Post by PeterW on Oct 23, 2009 18:26:30 GMT -5
Hi all,
Those of you with long service and long memories may remember I said some time ago that way back in February 1978 I went with a few other journalists to Timmins in northern Canada to cover some cold start and cold running trials by Leyland Trucks.
I thought that as it was a commissioned job all the negatives had gone to the publishers. But today I was sorting through boxes of old negs and found some from the trip that were never published. They're not, perhaps, the best of the five rolls I shot to describe what went on but I thought you might like to see some of them.
We'd been warned to expect night-time temperatures of about minus 42 or 43 degrees C and daytime shade temperatures about minus 15 to minus 18 degrees C. I'd heard stories about battery dependent cameras stopping working after about 10 minutes at minus 40 because the batteries wouldn't deliver, so I wondered what camera to take.
In the end I reasoned that as Russia made cameras to operate in similar temperatures perhaps one would be a good bet. I went to Technical and Optical Equipment in London who at that time imported all Russian cameras, and asked their advice.
I spoke with one of the Russian technichians there who said a Kiev was probably the best bet so I tried one in the shop. Then he said he would like to 'winterise' it for me. I called in about a week later and saw the same guy. When I tried the camera I was very pleased. It felt like a different camera. I won't say it was as smooth as my pre-war Contax II but it wasn't far short.
I asked what he had done and was told he'd taken it apart, cleaned out all the old Yak oil and grease (his term!), replaced a few parts that didn't fit quite as well as they should do, screwed it all back together properly the way it should have been done at the factory and relubricated it with very low temperature lubricants.
I got a bit of good natured ribbing on the plane on the way over, things like "How often do you have to trim the wick on that antique", but in the end I had the last laugh. When the other journalists' battery driven SLRs slowed down and stopped my "ancient technology" Kiev carried on without missing a beat. I was also pleased that the FP4 I was using stayed flexible at low temperatures. I used the Kiev some time later in the Sahara desert, and it coped equally well with mid-day scorching temperatures. It's still working well and smoothly 31 years later.
Anyway, here's a few of the pictures I found. If I come across any more I'll post them.
Inside the control cabin at around 3am, minus 39 degrees C. The Leyland guy is monitoring loads of sensors connected to the trucks to record things like cranking speed, time taken to start and so on. Half a second at f/2 with my elbows braced on the back of a chiar.
Same subject but I moved round a little to get what I think is a better shot.
Ready for the road trials next morning. Shade temperature about minus 12 to minus 15 degrees C.
Long cold walk. One of the guys thought he'd walk up the small hill to get a picture of the truck climbing on the ice. He had to move out of the way to let the truck past, and fell into a snowdrift up to his waist. But he did get his picture.
The plane that took us back to Toronto. No idea what make or model. The pilots who flew in and out of Timmins thought nothing of landing and taking off on an ice and snow covered airfield. So long as the snowploughs cleared enough room for them they were happy. I suppose they were used to it.
PeterW
Those of you with long service and long memories may remember I said some time ago that way back in February 1978 I went with a few other journalists to Timmins in northern Canada to cover some cold start and cold running trials by Leyland Trucks.
I thought that as it was a commissioned job all the negatives had gone to the publishers. But today I was sorting through boxes of old negs and found some from the trip that were never published. They're not, perhaps, the best of the five rolls I shot to describe what went on but I thought you might like to see some of them.
We'd been warned to expect night-time temperatures of about minus 42 or 43 degrees C and daytime shade temperatures about minus 15 to minus 18 degrees C. I'd heard stories about battery dependent cameras stopping working after about 10 minutes at minus 40 because the batteries wouldn't deliver, so I wondered what camera to take.
In the end I reasoned that as Russia made cameras to operate in similar temperatures perhaps one would be a good bet. I went to Technical and Optical Equipment in London who at that time imported all Russian cameras, and asked their advice.
I spoke with one of the Russian technichians there who said a Kiev was probably the best bet so I tried one in the shop. Then he said he would like to 'winterise' it for me. I called in about a week later and saw the same guy. When I tried the camera I was very pleased. It felt like a different camera. I won't say it was as smooth as my pre-war Contax II but it wasn't far short.
I asked what he had done and was told he'd taken it apart, cleaned out all the old Yak oil and grease (his term!), replaced a few parts that didn't fit quite as well as they should do, screwed it all back together properly the way it should have been done at the factory and relubricated it with very low temperature lubricants.
I got a bit of good natured ribbing on the plane on the way over, things like "How often do you have to trim the wick on that antique", but in the end I had the last laugh. When the other journalists' battery driven SLRs slowed down and stopped my "ancient technology" Kiev carried on without missing a beat. I was also pleased that the FP4 I was using stayed flexible at low temperatures. I used the Kiev some time later in the Sahara desert, and it coped equally well with mid-day scorching temperatures. It's still working well and smoothly 31 years later.
Anyway, here's a few of the pictures I found. If I come across any more I'll post them.
Inside the control cabin at around 3am, minus 39 degrees C. The Leyland guy is monitoring loads of sensors connected to the trucks to record things like cranking speed, time taken to start and so on. Half a second at f/2 with my elbows braced on the back of a chiar.
Same subject but I moved round a little to get what I think is a better shot.
Ready for the road trials next morning. Shade temperature about minus 12 to minus 15 degrees C.
Long cold walk. One of the guys thought he'd walk up the small hill to get a picture of the truck climbing on the ice. He had to move out of the way to let the truck past, and fell into a snowdrift up to his waist. But he did get his picture.
The plane that took us back to Toronto. No idea what make or model. The pilots who flew in and out of Timmins thought nothing of landing and taking off on an ice and snow covered airfield. So long as the snowploughs cleared enough room for them they were happy. I suppose they were used to it.
PeterW