Dominick Volini Photography

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The very simplest camera for making pictures is a camera of the fixed focus type. Such cameras require no focusing or estimating of distances, and as they do not have to be opened, are always ready for immediate action.

The Premo Juniors are cameras of this kind and they are even easier in operation than the usual camera of this type, possessing, as they do, the remarkable simplicity of loading and operating provided by the Premo Film Pack.

To make a picture with one of these cameras is a matter of seconds only. The first step is to load the camera, and this is effected in any light by opening the back, dropping in Premo Film Pack and then closing the back.

Second, set the shutter for time or instantaneous exposure as required by the subject. This is accomplished by merely moving a lever up or down.

Then glance at the finder, which reflects the image on a reduced scale, just as it will appear in the finished picture, press a lever and the exposure is made. To change films for successive exposures, pull out successive film pack tabs.

The Premo Juniors are particularly well adapted for the use of boys and girls, by reason of their low cost, substantial construction and simple operation. This does not mean that the camera is not suitable for older people, for there are many grown up amateurs who prefer cameras of this simple type, and are using Premo Juniors with marked success.

For all ordinary work, such as portraiture, snap shots in good light and average landscapes, they are capable of producing very good results. These cameras are all fitted with tested lenses, automatic shutters and horizontal and vertical finders. They are substantially made to withstand hard knocks, covered with imitation leather and attractive in appearance.

The negatives made with these cameras are of such quality as to yield very good enlargements and any amateur can make his own enlargements by use of the Brownie Enlarging Camera

Many amateur photographers are obliged to do their developing in odd corners and under conditions which render the hobby somewhat irksome if a large number of plates have to be treated. The main difficulty is to secure an adequate water supply and to dispose of the waste water. At a small expenditure of money and energy it is easy, however, to rig up a contrivance which, if it does not afford the conveniences of a properly equipped dark room, is in advance of the jug-and-basin arrangement with which one might otherwise have to be content. A strong point in favour of the subject of this chapter is that it can be moved without any trouble if the photographer has to change his quarters.

The foundation, so to speak, of the developing sink is a common wooden washstand of the kind which has a circular hole in the top to hold the basin. A secondhand article of this sort can be purchased for a shilling or two. A thoroughly sound specimen should be selected, even if it is not the cheapest offered, especial attention being paid to its general rigidity and the good condition of the boards surrounding the basin shelf.

A ray of light failing perpendicularly through the air upon a surface of glass or water passes on in a straight line through the body; but if it, in passing from one medium to another of different density, fall obliquely, it is bent from its direct course and recedes from it, either towards the right or left, and this bending is called refraction.  If a ray of light passes from a rarer into a denser medium it is refracted towards a perpendicular in that medium; but if it passes from a denser into rarer it is bent further from a perpendicular in that medium. Owing to this bending of the rays of light the angles of refraction and incidence are never equal.

Transparent bodies differ in their power of bending light–as a general rule, the refractive power is proportioned to the density–but the chemical constitution of bodies as well as their density, is found to effect their refracting power. Inflammable bodies possess this power to a great degree.

The sines of the angle of incidence and refraction (that is, the perpendicular drawn from the extremity of an arc to the diameter of a circle,) are always in the same ratio; viz: from air into water, the sine of the angle of refraction is nearly as four to three, whatever be the position of the ray with respect to the refracting surface. From air into sulphur, the sine of the angle of refraction is as two to one–therefore the rays of light cannot be refracted whenever the sine of the angle of refraction becomes equal to the radius* of a circle, and light falling very obliquely upon a transparent medium ceases to be refracted; this is termed total reflection.

* The RADIUS of a circle is a straight line passing from the center to the circumference.

Since the brightness of a reflected image depends upon the quantity of light, it is quite evident that those images which arise from total reflection are by far the most vivid, as in ordinary cases of reflection a portion of light is absorbed.