New TV ads with old film cameras

Ces1um · Oct 21, 2018

aliphazer said:
I've also noticed this motif, particularly in skin care ads. I think they are trying to get across the point that their product can "freeze time" like a photographed is assumed to.

Maybe what they're implying is if you're of the age that you owned a film camera then you're probably old enough to have wrinkles and "need" botox?

shutterfinger · Oct 22, 2018

Saw another commercial today about a group shot with a camera on a tripod with a little hot shoe flash on self timer. Someone asks "what kind of a camera is that" with the response "I think its post modern".
Camera appears to be a Spotmatic or similar and the film box end holder on the back is empty. Its football (USA) related.
Found the commercial, its for NFL Shop: Awkward Family Photo.
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/d_rY/nfl-shop-awkward-family-photo

AgX · Oct 24, 2018

shutterfinger said:
Someone asks "what kind of a camera is that" with the response "I think its post modern".

I like that.
But, what were the modern cameras? I guess Leica and Exacta. What would be a post-modern camera? The T90 ?

removed account4 · Oct 24, 2018

Ces1um said:
Maybe what they're implying is if you're of the age that you owned a film camera then you're probably old enough to have wrinkles and "need" botox?

not sure, from what i see in the ad she's just some lady with a camera. not sure if it has anything to do with the thing she is selling
because she had more than 1 facial expression . supposedly there is a running joke about new desk persons who get
the botulism toxin injection and they have to have signs that declare " i am really happy, i just can't show it" &c.
that lady, well, she wasn't deadpan, no facial paralysis, she was just amped from guzzling too much BOOST! before the shoot.

Patrick Robert James said:
There is a commercial as well for one of those business card companies that features a newby actographer.

but he's using a hasselbad ! and i have to say the weird reflective surface on the lens is kind of kewl.
if i had a hasselhoff i'd do the same thing

Theo Sulphate · Oct 24, 2018

AgX said:
I like that.
But, what were the modern cameras? I guess Leica and Exacta. What would be a post-modern camera? The T90 ?

Yes, yes indeed. The T90 is postmodern and cameras such as the Spotmatic, F-1, and SRT-101 I would classify as modern. The Leica and Contaflex I would call classical and the Exakta as pre-classical.

Not sure which cameras are impressionist or surreal, but quite a few are cubist.

AgX · Oct 25, 2018

I instead tried to relate these terms to periods in architecture/design where these typically refer to.

GRHazelton · Oct 25, 2018

Theo Sulphate said:
Yes, yes indeed. The T90 is postmodern and cameras such as the Spotmatic, F-1, and SRT-101 I would classify as modern. The Leica and Contaflex I would call classical and the Exakta as pre-classical.

Not sure which cameras are impressionist or surreal, but quite a few are cubist.

Cubist? Ah, yes! The "Brick", the Argus C 3. What could be more cubist??

Chan Tran · Oct 25, 2018

I think the trend of using film cameras as props because film cameras look nicer than the digital. Most digital cameras look ugly.

mklw1954 · Oct 26, 2018

Not a TV ad, but from Frasier TV show:

GarageBoy · Oct 27, 2018

Post modern would be the new digital leica with the fake wind lever, no?

cooltouch · Oct 28, 2018

I can't comment about commercials -- cuz I haven't seen any with film cameras, except for that NFL one linked above, which by the way almost certainly shows a Canon AE-1 with some sort of cheapo flash -- but I've seen more recent (as in the d*g*t*l age) TV shows than I can count where there's a crowd of photojournalists doing their thing and they're all shooting film cameras with noisy motor drives (usually dubbed in MD12s or MD4s by the sounds of them) and popping off hammerhead flashes. Often the cameras have no visible motor drives, but the windey sounds abound. Of course, the prop departments just dug out a bunch of old clunkers for the scenes, but it seems to me that a bit of period-correct mindedness should be going on. I mean, these same actors aren't jumping into cars built in the 70s or 80s are they? The exceptions to this dumbed down trend are NCIS and the various CSI shows. At least they're using up to date gear.

Helinophoto · Oct 28, 2018

I have no idea what cameras are used in this one, but it's the kind of hilarious stuff we get here.
The ad is for "finn", which is something akin to ebay (used marked for all kinds of things, even houses and cars).

