Cool WWII Pictures, Very Sharp!

Kodachrome and large format cameras make a huge difference in the sharpness.

I miss Kodachrome, there really is no other film like it.
 
wsuffa said:
Kodachrome and large format cameras make a huge difference in the sharpness.

I miss Kodachrome, there really is no other film like it.
Click to expand...

That and low ISO and longer shutter speeds. The average news photographer of the period didn't have these luxuries. That's why we think of WWII as being black and white, grainy and kind of fuzzy. That's what it took to capture the real action with the tech they had. That's why as cool as all the pictures are (and I do think they are very cool!) they are all professionally staged for the camera.

Wars now are covered with Go Pros attached to everything in HD and soon I expect in 4K.
 
Large format Kodachrome probably. Posed yes but not faked
 
Dav8or said:
That and low ISO and longer shutter speeds. The average news photographer of the period didn't have these luxuries. That's why we think of WWII as being black and white, grainy and kind of fuzzy. That's what it took to capture the real action with the tech they had. That's why as cool as all the pictures are (and I do think they are very cool!) they are all professionally staged for the camera.

Wars now are covered with Go Pros attached to everything in HD and soon I expect in 4K.
Click to expand...

Oh, yes, many/most of them are posed, but that doesn't make them fake. Hard to pose the planes that are in the air, though.

Kodachrome ISO/ASA 25 was fine in bright sunlight with the shutter speeds of the time. 64 was even better. For most publications, the print media and process were the limiting factor, not the film/camera.

I've got plenty of photos (hundreds, in fact) that my dad took in the 40's using a simple Argus C3 & many are perfectly fine quality. The news photographer cameras were better. These are not as crisp as a modern digital camera, but they're plenty good.
 
wsuffa said:
Kodachrome and large format cameras make a huge difference in the sharpness.

I miss Kodachrome, there really is no other film like it.
Click to expand...

I used to do a lot of outdoor shooting with an old Mamiya C330 TLR using 120 film. The results just blew away anything from a 35mm camera.
 
Bill Jennings said:
I used to do a lot of outdoor shooting with an old Mamiya C330 TLR using 120 film. The results just blew away anything from a 35mm camera.
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No question. Less enlargement means better quality. The older 35mm lenses were not nearly as good as the large format, especially around the edges.
 
I believe they are genuine. There were excellent cameras during WW 2 and Life magazine collections show what great color photos there were. Hard to fake a Martin Marauder as I don't think any currently are operational. Hollywood directors also filmed in war zones in moving picture color that was very good.
 
OK, moving the discussion from photography to airplanes: The B-26 Maurader "Ginger" has six ducks painted on the nose as if it had been (successfully) duck hunting.

What do the ducks signify?

-Skip
 
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I think they signify decoy missions, e.g. they might fly a group of bombers someplace as a decoy to draw fighters away while the real mission occurs at a different location.
 
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