Linda McCartney's camera and 105mm lens in Get Back

[permutations]

In Get Back, during the first episode at around the 1hr 47min mark, Linda (Eastman) McCartney shows up with what appears to be a Nikon F and 105mm lens.

 

[mshchem]

Absolutely

 

[nickandre]

Side note: quite a beautifully shot film. Restoration on point as well

 

[Nitroplait]

The silver nose sonnar-type to be precise.

 

[Cholentpot]

As a Beatles fan, albeit a younger one relatively, Get Back is a balm on my Beatlemania. Aside from the awesome camera geekery of the whole thing, from the restoration to pointing out the cameras and film stocks, the whole thing has given me a sense of closure on The Beatles.

I wasn't alive yet when they broke up. Took me a little more than a decade after they were gone to show up. Working through The Beatles as a teen and young adult the ending and breakup was always confusing and muddy. Abby Road? Let It Be? Which comes first? And watching Let It Be didn't help. If they were so mad at each other how and why did the make something like Abby Road? Who hated who and why? It was as if there was no end, just tailed off into a wisp of rumors. The Beatles music and legacy became a large part of my formative years. I play bass because of Paul, I got into Monty Python as an extension. My musical tastes and views are heavily influenced by the four lads. The ending just never sat well. With this documentary a major piece of the art side of my soul has solace. It sounds a bit dramatic but it's what it is.

Thank you Peter Jackson for putting this together. I'm not concerned with the truth anymore, if Pete spun a story with his cuts that take a different view than what happened I'll accept Peter Jackson's view because it sits well in my mind. The Beatles broke up sure, but it wasn't as nasty as I was led to believe. They still loved each other and remained friends. Anyone says different I'll just stick my fingers in my ears and blow raspberries.

Thanks for letting me rant on a photography forum.

 

[CMoore]

They didn't "hate each other".
VERY Typical problems for any band, especially one that gets big like The Beatles did.

They were not unlike a couple that gets married when they are 19 years old.
5 years later and you are maturing into young Man/Woman that has different needs and wants than when you were just 19. You are, now, a very different person with A LOT of new experiences.

George was, virtually, a kid when they started.
Later on he began to write his own songs and playing with other people like Clapton just to name one.
They all 4, even Ringo, were a band unto themselves and they each had their own bands for many years.

The Buffalo Springfield went through a similar though much less public scenario.
Lots of talented people, in one band, with a desire to explore a new direction and autonomy.

 

[Cholentpot]

They didn't "hate each other".
VERY Typical problems for any band, especially one that gets big like The Beatles did.

They were not unlike a couple that gets married when they are 19 years old.
5 years later and you are maturing into young Man/Woman that has different needs and wants than when you were just 19. You are, now, a very different person with A LOT of new experiences.

George was, virtually, a kid when they started.
Later on he began to write his own songs and playing with other people like Clapton just to name one.
They all 4, even Ringo, were a band unto themselves and they each had their own bands for many years.

The Buffalo Springfield went through a similar though much less public scenario.
Lots of talented people, in one band, with a desire to explore a new direction and autonomy.

I hated my band...and it was made of my own siblings. That's how it goes. I'd do anything to jam again with them now.

Issue is, no-one really knew what happened in the end but the stories and rumors just grew and grew. Look at the whole Yoko angle. This documentary blew it out of the water as far as my opinion goes.

 

[AgX]

Welcome to Apug!

Well, this seens to be her own camera, but we got a long thread devoted to prop cameras. And as you explicetly hint at a movie, you may enjoy it nonetheless.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/old-cameras-in-old-movies.129082/

 

[Renato Tonelli]

The ‘official photographer’ on the set seems to be using a Nikkormat.

I haven’t finished watching the documentary; I am savoring every minute of it.

 

[gone]

The only Nikon lens that I never got on with. Everyone raved about them for portraits, but no, they're way too sharp for that (either model). I think the lens was made for photojournalists and gritty B&W films of the day. Head shots looked really bad when I tried these, but things looked OK from longer distances, just too darned sharp.

