers preferred the genuine Panatomic-X.)
• A friend from Rochester, who has worked with Kodak, said there was a toxic chemical used in the Panatomic-X production (possibly cadmium). I have read the same pertaining to Agfapan 25, so maybe slow fine grain films required some chemical technology that manufacturers cannot use today.

Readers know I like film. One reason is I used film for 50 years and am comfortable with it. Another reason is it has a familiar look that we saw in prints, magazines, exhibits, and movies for decades, and it works well for recording urban decay. The self-professed "experts" (I am trying to be polite) on forums like Dpreview hate film because they think they are so superior with their new super digital capture devices. To each his own. Still, if you have aspirations to be a photographer, you owe it to yourself to use the traditional medium, learn how to calculate exposure manually, and contemplate each picture carefully. You need to think with film; no spray and pray that you might achieve a meaningful "shot." And you cannot chimp (review the pictures on the camera's screen) as you see in tourist sites around the world. Read an interesting interview on The Phoblogger with the Richard Photo Lab about how film is appealing to more and more photographers of all ages and skill levels. Used film cameras are cheap acceptable price and many emulsions are still available - just go do it.

Update March 2019

A reader in Photrio found this 1934 announcement from the British Journal Photographic Almanac. Thank you for the detective work.

Update November 2019

Here are examples of industrial machinery at the abandoned Redstone Quarry in North Conway, New Hampshire. I used my Rolleiflex 3.5F with 5-element 75mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens, all tripod-mounted. Click any picture to see more detail.

Update October 2020

I bought some 35mm Panatomic-X from a seller on eBay. It expired in 1991 and proved to be fine, if possibly more grainy than when new.

Machine shop, Levee Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi (Pentax Spotmatic camera, 28mm ƒ/3.5 Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens)

Please click this link for more examples of this 1991-vintage 35mm Panatomic-X inVicksburg and Louisiana.

Update July 2022

Good news! I bought ten more rolls of 120 Panatomic-X from the same gent who sold me rolls in the 1990s.