Re: C&S Narrow Gauge in Color

Posted by Jim Courtney on May 09, 2016; 6:38pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/C-S-Narrow-Gauge-in-Color-tp5158p5179.html

Yeah Jeff,

Most everything I've found has been previously published, most in out of print books.  I got tired of trying to remember where each one was located, so thought I'd just put them all together here.

When I've scanned and resized the color images, I've been struck by the fuzzy quality of the images, not the sharp clarity of the black and white photo we usually discuss here, even the Otto Perry photos from the late teens and early twenties.

Then I remembered that all of these photos were taken in the year prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor!

Our photographers were using the earliest, mass-produced commercially available color film of the time (print film vs color transparencies?).  The very low ASA (boy, there is a term that has become obsolete in my lifetime) of those films likely required very fast shutter speeds to avoid even the slightest movement artifact and/or wide apertures which created depth of field problems. There was probably a learning curve involved for the rail-fan photographers of the day, who were used to faster panchromatic B&W film stock.

Anyone know what color film was available in 1940-1941?  An early version of Kodachrome? An AGFA product, perhaps? I don't think Ectachrome was marketed until the 1950s.