Film cameras in movies, the fail thread

[Tel]

My most valued digital skill is the ability to use my thumb to match the needle...

 

[Chan Tran]

Who else here used a slide ruler?

I didn't use the slide rule when I was in school but I have a collection of them.

 

[Helios 1984]

Not even the slightest effort to make a mock-up... Heck, an empty toilet paper roll colored with a Sharpie and attached with duct tape would look better.

 

[MattKing]

Not even the slightest effort to make a mock-up... Heck, an empty toilet paper roll colored with a Sharpie and attached with duct tape would look better.

Perhaps they were planning to fix it in post

 

[woodlandSerenade]

It didn't occur to me but it's true: slide rule skills were really just preparation for one-handed match-needle metering. Calculating exposure or bellows extension is about the only math application I use these days. Don't even do my own taxes anymore. Somebody makes a bellows-extension calculator, don't they?

Given that the math to get the extension factor in stops is a logarithmic equation, it’s easy enough to write a simple program for basically any programmable calculator. I’ve done so for the HP50G emulator on my cellphone. All you need is the focal length of the lens at infinity and the extension in matching units and it outputs the number of stops to compensate.
#Stops=((BellowsDraw/FocalLength)^2)*Log(2)

 

[Sirius Glass]

Yes, I punched a lot of cards learning Fortran and PL/I on an IBM 360 in the 1978-1980 time frame (we called the machine "the covered wagon", it was already obsolete, if a little less so than the 029 keypunches).

What this has to do with camera fails in movies, however, it's hard to fathom...

I predate you. Assembly on an IBM 7494. When we carried boxes of 2000 cards on our shoulders we were referred to as hod carriers.

 

[Sirius Glass]

How does one get closer to the answer with a slide rule?

Get a shorter slide rule.​

 

[MattKing]

How does one get closer to the answer with a slide rule?

Get a shorter slide rule.​

I'm willing to bet that Sirius doesn't use a cel phone to access Photrio.

 

[Donald Qualls]

How does one get closer to the answer with a slide rule?

Get a shorter slide rule.​

The canonical answer is to use a longer rule -- you can read four digits on a 14" in the 1-2 (even the 2-3, if you're myopic) mantissa range, but if you had a 28" with the same precision of ruling, you could read four digits up to 6-7 range.

The real answer (in my experience) was to do the multiplication and division on paper (like you'd do all the adding and subtracting anyway), and look up higher precision logs and trig functions in a table (which was commonly a book several times the size of a Bible, occasionally a full shelf of book).

 

[Sirius Glass]

The canonical answer is to use a longer rule -- you can read four digits on a 14" in the 1-2 (even the 2-3, if you're myopic) mantissa range, but if you had a 28" with the same precision of ruling, you could read four digits up to 6-7 range.

The real answer (in my experience) was to do the multiplication and division on paper (like you'd do all the adding and subtracting anyway), and look up higher precision logs and trig functions in a table (which was commonly a book several times the size of a Bible, occasionally a full shelf of book).

But one is physically closer with a 6" slide rule.

 

[MattKing]

https://www.businessinsider.com/space-travel-relied-on-slide-rule-2015-2

 

[Sirius Glass]

I'm willing to bet that Sirius doesn't use a cel phone to access Photrio.

Of what stuff is this cell phone thou dost speak?

 

[MattKing]

Of what stuff is this cell phone thou dost speak?

The stuff that a large percentage of Photrio members actually use to read posts.

 

[Sirius Glass]

https://www.businessinsider.com/space-travel-relied-on-slide-rule-2015-2

A slide rule may be obsolete but it still works and does not require batteries nor updates.

 

[Tel]

What this has to do with camera fails in movies, however, it's hard to fathom...

The progression seemed to be from a movie prop failure due to lack of historical knowledge (or more likely disinterest) to thoughts about growing up in a pre-digital culture (which presumably energizes our collective interest in film cameras). We seem to have migrated to something that belongs in the "random thoughts about life, philosophy and history" forum. In fact, a lot of what gets posted here rightly belongs there.

 

[MattKing]

In fact, a lot of what gets posted here rightly belongs there.

This is probably more of a Lounge thread than a 35mm camera thread. Some things are posted just for interest and fun.

 

[Tel]

Not complaining--I enjoy the random musings.