A Leica IIIc in Japan, 1949, with Kodachrome

Maiku said:
The photo titled School Scene is an event at an elementary school`s Sports Day. They still play the exact same game today on Sports Day. Nothing ever changes in Japan.
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Maiku - What are they playing? I would very much like to know. I plan on printing all of these as a folio in a box for family members and it would be great to have an explanation I can include with the print.
 
Tom A said:
Thanks for putting those Kodachromes up. The quality is still amazing, even after long time. They must have been stored reasonably well as there seems to be very little damage to them.
Now, if he had been shooting digital - wonder if they would have held up so well after 60+ years.
Eagerly awaiting the result of your next scanning session.
Click to expand...

Tom - They were all in Airequipt magazines which were in a briefcase. I've had Vuescan do a light cleaning. I need to go back and do some more cleaning manually but they are looking pretty good.

Looking at the colors just blows me away. Mama, they took my Kodachrome away! 🙁
 
Bingley said:
Thanks for posting and please post more!

Are you shooting with the IIIc and Summitar? (I hope).
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I've not been shooting film lately, largely because I've not had a good scanning workflow, particularly for 35mm. Now I do. I just bought a PrimeFilm 7200 (same as Reflecta ProScan 7200) and I've been extremely happy with the results.

I will be shooting with it more now. My grandfather's IIIc brought me to RFF in 2004. I had been shooting digital since 1998. The shutter in the IIIc had given up the ghost in 1976 and it had sat on a shelf until a friend, who had a M6, took it off the shelf and suggested I get it fixed. "You mean it can still take good pictures?" said I. I cleaned it off the next day and loaded some film in it and had a blast. Unfortunately, the shutter curtains were toast and it was a little longer before those were replaced but I ended up here looking for information on the IIIc. Here and at Cameraquest. I was saved! Then the Zorkis and Feds moved in and it's been downhill ever since.
 
David Murphy said:
Wow - I can't wait to see the rest!
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Neither can I! Looking at them in a little viewer doesn't really reveal what is there. The sunlight scenes are mostly properly exposed but that throws the shadow areas into blackness when holding the slide up to the light. The PrimeFilm 7200 allows multiple passes. 3 passes seems to work well. I move it into Lightroom 5 and move that Shadow slider over and HOLY MOLY! Blown away again! It is in Lightroom that I am really seeing these pictures for the first time.

But seeing them in prints is amazing. I printed the scene with the kids lined up in front of the guy with blue box on his bicycle as a 14x 21 and it is mesmerizing. I can just stand there looking at all the faces. And the colors!! Did I mention the colors?

If anyone has a clue what those kids are doing I would really like to know.

I can scan about 4 a day and there are about 20 left to do.
 
Tom A said:
Now, if he had been shooting digital - wonder if they would have held up so well after 60+ years.

Of course not! If you were lucky enough to actually find the location of the files they'd probably be on a device that was no longer compatible...let alone readable.

Syquest anyone?
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I added 4 more scans. Two are of my grandfather in a kimono but are woefully underexposed. They will take more adjustmens They can be seen here: http://gordoncoale.500px.com/my_grandfather_s_photos. Here is one of new scans:

Scan-130827-0003.jpg
 
A sad note for me is that in 1956 a classmate that his father was transferred to Japan was killed. In Junior High school that friend, Larry Layfield, was killed flying a model plane in his back yard in Japan, when the plane hit electric wires and with the metal controls the electricity traveled back to him. I suspect his father was in the Air Force and living near Ellington Field in Houston military, families were transferred around the world after living in the district. It was the first time I had experienced death as a 12 year old student as the news was later passed down to us at the school.

The connection to being in Japan after the War is what brought the memory back to me.

My father also took color slides during that time rather than photographs and most were 25 ASA and they still hold their color. After both of my parents passed I loved looking at those color slides of the 50's - 60's.
Joe
 
Help! I'm missing something--I can't figure out how to get the thumbnails out of the way so I can see the entire images. The thumbnails are in the center of my screen, with a larger photo behind them. When I click on a thumbnail, the background image changes to the one on which I clicked, but the thumbnails are still there in the center of the screen. Help please, for these appear to be a treat to view.

Keith Fleming
Port Townsend, WA
 
Keith Fleming said:
Help! I'm missing something--I can't figure out how to get the thumbnails out of the way so I can see the entire images. The thumbnails are in the center of my screen, with a larger photo behind them. When I click on a thumbnail, the background image changes to the one on which I clicked, but the thumbnails are still there in the center of the screen. Help please, for these appear to be a treat to view.

Keith Fleming
Port Townsend, WA
Click to expand...

When you click on a thumbnail it should enlarge full screen and then you can use the left and right arrows to move to the next image.
 
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