Grand Hôtel-Dieu Lyon - a photo on Flickriver

            The Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon was until 2010 (Wikipedia) a giant hospital of historical significance situated on the right bank of the Rhône river in Lyon, France. The building is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List . In 2019, an InterContinental hotel opened in the renovated building and the hospital became a prominent entertainment and cultural place. 

The original building was first erected in the medieval period for clerical purposes. When the first medical doctor,Maître Martin Conras was hired in 1454, 'Hôtel-Dieu' became a fully functional hospital, one of the most important in France. In 1532, 'Hôtel-Dieu' appointed former Franciscan/Benedictine monk-turned-doctor and great Humanist François Rabelais, who would write his Gargantua and Pantagruel during his tenure here. Renaissance poet Louise Labé lived just beyond the western limits of the building.

Massive expansion projects in the 17th century by Guillaume Ducellet (under Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu) and in the 18th century by Jacques-Germain Soufflot (under Louis XIV and Jean-Baptiste Colbert) replaced the original building with the grandiose wings and courts we know today.

In 2010, all the medical activities were definitively transferred to other modern Lyon’s hospitals, and a project to transform the site for commercial activities including the Intercontinental Lyon hotel (2019), museum, bars and entertainment places, was conducted by Credit Agricole. 

 I selected my year-1951 FOCA Standard (PF1B) camera for a photo session there on August 24, 2024.

The camera was loaded with a 36-exposure black-and-white Adox film CHS 100 II. Adox is one of the oldest photographic products brand in Germany since 1860. Adox CHS 100 II is a very technical film composed of a mix of two emulsions, one ortho and another panchromatic. The resulting sensitivity profile is then bit particular with a drop around 500 nm between blue and green colors. The emulsion is coated on a clear 100 micron polyester teraphtalate (PET) base with two different anti-halation layer, a black one on the film back and a violet one between the PET base and the emulsion mix. This anti-halation are removed par two pre-soaking water bathes of 2min at the temperature of the processing (20°C).. The lens was equipped with the FOCA metal shade hood 36mm push-on, specific for the FOCA 1* and the regular camera lens Oplar 3.5/3.5cm. A protective FOCA AUV was also used for all the views.

The expositions were determined for 100 ISO using an Autometer III Minolta light meter fitted with a 10° finder for selective measurements privileging the shadow areas. 

When necessary, I used a laser meter to determine some object distances for correct focusing bellow 5m. 

Grand Hotel Dieu,  August 24, 2024
Place de l’Hôpital
69002 Lyon
France

After complete exposure, the film was revealed using Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developper at dilution 1+50 at 20°C for 13 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 plus some documentary smartphone color pictures.

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About the camera and the lens :

The FOCA Standard was the entry model of PF (French: « Petit Format ») O.P.L. FOCA camera's with 36 mm screw mount lens. The camera is the 1951 evolution of the FOCA PF1B (1 star) with the possibility to interchange lenses with the 36mm OPL screw mount. The regular lens delivered with the FOCA Standard was the Oplar 1:3.5 f=3,5 cm, a wide-angle (non retrofocus) lens more easy to use using zone focusing. The PF1’s, as the Standard’s, had no range finder and was equipped by default with an integrated finder matching the field of the 35 mm lens. The focal shutter is also limited in the range 1/25 to 1/500s plus B. The Foca Standard was a simple, very reliable, and endurant camera that was preferred for intensive uses for industry or by the "photo-filmeurs" in the 50 and early 60's. 

This specific camera is a model -2 version 5 of the type PF1B, non synchronized for flash, produced in the year 1951. It cames with a rubber FOCA push-on 36mm lens cap and a FOCA leather ever. 

The camera and the lens are both in a very good condition.  The lens in particular has still  a pristine anti-reflect coating and the time. According to its serial number, the lens would be model-1 version 3 year 1952.

Taken on: August 24, 2024

Tags:

Lyon

France

Grand

Hôtel-Dieu

French

FOCa

35mm

camera

Standard

PF1B

Year

1951

Oplar

lens

1:3.5

f=3.5cm

Optique

Précision

Levallois

O.P.L.

Adox

CHS

100

film

photography

Adonal

1+50

Sony

digitizing

Minolta

Auto

Bellow

III

Slide

duplicator

Macro

Rokkor

50mm « less

Sets appears in: • Grand Hôtel-Dieu Lyon

Camera: vivo V2124, f/1.8, 1/100 sec, 4mm, ISO 769 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	vivo V2124
Aperture:	f/1.8
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	4mm
ISO:	769
Exposure Bias:	-0.8 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Light Source:	D65
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.3 (Macintosh)
Show full info

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