 

[Cholentpot]

The ‘official photographer’ on the set seems to be using a Nikkormat.

I haven’t finished watching the documentary; I am savoring every minute of it.

I'm watching it one day at a time. So much to take in.

The ‘official photographer’ on the set seems to be using a Nikkormat.

I haven’t finished watching the documentary; I am savoring every minute of it.

I noticed that! I think I saw a pentax at some point though.

 

[Renato Tonelli]

I'm watching it one day at a time. So much to take in.



I noticed that! I think I saw a pentax at some point though.

I thought I saw a Pentax as well but didn’t press pause right away; have no idea where that might have been.

 

[permutations]

Yes - there was a Pentax sitting on Paul's piano. But I haven't yet seen anyone use it.

 

[Cholentpot]

Yes - there was a Pentax sitting on Paul's piano. But I haven't yet seen anyone use it.

View attachment 294072

Ha! I knew it! Good find.

 

[CMoore]

I have her book .....
Linda McCartney's Sixties: Portrait of an Era
..... and it is fantastic.
IMHO

 

[titrisol]

I thought I saw a Pentax as well but didn’t press pause right away; have no idea where that might have been.

I think that is a SV, like to one they used in Hard's Day Night
The manager (Michael) was taking pictures with it

The documentary is incredible, just to htink the guys were 28 at the time!

 

[madNbad]

This may answer why the Pentax is on the piano:

https://kosmofoto.com/2019/12/the-beatles-and-their-giant-beatax-camera/

 

[BradS]

George, Paul and Ringo all used and were often photographed by others holding an early, pre-spotmatic Pentax.
Linda is almost always seen with Nikon F and later, with the Nikon F2. She has often talked and written about how she got started in photography and her use of the Nikons....but she also mentioned not really being overly concerned about gear - she just needed it to work and she got used to the Nikon and stuck with it.

 

[benjiboy]

That camera Linda is shooting with is definitely a Nikon F, and the lens is a 105 mm f2.5 Nikkor.

 

[Chrismat]

Pentax gave all 4 Beatles a pre Spotmatic camera, think it was the SV. I remember looking at a Beatles book and seeing a photo taken during a break of the filming of A Hard Day's Night, Ringo was talking to Pattie Boyd (who had one line in the film, that's how she met George) with a Pentax around his neck.

 

[titrisol]

That camera Linda is shooting with is definitely a Nikon F, and the lens is a 105 mm f2.5 Nikkor.

IN the last part of the series, there is a scene where she has 2 Nikons and she is changing rolls in her lap
I think both are Fs

Yes during the Beatlemania era (1963-4) Pentax UK made a deal with B.Epstein for publicity, they gave all of them SV cameras for the Hard's Day night movie. In one of the scenes Ringo has a very long remote cable and the camera falls in the water. About 1:05 in this video
Ringo later published a book with pictures from those days, and he is seen with Pentaxes in that one.

BY 1969, my guess is that the cameras were passed to the staff, as I saw one of them taking pictures with a Pentax, while the official photographer used a Nikon.

 

[snusmumriken]

The only Nikon lens that I never got on with. Everyone raved about them for portraits, but no, they're way too sharp for that (either model). I think the lens was made for photojournalists and gritty B&W films of the day. Head shots looked really bad when I tried these, but things looked OK from longer distances, just too darned sharp.

Funny, but it’s the only Nikon lens (out of just 3, admittedly) that I did get on with. Made me one or two lovely portraits. Hell of a lump to carry around, though, for occasional use.

 

[gone]

The ‘official photographer’ on the set seems to be using a Nikkormat.

So there is justification for figuring out that shutter speed thing after all. Truthfully, I've never seen one break, so that would have been my choice for the primary camera as well.

snusmumriken, you're not the only one that got great shots from the 105 lens. I don't know why it didn't work for me. The Leica R 90 Summicron or Elmarit had better IQ and bokeh, so that's what I've used on Nikon cameras for a long time.

Occasionally I would get a good head shot from the Nikkor lens like this one, but it was always too sharp for me.