paulc

My heartfelt thanks to Kelly, Pete, Chris and Al (and anyone else I've mistakenly missed) for all your contributions.

First, Kelly, thanks for the great photo, it looks like indoor portraits were meant to be shot at 1/5 to 1/10th at 3.5 and it got worse from there if you wanted more depth of field. You're right, the lenses weren't very fast, at least not the 1937 Kodak Vollenda (with a 3.5 lens or 4.5 lens) or the Kodak Six-16 which came with either a 4.5 or a 6.3 lens.

I'll need to educate myself to understand more about the conversions, or rather, the lack of conversions. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface, my thanks to each of you.

This question came out of preservation research, I've been looking for late 1920s to 1940 interior photos showing lighting fixtures used in HI so we can restore several employee quarters built in that time period here in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. After fruitlessly looking in the obvious places (arch drawings, photos in our own archives and building completion reports) I moved on to local magazines, books by period photographers and so on to look for photos of light fixtures. Of course, lots of outdoor photos and an almost complete lack of indoor photography--except by professionals for advertising and by the very wealthy who could afford the tools.

I've found enough examples of period lighting fixtures now to recommend what is appropriate for "our" quarters and chose from various catalogs. Could have gone to the catalogs first, however, these quarters were built by the C.C.C. so they're special, and light fixtures available here weren't necessarily from the continental USA.

Finally, in Jauanary 1942, the military governor banned photography of coastlines, harbors, installations, military machinery and tools, photography from airplanes, Etc. so the pros went into portraiture and everybody else put their cameras away for the duration.

Again, thanks to each of you for your help.

Paul

David, you've hit on a likely solution: we STILL wander around in dazed wonder and all that rich, thick light probably just smothers any sensitivity of film for speed. Probably ought to invent a filter to take out a little of the island's natural beauty. Ah, well, then it'd be a problem to remember where I put the filter and to use it.

And, Conrad, thank you very much for your excellent information, the numbers do seem high for ASAs, though I'm prepared to be surprised. I'll check a search engine for "Focal Encyclopedia" and dig some more.

Gratefully,

Paul

Thanks very much, Art, the Kodak sites have quite a lot of good information on cameras and even discontinues films, however, not much on early film speeds. It may be as you note, that ASAs came later on. Have also been looking at magazine advertisements for the period with similiar results. Thanks again for your help,

Paul

Does anyone know what the ASAs were for Kodak films in the late 1920s

to 1940? It sounds like film sensitivity increased in 1930, because

of technical improvements. I'm researching photos in Hawaii during

this period and find lots of exterior shots but very few interior

photos. I suspect it may be due to limitations of the film and

availablility of cameras with flash/bulb connections, however, that's

only a guess. Anybody want to comment?

With thanks,