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Spiratone and Spiratone Colorflow™ Polarizing Filters


JDMvW

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<p>Hmmm-- in my time (starting in the late 50s) they were a bit north of that--in a 2nd floor space off of Broadway or 6th Avenue, more or less across from Gimbals department store and just east of all the fancier camera stores on W. 32nd Street (Willoughbys , Minifilm, etc.). However their main store, or at least the location from which they ran their mail order business, was on Northern Blvd., just east of Main Street in Flushing Queens. I lived in Queens, and, a few years later attended Queens College, also in Flushing, but public transportation was so bad within Queens that it was much faster to travel to their Manhattan store.</p>

<h2 id="total_reviews"> </h2>

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<p>Several years ago, rising out of an exchange on this site with Jonathan Spira (<a href="/classic-cameras-forum/00VUBt">link</a>), I ended up sending the Spira family pdfs of a set of scans of their magazine ads from 1941 up to the last ads in 1987, when they disappeared from the magazines.</p>

<p>The 306+MB of compressed pdfs that I have of these are a capsule history of photography - showing the initial offers for Mercury camera gear to the range of lenses and accessories that they ended up with. The last few years of their advertising largely looks like the company (no longer in the hands of the Spira family) was simply selling off existing stock from earlier, better days.</p>

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<p>I'm somewhat in awe of the treatise that JDM prepared on the subject of Colorflow (and Colorflow II) filters. <br>

<br />More importantly, I'd like to thank the forum members for their very kind comments about my father. Not to single anyone out but Steve Levine's Henry Ford comment was particularly meaningful because it was not the first time someone made that connection (John Durniak wrote this in Pop Photo in 1979). <br>

<br />Here are two fun trivia facts that relate to the thread:<br>

<br />1.) In addition to the Colorflow filters, there was also Colorflow background paper. (I still use the few sheets of Colorflow background paper that I have - and I would give anything to get my hands on more)<br>

2.) While the company merged with Interphoto (a public company) and ended up out of my father's control at the point at which he left, he still owned the fairly large headquarters building in Flushing and eventually had to evict Spiratone (in Spira v. Spiratone) after the company could no longer pay its bills including rent.</p>

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<p>Here is a Spiratone ad from the Feb 1949 issue of Popular Photography. It is the first month they used just the name Spiratone in an ad.</p>

<p>I noticed they also mentioned the address of their main store as 32-34 Steinway Street, Long Island city. This is the first mention of this address.</p><div>00bNZa-521337784.thumb.jpg.3f8256956f9bc4e56d0b9d02eb1d33f9.jpg</div>

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  • 1 month later...

<blockquote>

<p>A Link is Not a problem for me, anyhow.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Well, in an altogether different sense that is not strictly true. The link I gave above to Hoya filters of this type appears to be a recursive link to this post.<br>

Unfortunately, that filter seems to no longer be offered by Hoya, or I would give a link to them for it.</p>

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  • 4 years later...

Yes, putting a circular polarizer on closest to the lens should work.

 

I am not sure about autofocus, but the anti-aliasing filter uses birefringent materials, which are polarization sensitive.

 

If your image doesn't have things that will be bothered by aliasing, you might get away with a linear polarizer.

-- glen

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Wow - I loved looking through the Spiratone materials back in the day - it was down the street from my Aunt's house and was a key reason that I would accompany my parents to their trips to Queens just so I could go explore the store. I still have some of the processing equipment from them, albeit sitting in storage. Thanks for the great post and historical info.

"It's not what you look at that matters. It's what you see."

-Henry David Thoreau

Bert

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Hello everyone. Waiting for a friend to arrive, I ventured onto this excellent thread by JD. Spiratone was my primary source of "affordable" photo accessories during my army days 63-67. Spec 4 pay was not a Trumper deal. A 400mm Tamron on my Nikon F keep me in sportscar & Gran Prix heaven. Upon discharge, they were the ONLY source of Series 7 filters for the 4x5. Their telephoto lens kit for the YashicaMat EM is still with that camera. . . the filters still in the 4x5 kit.

Thanks for the trip JD ! Aloha, Bill

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  • 5 months later...
<p>I'm somewhat in awe of the treatise that JDM prepared on the subject of Colorflow (and Colorflow II) filters. <br>

<br />More importantly, I'd like to thank the forum members for their very kind comments about my father. Not to single anyone out but Steve Levine's Henry Ford comment was particularly meaningful because it was not the first time someone made that connection (John Durniak wrote this in Pop Photo in 1979). <br>

<br />Here are two fun trivia facts that relate to the thread:<br>

<br />1.) In addition to the Colorflow filters, there was also Colorflow background paper. (I still use the few sheets of Colorflow background paper that I have - and I would give anything to get my hands on more)<br>

2.) While the company merged with Interphoto (a public company) and ended up out of my father's control at the point at which he left, he still owned the fairly large headquarters building in Flushing and eventually had to evict Spiratone (in Spira v. Spiratone) after the company could no longer pay its bills including rent.</p>

<p>time out error, sorry</p>
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So, if the description above is true and accurate, it would be possible to remove the magenta filter and effectively have an "any colour" filter all in one. Right?

 

Add a built-in linear pol layer with rotating mount, and all other colour filters are redundant! Spiratone (and Vivitar) were sneaky not to decimate their market by making such a filter.

 

A pity that digital and PS have now replaced optical ingenuity.

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<p>Hmmm-- in my time (starting in the late 50s) they were a bit north of that--in a 2nd floor space off of Broadway or 6th Avenue, more or less across from Gimbals department store and just east of all the fancier camera stores on W. 32nd Street (Willoughbys , Minifilm, etc.). However their main store, or at least the location from which they ran their mail order business, was on Northern Blvd., just east of Main Street in Flushing Queens. I lived in Queens, and, a few years later attended Queens College, also in Flushing, but public transportation was so bad within Queens that it was much faster to travel to their Manhattan store.</p>

<h2 id="total_reviews"> </h2>

 

I believe that you are describing Olden Camera. Spiratone was on 27th Street, as has been mentioned.

 

There was also a closeout sort of store on Herald Square called Camera Barn. All sorts of odd stuff to be found there.

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<p>Hmmm-- in my time (starting in the late 50s) they were a bit north of that--in a 2nd floor space off of Broadway or 6th Avenue, more or less across from Gimbals department store and just east of all the fancier camera stores on W. 32nd Street (Willoughbys , Minifilm, etc.). However their main store, or at least the location from which they ran their mail order business, was on Northern Blvd., just east of Main Street in Flushing Queens. I lived in Queens, and, a few years later attended Queens College, also in Flushing, but public transportation was so bad within Queens that it was much faster to travel to their Manhattan store.</p>

<h2 id="total_reviews"> </h2>

 

I believe that you are describing Olden Camera; Spiratone was on 27th Street, as has been mentioned.

 

There was also a "closeout" sort of store on Herald Square called Camera Barn. A really chaotic sort of place with all sort of things for sale.

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