Old Cameras in Old Movies

[AgX]

500mm F8 catadioptric has evolved in the 80s to a middle-of-the road lens. Nothing special by then at all.

 

[cooltouch]

I did a lot of motorsports photography back in the 80s and 90s. Back then I had a Sigma 600mm f/8 mirror. I used it often at the races. There are many interesting spots on racetracks that you can't reach in any other way. This is a Fujichrome slide of some SCCA club racing back in about 1985 or 86. I also used the Sigma a lot for airshows. Mirrors have their moments.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Old cameras also appear in new pictures too. In an installment of "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries" which is set in the 1920's Miss Fisher takes some crime scene pictures with a 120/620 folding camera.

Old cameras also appear in fashion model shoots. I am at a loss as to why the model holds an old camera rather than a digital one.

 

[Alan Gales]

Not an old movie but I was just watching an episode of "White Collar" on Netflix. Mozzie was using a Stereo Realist as a surveillance camera. What a joke!

 

[Sirius Glass]

500mm F8 catadioptric has evolved in the 80s to a middle-of-the road lens. Nothing special by then at all.

What was special about the catadioptic lenses that started showing up in the '70's was the little annoying donuts of light.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

What was special about the catadioptic lenses that started showing up in the '70's was the little annoying donuts of light.

I never used to notice the circles until it was mentioned in an article once.

It can be distracting. Other times it may help - I recall seeing a color photo of sailboats on a lake, the sunlight reflecting off the blue surface in little round circles of light. That looked good to me.

 

[pentaxuser]

The 1940 Hitchcock film "Foreign Correspondent" where a press photographers steps forward to take a picture of a Dutch diplomat in pouring rain but he is an assassin concealing a gun underneath the double darkslide in his hand. As it was a Hollywood film I suspect that the camera was a Speed Graphic

My thanks to AgX in another thread on cameras in movies for giving me the link to the still shot that reveals that the darkslide covers the gun. A very clever scene and a very good film

pentaxuser

 

[AgX]

"Modified" Vitessa 500 AE

As far as I know all models of the 500 have got a hot shoe. The prop master just cemented a flashcube onto it.
At the still photo you see the chrome line at the top that indicates the AE model and behind that the flanges of the hot shoe.

in the first 45sec:

 

[RichardJack]

Hi,
In the Beatles "A hard days night" one of the Beatles (maybe George) has a black Pentax (H3?) with possibly a 105mm f2.8 lens.
Usually most movies during 1966-1974 have photographers using Nikon F's or a Rolleiflex TLR in the field and Hasselblad in the studio. The Honeywell Strobonar flashes were pretty common as well.
Rick

 

[cooltouch]

In "A Hard Days Night," it's Ringo shooting the black Pentax. In the Hulu documentary "Eight Days a Week" George is shown playing with it sitting next to Ringo in an airplane. This time the camera is sporting a top-mounted meter. There are also some old camera shots in that film. Following are some screen shots I took.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

BOAC Comet and 35mm Arriflex?

 

[Helios 1984]

Hatari! (1962) - Actress Elsa Martinelli holding a Nikon SP.

 

[PGraham3]

Three great movies with old cameras that haven't been mentioned on this thread yet:

TRIAGE (2009)
SPY GAME (2001)
CITY OF GOD (2003)

These are all pretty good movies. I'd recommend them

 

[AgX]

West-German TV thriller from 1976:

(9:30-12:00min)



Lens is a Astro Berlin 1000mm 1/6.3 , in the movie on a 16mm cine camera (thus about Minox image-size!!)

Construction : 2E/1G (achromat)

 

[AgX]

"Die Fünfte Kolonne" ,west-german tv spy movie, episode 2 1963:
Fashion Photography in Munich


Technika 6x9
(first time ever I see it in a movie)

Unidentified 4x5 SLR
likely some model of Primar Görlitz Reflex-Primar

 

[Huss]

Old cameras also appear in fashion model shoots. I am at a loss as to why the model holds an old camera rather than a digital one.

Because they are cool. Digital cameras are not.

Those same fashion shoots may have a model astride a vintage Vespa for the same reason.

 

[thuggins]

Not just old movies... Here is a shot from The Finder.

It looks an awful lot like an FTL to me, but that is a pretty rare camera to show up as a prop on a TV show. Maybe I just see Oly's everywhere.

 

[AgX]

Is that the true camera sound?

Otherwise, enjoy the music.

 

[AgX]

A Compilation

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Is that the true camera sound?
...

Yes. That's what my 553ELX sounds like.

 

[cooltouch]

Okay, these aren't cameras, but lenses. Remember the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice? Bond and a Japanese woman are fleeing some bad guys in a Toyota roadster and apparently there's a TV screen and a couple of lenses mounted somewhere between the seats. The lenses are Asahi-made. One of them, the one on the left, is a run-of-the-mill 1.4/50 Super Takumar, but the one on the right is a mite unusual. It's a Quartz Takumar 3.5/85, S/N 949612. I'm not familiar with a Quartz Takumar. Are any of you?

Here's a shot showing both lenses -- this is as clear as I could get it off the screen:

And here's a shot where the right side of the view was cropped (not by me), but it at least shows the word "Quartz" a bit clearer.

Bond is also flying around in a gyrocopter a bit later with a funny looking "camera" mounted to his helmet -- a prop for sure. But I wasn't able to find a frame with a clear image of it.

 

[AgX]

Great find! A early form of videophone.

 

[Helios 1984]

The Dirty Dozen (1967) - Richard Jaeckel holding a Kodak Tourist.

 

[AgX]

Zenit Photosniper

A lighthearted musical movie from 1971. (here in a bad b&w copy)

@ 4:30min there is a nice song, at the end of it the Photosniper shows up:

 

[elcabezagrande]

Okay, these aren't cameras, but lenses. Remember the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice? Bond and a Japanese woman are fleeing some bad guys in a Toyota roadster and apparently there's a TV screen and a couple of lenses mounted somewhere between the seats. The lenses are Asahi-made. One of them, the one on the left, is a run-of-the-mill 1.4/50 Super Takumar, but the one on the right is a mite unusual. It's a Quartz Takumar 3.5/85, S/N 949612. I'm not familiar with a Quartz Takumar. Are any of you?

Here's a shot showing both lenses -- this is as clear as I could get it off the screen:

And here's a shot where the right side of the view was cropped (not by me), but it at least shows the word "Quartz" a bit clearer.

Bond is also flying around in a gyrocopter a bit later with a funny looking "camera" mounted to his helmet -- a prop for sure. But I wasn't able to find a frame with a clear image of it.

Quartz-Takumar is designed for UV photography.