Old Cameras in Old Movies

[faberryman]

I like watching out for different cameras in old movies. Is it geeky? I saw The Omen recently, I think it was a Nikon F2 that the photographer had. Well, it was one of his cameras.

From my perspective, the Omen is not an old movie (it was released in 1976) and a Nikon F2 is not an old camera. Oh, wait, am I old?

 

[AgX]

Meopta Mikroma II

Built into a west german Saba transistor-radio. Used be an east-german glider pilot making clandestine aerial photos for a british intelligence service. Cassette smuggled in matchbox.

Out of an episode of an east-german TV spy-movie series from 1966. Series music played by big band of the Stasi who also assisted the series.

@23:15min (tom be watched on Youtube directly)

 

[narsuitus]

Double Exposure (1935)

20 minute comedy short

Starring Bob Hope using a TLR camera

 

[Fixcinater]

Not an old movie but it's an old camera: Rolleiflex Old Standard in Upstairs Downstairs.

 

[AgX]

Same east-german series, story time again 1953.

This time a camera used by the Stasi, camouflaged as gasoline can:

at 4:50min



Later on the the officers discuss on what lens best to used with a 35mm SLR to photograph a girl with, and come to the conclusion that the guy with that SLR must be spy...

 

[cooltouch]

I was watching the James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever (1971), when I came across this:

I have a Nikon F with the standard prism just like this one, and it was really kind of hard to miss, being full screen for about a second and all. I didn't notice it until just now, but he has his F sitting in just the bottom of a neverready case. He's also left eye dominant.

These were two bad guys, following Bond around for most of the film, killing innocent people along the way. Of course, they received their just rewards by the film's end.

 

[narsuitus]

The Wild Girl
2010 Hallmark made-for-TV movie

 

[Helios 1984]

Art LaFleur using a Nikon F in Air America

 

[drkhalsa]

"Head in the Clouds" 2004

Charlize Theron as a photographer in 1930s and 1940s Paris. I'm not familiar with the camera I saw in one early scene.

 

[Kino]

(Well, it's not an old film, but...)

Leica KE-7A M4 in Rangefinder in "Kong: Skull Island". A magical one that has an amazing zoom lens that looks very much like a 45-50mm prime...

I love how they show her dropping in a roll of Panatomic-X and then doing "Time exposures" on aurora borealis over the island! I forgot just how magical that film stock was!

 

[Kino]

Looks like an Exacta VX in "Rear Window" (1954) by Alfred Hitchcock.

 

[Kino]

Hasselblad; "Blow Up" (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni

 

[Kino]

James Cagney with a 1932 Leica II camera in "The Picture Snatcher (1933)

 

[keenmaster486]

Looks like an Exacta VX in "Rear Window" (1954) by Alfred Hitchcock.

This movie is what really pushed me over the edge into film photography.

Especially those big sexy chunks of metal that were late 50's and 60's SLRs.... ooooh yeah

 

[Kino]

"The Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978), Nikon FM

 

[Kino]

"Peeping Tom" (1960) D. Michael Powell. Bell & Howell DR 70, 16mm motion picture camera, spring wound. I learned to shoot motion picture film on this camera. What a chunk of steel!

 

[Kino]

"Man With A Movie Camera" (1929) D. Dziga Vertov. 35mm Debrie Parvo, hand cranked motion picture camera. Had a unique spiral threading pattern, through the base critical focus, speed-governed hand-crank and coaxial magazines. I've shot with one of these as well; superb camera! The Soviet Union copied it, tweaked it and released it as the "Rodina".

 

[Kino]

"Man With A Camera" (1959) starring Charles Bronson, holding a Speed Graphic (or is that a Crown Graphic?)

 

[GRHazelton]

Hasselblad; "Blow Up" (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni

IIRC the Nikon F also was prominently used, with a film which would yield massive enlargements from hand-held rather casual shots... Please, bring that film back!!

 

[dmschnute]

Gandhi
Candace Bergen (AKA Margaret Bourke White) uses a Crown/Speed Graphic. She seems to handle it authentically -- changing film holders, cocking the shutter and releasing it at the shutter.

 

[dmr]

Looks like an Exacta VX in "Rear Window" (1954) by Alfred Hitchcock.

Ya know, I've watched that film seemingly endless times and I never really paid that much attention to the details of that scene until now. I notice in your still that he's supporting the lens with his (I assume his good) knee and it sure looks like the "reflection" is actually behind the front element of the lens.

I'll pay more attention next time.

 

[AgX]

Yes, I wonder how they made it...

His face is in focus, knee and front of the lens are already out, but that reflection of a far away object is quite sharp.

 

[Kino]

Ya know, I've watched that film seemingly endless times and I never really paid that much attention to the details of that scene until now. I notice in your still that he's supporting the lens with his (I assume his good) knee and it sure looks like the "reflection" is actually behind the front element of the lens.

I'll pay more attention next time.

Yes, I wonder how they made it...

His face is in focus, knee and front of the lens are already out, but that reflection of a far away object is quite sharp.

It was probably optically printed (composited) into the shot; not an actual reflection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_printer

 

[quixotic]

Interesting behind the scene information. With a photographer as main character, reality-like (or convincing, what might not be the same...) photographic handling is to be expected from the actor.

I often see very bad represantations of photographers by figurants. Having been a figurant at one movie myself I know that when being treated as shit one easily neglects being convincing, but only does as ordered which likely results in weirdness.

That's kind of what I thought when I started watching Pecker. Never bothered watching it to the end for that reason.

 

[quixotic]

The auto racing masterpiece, Lemans, starring Steve McQueen was filmed in 1970 and released in 1971. Much of the film's footage was actually taken during the 1970 race. I believe it is fair to say that "the camera" in all its forms is one of the biggest extras, if not the biggest, in the entire film. In just about every scene in which the public is evident, multiple cameras are on display and in use. Even not-so-public scenes, such as when drivers are walking to their rest locations and being followed by press photographers, are filled with camera wielding "pros." As the film progressed, it became increasingly obvious to me that the film's director and editorial staff were selecting key shots just because of the cameras in use or on display. One might argue that they were merely adding to the "realism" of one of the greatest spectacles in motor racing, but I think there was more to it than just that. Those folks were having fun "taking pictures of people taking pictures." Really.

Didn't they chop the top off of a Ford GT40 in order to install a movie camera in something that would go just as fast as all the other cars in that movie?