A photo session at the Gerland Stadium, Lyon, France, on April 2, 2024.
I was equipped of my KW Praktina IIa mounted with the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm lens.The camera was loaded with a 36-exposure Ilford FP4+ film . No filters were used during the whole session. Expositions were determined for 125 ISO using an Autometer III Minolta light meter fitted with a 10° finder for selective measurements privileging the shadow areas.
Shutter speeds of 1/125s or 1/250s were used with aperture from the full aperture f/2.8 to f/16.
Stade de Gerland, April 2, 2024
69007 Lyon
France
After exposure, the film was revealed using Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developper at dilution 1+25 and 20°C for 9 min. The film was then digitized using a Sony A7 body fitted to a Minolta Slide Duplicator installed on a Minolta Auto Bellows III with a lens Minolta Bellow Macro Rokkor 50mm f/3.5. The RAW files obtained were processed without intermediate files in LR and edited to the final jpeg pictures. All views of the film are presented in the dedicated album either in the printed framed versions and unframed full-size jpeg accompanied by some documentary smartphone Vivio Y76 color pictures.
History of the stadium (Wikipedia) :
In 1910, the mayor of Lyon, Édouard Herriot, came up with the idea to develop and build a sports stadium with an athletics track and a velodrome in the city. In 1912, the stadium was officially mandated and local architect Tony Garnier was given the reins to designing and constructing it. Construction began in 1914 with hopes that the stadium would be completed before the International Exhibition of 1914. However, due to World War I, construction was temporarily halted, but resumed following the wars conclusion in 1919 with the assistance of a large number of German POWs. By 1920, the stadium was completely functional. In 1926, the Stade de Gerland was inaugurated by Herriot.
The stadium originally had a cycling track, but it was removed in order to increase the seating capacity to 50,000. In 1984, minor renovations were made to the stadium by architect Rene Gagis in order to bring the stadium up to standards for UEFA Euro 1984. This included construction of the Jean Bouin and Jean Jaurès stands. Further renovations were needed to prepare the stadium for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, as by that time FIFA had mandated that all stadiums used for international matches, including the World Cup, had to be all-seated. The north and south stands were completely dismantled and rebuilt, the Jean Jaurès and Jean Bouin side stands were untouched and the athletics track that had remained, even after the cycling track had been removed, was taken out. The renovations were done by architect Albert Constantin. The new incarnation of Gerland had a maximum capacity of 40,500.
From 1950 to 2015 the stadium was home to French professional football club Olympique Lyonnais. Lyon moved into the stadium as a result of splitting from the Lyon Olympique Universitaire sport club, which played at the Stade des Iris. Its record attendance for a Ligue 1 match is 48,552 set during a match between Olympique Lyonnais and Saint-Étienne in 1982.
Today the Stade de Gerland (known for sponsorship reasons as Matmut Stadium de Gerland and otherwise known as Municipal de Gerland or Stade Gerland [stad ʒɛʁlɑ̃]) is a stadium in the city of Lyon, France, which serves as home to Top 14 rugby club Lyon OU. It has a seating capacity of 25,000.
Situated in the Gerland quarter, it was used by French professional football club Olympique Lyonnais, who moved to the newly constructed Parc Olympique Lyonnais in 2016. Local rugby union club Lyon OU moved in beginning of 2017, replacing their much smaller stadium Matmut Stadium. The stadium's capacity was also reduced from 43,000 to a more reasonable 25,000.
The Stade de Gerland is listed as a Category three stadium by UEFA's standards and has hosted matches for the 1954 and 1972 Rugby League World Cups, UEFA Euro 1984, the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
The stadium has hosted concerts by many famous artists, including The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Genesis.
About the lens :
This Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 1:2.8 f=35mm retrofocus lens has the semi-auto diaphragm preselection system (SB Spring Blende) that is not operated by the IIa version of Praktina camera's but some early preceeding versions of Praktina FX series (see www.praktina.com). However one could operate manually the diaphragm without preselection. This version of the Praktina Flektogon has no filtrer screwing mount and should use push-on filter with a diameter of 51mm.
The Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon was a first "retrofocus" design specially calculated for SLR camera's (zeissikonveb.de) In France, Pierre Angénieux conceived at the same time and independently the famous "Retrofocus" type-11 (f=35mm) lens solving by this way the problem of wide-angle lenses for SLR including an extra "dead" distance due to the reflex mirror chamber.
About the KW Praktina IIa :
The Praktina IIa followed in 1958 the Praktina FX designed by the prestigious KW (Kamera Werk Niedersedlitz) German company in Dresden.
This specimen is the version 2 (code 110) produced at about 25.000 exemplars from June 1958 to Mai 1960. Praktina camera's were very high grade precision and quality machines much more sophisticated than the Praktica and the Praktiflex also produced by KW. Praktina was a "system" SLR 35 mm camera with a an impressive range of possible accessories and lenses including large capacity 17m film back and several motors.
My camera came with the mechanical 12-view motor and two Carl Zeiss normal lenses : a Tessar 1:2.8 f=50mm and a Flexon 1:2 f=50mm. This later Flexon lens was designed for the Praktina by Carl Zeiss Jena to modernize the old Biotar 1:2 f=58mm and to fulfill a more closer definition of a "normal lens" to the focal of 50mm. The lens is also much more compact. It was soon renamed "Pancolar" by Zeiss later on.
The Praktina has its own bayonet mount that ressemble a bit to the Canon FD mount with a locking ring on the camera body. The mount has a very large diameter. The IIa model has a new fully automatic diaphragm stop down system. With the Zeiss Flexon, the iris preset is indeed like with a modern camera.
Praktina is a completely different camera compared to the Praktica IV. The body is very well equilibrated and more compact not very far for the Olympus OM-1. The design looks particularly modern and the camera is particularly pleasant to manipulate.
The productiotn suddenlty stopped in May 1960 after the governmental decision to drop down the imposed prices of all camera's DDR by 30%! Praktina was then likely too expensive to be produced normally. As consequence, the less expensive and less performant Praktica's continued when KW became part of the VEB Pentacon.
Tags: Ilford FP4+ Lyon France Gerland Stadium 69007 Analog Photography Kamera Werke Niedersedlitz Dresden Germany KW German Praktina IIa SLR years 1952-1960 Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon lens 1:2 8 f=35mm Adox Adonal 1+25 Sony A7 Digitization Minolta Auto Bellows Slide Duplicator Macro Rokkor 50mm
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
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revealing a story of bygone eras. The stone walls tell stories of a forgotten time, while the outside light promises a bright future.
Each texture and each shadow add to the austere beauty of this black and white image
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Stranded on the beach at Berrow, just along from Somerset’s Burnham on Sea, lies the weathered remains of the SS Nornen, a Norwegian barque which ran aground in 1897 after being caught in a gale in the Bristol Channel.
Only visible when the tide goes out, its pretty amazing there is this much of the boat still in one piece after so many years of being totally submerged for large parts of each and every day.
Tags: Wood monochromatic burnham infra red Winter bandw b&w sony converted somerset Light wreck timber november coastline Monochrome breen black and white nornen 720nm black shipwreck a6000 coast White
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