Percy Smiths' 100 yr old macro doco on SBS last night

[hotspur (Chris)]

Anyone else see this amazing doco on SBS one last night,not sure the title,but saw most of program,which basically was about the pioneering camera/filming techniques from around the Edwardian times (around 100 yrs ago),dedicated to natural history.The English chap,named Percy Smith
started out with doing macro imaging on flys/insects,the gear he had was very cumbersome looking-but beautiful looking-the engineering in these cameras-and the lighting used-a bit dangerous,with gas powering lighting-but the vintage lighting box featured on the program-was 'to die for' so gorgeous-copper/brass fittings with wooden housing and mirrors/glass inside.

Percy,really did pioneer 'time lapse' or as he called it 'speed magnification',he went on to film mould/plant activity etc,the program featured Sir D.A and his out look on Percy Smiths' work.Those that may have watched I am sure would have felt it good viewing,think SBS one-has a site -might be able to watch it again.

I wonder if there is a program similar on Edwardian times astronomy,showing the gear,and techniques used from those times-would certainly be good to see something like that.

[Wavytone]

It's available online (iView)

http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video...nsects-On-Film

Watching it now, it's awesome !

[hotspur (Chris)]

Originally Posted by Wavytone

It's available online (iView)

http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video...nsects-On-Film

Watching it now, it's awesome !

Great!,thanks for the link,I think there are many dedicated macro photographers on this site,and lab technicians I know that would find this amazing-well worth watching.

It was interesting to see the best macro photography gear that is now currently available being used today,doing similar style shots as Percy did,and the results he got back then compared with today's was very similar-well done Percy Smith-an amazing natural history photographer/cinematographer.

[AdrianF (Adrian)]

Watched it last night thought it was good. Especially how Percy managed to do the time lapse of the tendrils.

Adrian