Omaha Beach Photo Mystery

mountainspruce said:
Thanks for the replies. These high resolution photos hold a lot of historical details one can't see in some of the lower resolution images. The detail is amazing. I didn't see that other M1 carbine in plastic until you mentioned it, cheers!
Click to expand...

The joy of 4x5" sheet film negatives. I still shoot the stuff occasionally and it is SHARP.
 
Yeah, those old Speed Graphics were/are really the cat's meow. I have one here that works just fine; it has a bit of vibration damage to the leather cover, this from slopping around in a low-level Lancaster doing bomb-damage-asessment runs the 'morning after'. Fellow who owned it and sold it to me carried it so he could take his own war pictures! He got away with it because he was in the photo section!

PLIOFILM sounds very much as if it is related to CELLOPHANE, which is that crinkly stuff the smokes and candy used to come wrapped in. There's another Google search for someone.

Cellulose-based plastics were the first and could be made into all kinds of interesting things: stand-up collars, corset stiffeners, faux ivory (when coloured white)...... and an interesting substance called 'smokeless gunpowder'. Imagine that!

It all started in 1846 when Mr. Prettylegs (Schoenbein) came up with what he called "cotton powder": nitrocellulose. The entire world's chemical/explosive/military apparat fell all over themselves trying to make it work better, but it took 39 years for Paul Vieille to make it practical as a propellant, then Abel and Dewar improved it a couple years later. Good base for movie film, too, BTW, even if a little bit explosive. Hmmm...... maybe that has something to do with SAFETY FILM.... which doesn't explode.

But the old-timers weren't as backwards as most of us seem to assume.
.
 
Nitrocellulose films aren't explosive, but they do burn quite violently. Unfortunately they don't have the best archival longevity either compared to modern cellulose acetate (safety) films.

Glass plate emulsions are also a treat. Very sharp as they lie perfectly flat, unlike film. I have a few pre-WWI (not WWII) plate cameras that I sometimes shoot with sheet film using special adapters. People would be surprised just how excellent they are with modern film. My Voigtlander with the Skopar lens is SHARP.
 
Ah, my favorite conspiracy theory : this shouldn't have been in the photo. From 911, to the moon landing, to the bayeux tapestry, to people squinting at cave paintings and claiming they see pictures of aliens. It never gets old.
People are so desperate for controversy, that if a college student drops a roach on a dig site, suddenly cave men smoked dope. Neat picture though.
 
5440fight said:
Ah, my favorite conspiracy theory : this shouldn't have been in the photo. From 911, to the moon landing, to the bayeux tapestry, to people squinting at cave paintings and claiming they see pictures of aliens. It never gets old.
People are so desperate for controversy, that if a college student drops a roach on a dig site, suddenly cave men smoked dope. Neat picture though.
Click to expand...

ha:ha:ha:f:P:2:ha:ha:ha:f:P:
 
I see this one has already been well covered.

I have heard people question the filmmakers of Saving Private Ryan but as the photo shows they were correct.

These covers are well documented pieces of kit. I'm not a scientist but many WW2 items look very similar to what is now considered "plastic" at least to me. Here's a couple more shots of the waterproof covers for pistols:

DSCF0538.jpg


DSCF0520.jpg


DSCF0521.jpg


These are still widely available as surplus in unissued condition from WW2.

-Steve
 
OMG!!! You mean it WASN'T the CIA???????

Maybe it was the Commies!

BTW, nice weapons bags.

_._ _,_ _._ _._ _._

British Army up along the NW Frontier used to try to have a movie once a week, but the things kept going 'missing in action'. Locals were stealing the things and chopping them up, dumping the stuff into a re-primed .303 casing and shooting it at their neighbours. Worked.

On a more fun note, some of those hand-finished lenses seem to be just as good as what the machines are turning out today..... and they had NOTHING for coatings! Voigtlander, of course, definitely takes the cake: fine lenses ever since the very first one that Max Petzval put together. I don't have any European cameras from that period, although I do treasure a 1938 Praktica 35mm SLR. Works beautifully, even with that little 5cm lens.... and my 100 fits it!

You can have a lot of fun at night with a gun and a camera at the same time. Slow powders and light bullets can combine with a looooong shutter speed to give some neat shots.
.
 
5440fight said:
Ah, my favorite conspiracy theory : this shouldn't have been in the photo. From 911, to the moon landing, to the bayeux tapestry, to people squinting at cave paintings and claiming they see pictures of aliens. It never gets old.
People are so desperate for controversy, that if a college student drops a roach on a dig site, suddenly cave men smoked dope. Neat picture though.
Click to expand...

I heard the Bayeux tapestry actually fortells the invasion of Normandy.... :p

2007-10-27_091302_1aCoffee.gif

NAA.
 
Could you actually shoot the rifle with the bag on? Or were you just a target for the MG34 and MG42's while holding your bagged rifle?
 
So long as the actual muzzle isn't obstructed, you can fire the rifle with the bag over it and not hurt the rifle.

Be prepared, however, for some crap from the bag coming aft into your face when you do it; the bag shreds pretty thoroughly when subjected to an expanding gas cloud that started off at 50,000 PSI, only a millisecond ago.

I have done it and I do NOT recommend that you try it without safety glasses. Serious.
.
 
smellie said:
OMG!!! You mean it WASN'T the CIA???????

Maybe it was the Commies!

BTW, nice weapons bags.

_._ _,_ _._ _._ _._

British Army up along the NW Frontier used to try to have a movie once a week, but the things kept going 'missing in action'. Locals were stealing the things and chopping them up, dumping the stuff into a re-primed .303 casing and shooting it at their neighbours. Worked.

On a more fun note, some of those hand-finished lenses seem to be just as good as what the machines are turning out today..... and they had NOTHING for coatings! Voigtlander, of course, definitely takes the cake: fine lenses ever since the very first one that Max Petzval put together. I don't have any European cameras from that period, although I do treasure a 1938 Praktica 35mm SLR. Works beautifully, even with that little 5cm lens.... and my 100 fits it!

You can have a lot of fun at night with a gun and a camera at the same time. Slow powders and light bullets can combine with a looooong shutter speed to give some neat shots.
.
Click to expand...

Best camera I ever owned was a 6x6 Rolleiflex from the 1940's. A delight to use before I went digital ;)
 
smellie said:
On a more fun note, some of those hand-finished lenses seem to be just as good as what the machines are turning out today..... and they had NOTHING for coatings! Voigtlander, of course, definitely takes the cake: fine lenses ever since the very first one that Max Petzval put together. I don't have any European cameras from that period, although I do treasure a 1938 Praktica 35mm SLR. Works beautifully, even with that little 5cm lens.... and my 100 fits it!

You can have a lot of fun at night with a gun and a camera at the same time. Slow powders and light bullets can combine with a looooong shutter speed to give some neat shots.
.
Click to expand...

Have you got a Red Dot Artar?;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom