Warbird Information Exchange

As I continue to go through the Kamm collection, here are four of the older photos of DH Moths from US fly-ins in the 1960s. Interesting variety of engine and landing gear configurations. The first two are from Ottumwa, 1967; the third is from Flabob, 1966; the fourth, I don't know.

CF-APA with engine running, hopefully not as unattended as it looks!



N1686.



N1501V.



N916M.



Hope you like these.

August

I like it!

Very nice photos. They come out very clear. What scanner are you using? What settings?

Thanks
Z

For these medium format (6x9cm) negatives I am using an Epson Perfection 4180 Photo scanner (purchased a few weeks ago as a refurb direct from epson.com for $99 with free shipping). The photo-optimized flatbeds are doing a very good job these days, and the newer models with infrared dust/scratch removal are even better. I scan to TIF files at 2400dpi (theoretically this unit goes up to 4800dpi but it picks up very little further detail above 2400) using the Epson software with auto-exposure on but all other settings OFF (i.e. no grain reduction, unsharp masking, etc.). This creates about a 125-megabyte file roughly 8000 pixels wide; in the language of digital photography that would be about a 42-megapixel image. In Photoshop Elements, I then straighten (if needed), crop, resize, fiddle with the brightness/contrast levels, clone out the worst of the dust and scratches, apply the copyright stamp, and save to JPG for posting. I usually apply a bit of unsharp mask; if I'm in a rush, I just select Filters/Sharpen Edges; if I have time and want really good results, I use the excellent FocalBlade plugin.

For 35mm material like the Canal Zone pics that I posted last week, I use my Minolta Dual Scan 5400, a magnificent little dedicated film scanner which unfortunately won't take the medium format negatives. Workflow is basically the same but on high speed film I'll usually run the scan through Noiseware to reduce the grain prior to the Photoshop processing.

Most of the sharpness you are noticing is due to the incredible detail of the 6x9 negatives which are about 6 times the size of 35mm negatives. Even when drastically reduced like this, it really shows.

August

If anyone's curious,

DH-60GM CF-APA is in the posession of the Canadian Museum of Flight, at Langley Airport, BC. In 1974 it was involved in an accident in Banff, Alberta where the front seat passenger was killed.

The damaged airframe is in storage awaiting restoration. Our museum has very little space and very little funding, so it will be quite some time before anyone may see this plane return to the skies.

On top of that, our museum is currently restoring our Fleet Finch and Waco INF (that should both be completed before next summer). After that, we will restore our started, but not finished restoration on a Fleet F-80 Canuck (CF-HOU). Then, we will begin on our Fairchild Cornell (CF-FLY). And then, finally the DH-60 Gypsy Moth; as long as we don't start our Bristol Bolingbroke or Avro Anson static restorations.

I'm sorry if it sounded like I was boasting about what our museum has. That wasn't the intention. I just thought I'd mention them to possibly spark interest and maybe some dialogue.

Cheers,

David