The way the flash auto-pops open, startling both the pigeon perked on the garbage-can in the local park and the hipster cracks me up every time....what look on his face ^^And perfectly nails the expectation versus reality.
(The cat is a symbol they use for finn for some reason, they use it in all of those commercials)

Translation:

"Take a photo, they say"

"A photo cannot be taken"

"It must be created"

"Stolen, from nature"

"Nanoseconds of a human soul"

"One-hundreds of a second, of the life of an animal"

"Therefore.........I exist"

The text in en end is saying
"What were you thinking???"
"Do something smart with a stupid purchase"

Helinophoto · Oct 28, 2018

ic-racer said:
I don't get ads on my TV. Am I missing out on popular culture? Botulinum Toxin? From the deadly clostridium bacteria? Sure...shoot me up with it while hold my film camera...

Been used for a good while for anti aging, since the toxin relaxes the muscles responsible for wrinkled skin.
People may look like idiots, but now without wrinkles

It is used to relieve neuropathic pain in medicine.

AgX · Oct 28, 2018

cooltouch said:
Of course, the prop departments just dug out a bunch of old clunkers for the scenes, but it seems to me that a bit of period-correct mindedness should be going on. I mean, these same actors aren't jumping into cars built in the 70s or 80s are they?

What to expect when even productions back then used wrong cameras? As consumer cameras with press photographers or plain finder cameras with police crime scene photographers.

GRHazelton · Oct 28, 2018

I'm also amused by the constant "pop" of flashbulbs in movies and on TV. I've shot hundreds, back in the day, and I never had one "pop." At most there'd be a soft, despairing crackle.... Occasionally I can hear a little sound from an electronic flash discharging, but very subdued. And press photographers in the movies are able to shoot rapid sequences with their Speed Graphics with unimaginable speed. How do they do it?
And for those who haven't seen it, here is the ultimate ad with cameras, the immortal "Battle at F stop Ridge."

kb3lms · Oct 29, 2018

I've seen the botox and the nfl ones. In the botox case, I think it a case of not endorsing any current digital camera. By using an old camera they avoid that. It looks enough like a DSLR to fool most people. In the NFL case, it might be to point out that the dad in the commercial is old fashioned and out of touch.

kivis · Nov 18, 2018

zen_zanon said:
Film cameras are gaining massive traction in pop culture again.

Contax T2

brent8927 · Nov 18, 2018

I would assume there are two primary reasons why a film camera is in a Botox ad:

1) Film camera props are cheap

2) Cosmetic Botox is aimed at an older clientele. Anyone old enough (roughly 30-40+) to be considering cosmetic Botox is old enough to remember either using film cameras, or having their picture taken by someone with one (parent, friend, lover). The prop would serve pretty well as a reminder of “better days.”

We tend to look back fondly at our youth. A film camera, among many other things, can help rekindle the emotional feeling of those days. Pharmaceutical commercials are generally aimed at stirring up an emotional reaction in people-especially for non-necessary interventions, like cosmetic Botox. (Botox for spasticity on the other hand, is a while different thing)

Pieter12 · Nov 18, 2018

I really don't think most of the viewing public recognizes that it is a film camera she is using. Rather, they see a what they presume is a creative person (something aspirational, maybe) using a serious camera without noticeable lines around her eyes from squinting.

choiliefan · Nov 20, 2018

I just saw a commercial for a health care group (possibly associated with the AARP) showing an old lady about my age proudly displaying what appears to be a Minolta SRT camera.
Will update if/when I see the commercial again.

Theo Sulphate · Jan 16, 2019

Some sort of preview of a soon-to-be new TV crime show - shown are some small film cameras. I note the Miranda RE II and the Instamatic (with "blood" on it). Model number looks like 84, but I can find no such model in the lists. I can't identify the others. Sorry - my TV is an old Sony model from 1998 and I photographed the screen with my phone; none of that HD stuff for me.

Sometimes the text in the ad says "Collections", sometimes it says "Clues" - like here.

shutterfinger · Jan 17, 2019

The ad is for "Mark of A Killer" on Oxygen network airing Sunday.
I can't find the ad online or Oxygen's web site. Even on a large screen HD TV the cameras are only shown for a second or two making it impossible to tell what they are.

New TV ads with old film cameras

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