Beat up old Super -XX

Super - XX, something in a tree, a lake house and today. <a

href="http://westfordcomp.com/classics/shurshotjunior/index.htm">Shur

-Shot Junior <a/>

The picture of the dog looking up the tree appears to have been

taken on the same property as the large estate. Look how the

lower branches are pruned on the pine tres in both photos. I can

imagine that this could be someones summer home as it is on

the water. I wonder what their other house looks like. The photos

were probubly taken by a young lad. Usualy when you give a kid

a camera the first thing they do is find the family dog. The other

photo, same kid goofing around in the row boat with his dad, and

dad sugest a photo of the summer home before vacation is over

and it will be time for school for the boy and dads days will be

spent on wall street. Perhaps he planed to finish the film the

following summer. But thats when dad gave in and bought him

TWO liecas. One black and one chrome.

Damn ! I believe you're right Conrad.

Inspiring. I have one of these cameras. I bought it at a local junk shop thinking it didn't have a lens and would be a good candidate for turning into a pinhole. Then, I discovered that the lens was behind the shutter. Couldn't quite bring myself to violate the integrity of the thing, so it has been sitting on a shelf in our atrium cabinet for a couple years. Maybe I'll run some film through it.

And what famous photographer did the young boy in a rowboat

become?

Conrad ...You think it's possible ?

Its all there on the film.

Was Super XX renamed Verichrome Pan after the introduction of Tri X? The speed of Super XX was 100 as I remember.

What a fascinating comparison between the tobacco-barn pictures shown here taken with a Shur-Shot, and the tobacco-barn pictures you published yesterday, taken from the very same position, but with the Diacord. The Diacord pictures are as crisp and contrasty as pictures taken with any high-end contemporary camera. But these Shur-Shot pictures have an old-timey character reminiscent of the photos taken by my grandparents, that I thought could never be replicated today. Wouldn't it be fun to dress up some of your relatives in old-time costumes, and take their pictures with a camera like the Shur-Shot, and then see if other relatives could recognize them. What a great practical joke that would be!

Speaking of Super XX, I scanned this photo for the first time this past week. The man with the Super XX box is a retired English photographer friend who traveled in Europe with me and my friend (his cousin)in 1958. Believe this shot was taken in Germany. Maybe someone could explain what that Super XX box was doing on the sidewalk.<div></div>

CHARLES

 

Super XX was ASA 200. I think the introduction of Tri-X killed the market for Super XX.

 

TOM

 

One of the great features of old cameras is their ability to add character to a photo.

LESTER

 

Excellent shot. Looks like Bob Newheart.

Hello,

 

I love to see your presentations Gene. Have not missed one in the last couple months. Always very interesting. How do you get so much stuff up in so short time? Do you develope the film and scan the negatives or ??. Sorry if you've answered this already, I haven't been watching this forum for long enough, I suppose.

 

Anyways, great work. Thanks for the snow photos. Where I live we don't get much and having grown up in the foothills of the Rockie Mt's, I miss it.

Super-XX was made in sheet sizes into the 1990s. I have part of a box of 8x10" in the freezer that expired 10/1994. I'm saving it for some special landscape project. Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee bought out the last of the stock.

Maybe the Leica is the rich mans sure-shot,sorry different thread.

Charles wrote - The speed of Super XX was 100 as I remember.

 

Gene replied - Super XX was ASA 200.

 

My 1951 Kodak Photoguide says it (or Super-XX Panchromatic) had an exposure index of 100 for daylight and 80 for tungsten.

 

I bring this up not to be picky or to poke at anyone, but because I got the photoguide hoping that it would help me determine the GN of old flashes that list films rather than film speeds on the boxes. ( as well as to have a classic - pre '70s - guide to go with my classic cameras.) Did the speed of the film change over the years; is Super-XX Pan the same thing as Super-XX; or, should I contuine to trust my photoguide?

Talk about LATENT IMAGE.

An Ansco Shur Shot Jr was my first camera. It'd been my mothers. Still have it and the original box it came in and even most of the negatives she made with it in the late 1940's and 1950's! But somewhere a second one came around, don't remember just were. And since they're both identical I can't tell which was the original one any more. It was the only camera I had until I was in college. This photo was made with it in 1972.

 

Paul, somewhere I've got an instruction manual for an old Weston Master IV light meter. There was a table of films listed which showed Tri-X as 200, but there was an asterisk to a comment which was to the effect that in 1960 pending revision to the ASA scale would effectively double the rating of most films.

 

I always had the impression that in the beginning there was a Super-X film, which was improved to Super-XX, which was improved to Super-XXX or Tri-X.<div></div>

Tri-X in sheet film was around in the 1940's. Tri-X in roll film and TRIX the cereal both arrived in 1954. Before 1954; Super-XX was the most popular "FAST" film for Bantum and 35mm. After 1954; tri-x was the king in 35mm; and Super-XX discontinued later in 35mm. Super-XX existed for at least 2 decades in sheet film. In had a straight nice DlogE curve in the middle; GREAT for color separation negatives.

There was some time in the 1950s, I think, when ASA standards changed, and all films were uprated one stop. The box speed of Super-XX was ASA 200 at least since the late 1960s. It was always one stop slower than Tri-X. Pan-X was the slowest, then Plus-X, then Super-XX, and then Tri-X.

 

Double-X, which is not the same as Super-XX, is a 200 speed B&W cine film that's still made. You can shoot it in 35mm as a still film.

Neat, Gene. Even the shots you made look period. More time travel experiments?

 

Back to the dog, I think kids really do take all the family dog photos. Their first willing/unwitting subject. When I was a kid, if I couldn't find something special (which was common), I went looking for the dog. I was a film burner back then too. Almost anything would do. Same as now, I guess.

 

Thanks for another great look back.

SCOT TREMBLAY

 

I scan negatives on an Epson 3200. I process film and prints myself. I always have a few cameras in my truck. I take photos on the way to work in the morning and I always reserve several hours each weekend to take photographs. It's good for my soul and passes the time until spring when I can persue my other passion which is bass fishing.

 

I'm delighted that you enjoy my photos.

Super-XX didn't change. The film rating system did, around 1960 give or take a couple years. The effect of the ASA rating change was that most B&W films got a 100% boost in their rated speed; Verichrome Pan changed from 64 to 125, Super-XX from 100 to 200, and Tri-X from 200 to 400 (a few of these were old enough to have moved up 1/3 stop in an earlier change of testing methods from the Kodak method to the ASA method). Royal-X Pan was originally ASA 640, I believe, and changed to 1250 with the rating change.

Todd, that is a very impressive result from a cardboard camera. Guess I really do need to dust off mine and get some film in it.

Yes, there was a Super-X film in the 1930's. Back when all 35mm cartridges were black. They are labeled "SX PANCHRO". At the same time when there was Panatomic film (no X).

 

The H-D characteristic curves of Super-XX sheet film are very different from the 35mm miniature and the rollfilm versions of Super-XX. Only the sheet film has the "very straight" curve which was so loved.

 

Super-XX is grainy, to say the least.