Technotes

All but a few of these images were taken with Nikon, Nikkormat or Nikonos equipment.

Nikon cameras were the work horse of just about every military and civilian photographer in Vietnam, outnumbering all other brands put together by a wide margin. Their ruggedness and reliability were nothing short of amazing. Some of the Marine Corps issued Nikkormats I used were so badly dented and scraped, one would not imagine they would even be able to operate, let alone operate flawlessly. Although Nikon has allowed the competition to close in considerably, and its professional services division has definitely not kept up with the needs of working pros, I would still recommend their products to both pros and serious amateurs alike.

All black and white film used was either Eastman Kodak PlusX or Tri X. Most color film (color images will be appearing in the image section soon) was Kodachrome--the color emulsion that was best able to withstand the inescapable heat and humidity found in Vietnam. For those people asking which brand of film I recommend, I still feel today that you can do no better than any film that comes in an Eastman Kodak yellow box.

My sincerest thanks to Ben at Photomax Lab for the great prints he made from my thirty-year old negatives. I tried a number of Hollywood's top--and much more expensive--photo labs, but nobody did as good a job as Ben. For anyone looking for top quality work at a reasonable price, you can contact him at PhotoMaxLab.