I would love some insight on which commonly-available 6x8 cameras were being used in the early 1950's in America.
Here's the backstory:
I was looking in a drawer in my grandparents' house over Thanksgiving and found an inch-thick stack of 6x8 negatives that my now 97-year-old grandfather took of my mom when she was under 2 years old (along with my grandma and surrounding events), which puts them at about 1952-3. My grandpa was never, in my experience, a person who cared about photography per se, and now has dementia. I asked my grandma about them and the camera he might have used and she swears that they never had a "nice" camera and would likely have used whichever consumer camera was widely available at the time. He was a newly-minted civil engineer in his mid-late 20's (or maybe 30, having served in the merchant marines during the war) working on the construction of the Garrison Dam in North Dakota.
There are no peculiarities about the borders of the images that are obvious to me, except that some have corners that are slightly more rounded off than others, possibly indicating that he used 2 different cameras. Occasional light leaks that extend farther than just the top and bottom edge, but nothing consistent.
Even though I'd find it interesting to know what camera(s) he was using, the negatives are the real treasure to me, and my heart skipped a beat when I found them resting there. I'm starting to scan them to share them with my grandparents so I can learn a little more about that period in their lives. Maybe it will spur some memories in him and help my grandma, who I fear is suffering more than he with his disease.
Here's the backstory:
I was looking in a drawer in my grandparents' house over Thanksgiving and found an inch-thick stack of 6x8 negatives that my now 97-year-old grandfather took of my mom when she was under 2 years old (along with my grandma and surrounding events), which puts them at about 1952-3. My grandpa was never, in my experience, a person who cared about photography per se, and now has dementia. I asked my grandma about them and the camera he might have used and she swears that they never had a "nice" camera and would likely have used whichever consumer camera was widely available at the time. He was a newly-minted civil engineer in his mid-late 20's (or maybe 30, having served in the merchant marines during the war) working on the construction of the Garrison Dam in North Dakota.
There are no peculiarities about the borders of the images that are obvious to me, except that some have corners that are slightly more rounded off than others, possibly indicating that he used 2 different cameras. Occasional light leaks that extend farther than just the top and bottom edge, but nothing consistent.
Even though I'd find it interesting to know what camera(s) he was using, the negatives are the real treasure to me, and my heart skipped a beat when I found them resting there. I'm starting to scan them to share them with my grandparents so I can learn a little more about that period in their lives. Maybe it will spur some memories in him and help my grandma, who I fear is suffering more than he with his disease.