Most photos on this site have been indexed by reporting mark. Work is nearly complete in adding remaining old, unclassified photos to the index.
July 11 update: Major update completed! After a trip to Ontario, I came home with many, many photos to be uploaded. A total of 574 photos have been added, with a few more to come.
Photos Classified by Reporting Mark
- Other Photo Galleries -
Yards
BCR
yard in Fort St. John, British Columbia, 2004
BCR
yard in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, 2004
CN
yard in Jasper, Alberta, 2004
CP
Quebec St. yard in London, Ontario, 2003-2005
KPR
facilities, Vernon, British Columbia, 2004
MMA/Iron
Roads yard in Newport, Vermont, 2003
Excursions and
Museums
Montreal-Delson
Steam Excursion, CP H-1b 4-6-4 #2816, June 10, 2004
Canadian
Railway Museum (Exporail) at Delson/St. Constant, Quebec
Elgin
County Railway Museum in St. Thomas, Ontario
.
- Previous Main
Cameras -
Ansco Vision
Mini-MAF (Motorized Auto Flash) (1999-April 2003)
For years, I used
my first and only camera for train picture-taking, an Ansco Vision Mini-MAF
that had no additional lenses or attachments. Almost all photos posted
on the site before May 2003 were taken with this camera, which I received
in 1993. Although picture quality was about on par with a disposable
camera, it survived many hardships and was very simple to use.
Chinon Genesis
GS-7 Reflex Zoom (May 03 2003-October 2007)
This is an automatic
SLR camera from the early 1990s. I purchased it May 2003 and immediately
took a great liking to it. With a 35-80 mm lens, infra-red autofocusing
and a number of other features, it was a huge step forward from my previous
camera. It served me marvelously for many hundreds of photos, with
fast reaction time, accurate focus, correct exposure, 1 photo per second
capability and solid construction. I bought a 1.3X teleconverter
in 2006, which I used for some telephoto shots. However, by 2007,
as I began to take much larger numbers of photos, film and development
became simply too expensive and scanning and dust correction became a major
hassle.
- Part-time Cameras
-
Canon Powershot
S45 (2005-2006)
My first real experience
with digital photography was with this camera, which my parents owned.
It was a 4.0 megapixel camera that I often borrowed (and eventually bought)
and that I used for photos at Exporail and in the MMA Sherbrooke yard.
It was a very good camera for its time. Although it lacked the fast
reaction time of my Chinon film camera, it produced good images and
had a wide array of features. Its downfall was problems with the
lens cover--a ridiculously complex design that also acted as a power switch.
Sony Cybershot
DCS-W50 (2006-2007)
A replacement for
my parents' Powershot S45, this camera was occasionally used whenever I
wanted to take numerous detail photos and/or didn't have my Chinon film
camera handy. It's a pocket-sized 6.0 megapixel camera with very
good, if somewhat grainy image quality, some flexibility and relatively
quick reaction time. I borrowed it while railfanning the SLR and
in the MMA Sherbrooke yard until I bought the Canon EOS 400D.
- Experimental
Cameras -
Kyocera Samurai
X3.0 (July 2002)
This was a motorized
SLR half-frame camera that I experimented with for a couple of days in
the middle of July 2002, and it was capable of producing very good photos.
However, increased film grain and a terribly indecisive autofocus system
made it impratical for moving train photos. No photos from this camera
are currently online.
Olympus OM-1 (March
28, 2003)
I borrowed this
camera to take pictures on the day of the 2003 SLR/SLQ derailment in Lennoxville,
QC, since I wanted better quality than what my old Ansco camera could offer.
It's a top-notch all-manual film camera that still works flawlessly at
30 years of age.
Kodak Easyshare
C533 (January 14, 2007)
I was invited to
try this 5.0 megapixel camera, and I used it for some photos in the MMA
Sherbrooke yard in January 2007. It's a fine entry-level digital
camera, but as with many point-and-shoot digitals, its reaction time, image
quality and flexibility are middling.
- Scanners -
HP Scanjet 5100C
flatbet scanner
Up to 2003, prints
were scanned with an HP Scanjet 5100C. It was a good scanner for
its time, but its age can be deduced from the parallel-port connection
on the back. Very dark areas tended to get a blue cast. There
are still a couple of very old scans floating around on the site that were
made with this scanner.
HP S20 Film Scanner
In July 2003, an
HP S20 was purchased to scan the negatives, to take advantage of much-improved
image quality from the Chinon camera. In the following years all
previous photos were rescanned with this scanner. The HP S20
is a consumer-level film scanner capable of scanning up to 2400 DPI.
Colour balance, contrast and shading are accurate, and the easy-to-use
software allows many possible corrections or crops. The scanner does
produce some noise in dark areas, which is why shadow detail tends to be
better with negative film than with slide film.
- Film -
The standard film
I used from 1993 to 2004 was Kodak MAX 400. Starting in 2004,
I experimented with other films after the Chinon camera's sharp focus and
the film scanner revealed the graininess of Kodak MAX 400. My final
choice (up to late 2007) was Fujicolor Superia Reala 100.
Click here to see the results of the film types I've tried.
Michael
Eby 2008