Old Cameras in Old Movies

[removed account4]

kyle maclachlan's camera in blue velvet
precurser to today's dashboard cam

 

[guangong]

While watching a documentary about the trial of Japanese general Tojo, there it was. A photographer using one of my favorite cameras...a Kodak Medalist (a 6x9 120 camera with one of the best lenses made, the 100 mm Ektachrome. Couldn't tell if photographer was civilian or military, but cameras originally made to US Navy specifications during WWII.

 

[OlyMan]

Probably I'm stretching the criteria somewhat but anyone notice the OM-4Ti in 'James Bond Licence To Kill' (1989)? Completely unrelated to any part of the plot it only appeared in the title sequence. According to Wiki the camera also appeared in 'Sabrina' (1995) starring Harrison Ford, but I haven't seen that film.

 

[Diapositivo]

To add to my question above:
What are the things in that shop window down below? I see a kind of rack with a white screen, a column on box (I guess a lightbox with reprostand) and a collumn with something square attached to it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27556454@N07/3221268113/sizes/o/

Nearest the girl's feet there seems to be a bellows. That's logical near a reproduction stand.
If this is a frame from the East-German film, it is interesting that there is an Agfa writing on the back.

 

[David Lyga]

The 'bowl-like' thing seems to be some kind of a reflector. I really do not know. As far as the 'lightbox', I cannot tell either. - David.

 

[AgX]

If this is a frame from the East-German film, it is interesting that there is an Agfa writing on the back.

Yes it is from that movie. Remember the movie is from 1958, then there still were two Agfas. Agfa Wolfen in 1964 (the same time as Agfa Leverkusen merged with Gevaert Antwerp) introduced their new name Orwo. In that movie you also see advertizing for their modern Agfacolor Ultra.

If you want to see something really rare, look at 19:35min.

 

[Diapositivo]

If you want to see something really rare, look at 19:35min.

Very interesting! I don't understand how that stereo camera works. It probably makes two separate shots, through some internal mirror one shot is taken with the side lens and is deviated onto the film plane.
I say this because the left part of the optics, the left lens, doesn't go straight toward the body but, as you see, the light proceeds at an angle.
That would mean it is conceptually a stereo adapter that can be fitted to any camera, isn't it!
You take a picture with the right lens, than another with the left lens.
On the other hand, it's only good for static subjects, such as architecture.

I've seen an arch-spectacular WWI stereoscopic medium format camera with slide glasses (the emulsion is on glass, no film). This was true stereoscopic, the two images were taken simultaneously. The entire collection of images I saw was taken during WWI.

 

[AgX]

That SLR "on stereo" is quite simple: It got an image combining attachment. Such is quite commom. It delivers two images on a short "stereo-base" to a common taking lens. This projects two images aside on a standard film frame. By this a common finder- or SLR-camera can be turned into a stereo camera. After processing with a similar image splitting device one can see a stereo image on such film or respective print. Of course one could sepereate the images and use them for other stereo devices.

However this way one would not get a stereo impression during taking. With an image splitting device attached to the eyepiece, the two images within the finder image are transferred seperately to the respective eye:
stereo vision during taking, thus a true stereo-SLR.

Such is that SLR in the movie.

 

[Ixtl]

I know Close Encounters got a mention earlier for the huge bank of Nikons shooting the spacecraft, but I just saw it in the theater, and wanted to point out a few others. During the scene in the Gobi desert, the team of scientists has quite an assortment of medium format gear. I spotted a Mamiya Universal Press, a Hasselblad 500-something, and a Koni-Omega Rapid that gets a (brief) close-up (still couldn't tell if it was a 100 or 200). Later, the Dreyfuss character's kids take humiliating pictures of him with what I think was an Instamatic. Then towards the end, Melinda Dillon whips out a Rollei 35 to take a few of her own snapshots of the extraterrestrials. There'a probably a few others I missed. I would nudge my son while we were watching, whispering, "Look! A Mamiya Press!" or something, and he would nod tolerantly.

 

[Chan Tran]

I don't know if it's old cameras or old movies but anyone know which model of the Canon EOS were used in the movies "Harrison Flowers"?

 

[Diapositivo]

(In reference to post #208)
I see.
That would actually be a gorgeous way to increase slide sales, because a slide, viewed through a 3D visor, would be just gorgeous.
You cannot do that with digital and you cannot do that with negative film, either.

The simplicity of the slide film with the attractiveness of 3D. Imagine a party of friends, passing the visor from hand to hand.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Very interesting! I don't understand how that stereo camera works. It probably makes two separate shots, through some internal mirror one shot is taken with the side lens and is deviated onto the film plane.
I say this because the left part of the optics, the left lens, doesn't go straight toward the body but, as you see, the light proceeds at an angle.
That would mean it is conceptually a stereo adapter that can be fitted to any camera, isn't it!
You take a picture with the right lens, than another with the left lens.
On the other hand, it's only good for static subjects, such as architecture.

I've seen an arch-spectacular WWI stereoscopic medium format camera with slide glasses (the emulsion is on glass, no film). This was true stereoscopic, the two images were taken simultaneously. The entire collection of images I saw was taken during WWI.

I think you got it mostly right, but where does one plug in the head phones?

 

[Diapositivo]

I think you got it mostly right, but where does one plug in the head phones?

You don't plug it, it's all Bluetooth based!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Bluetooth? Aren't we supposed to use whiteners?

 

[guangong]

In a "b" movie Bunco Squad on TCM a crook was using a Minox to copy records to use for bilking a victim. A movie from the late 50s so must be a Minox III.

 

[Chan Tran]

In the new documentary "The Vietnam War" there are a lot of Nikon F and Leica M visible. There are other cameras too. Many old cameras although the movies (if you can call it a movies) is new.

 

[AgX]

Using a "spy" camera is shown in several movies.

Here is a soviet movie from 1972 where a lighter-camera is used. The scene got a funny ending...

scene starts at 46:22min

 

[Diapositivo]

In the TV short series "Accadde ad Ankara", "It happened in Ankara", realized by RAI in 1979, Elyesa Bazna takes pictures of British invading plans with, if memory serves, a microcamera which must have been a Minox.
I have no time at the moment to watch the entire series, but it is available on YouTube in three instalments, and I am sure that the willing and able will find the correct moment.

The story revolves around the famous "Cicero" spy who tried to sell to Germany important plans about the attack to "fortress Europe". The Germans did not take the source too seriously, they even paid him with false British Pounds. In hindsight, paying attention to this information might have made Germans a very good service.

 

[AgX]

But can a Minox cope with a camera built into lighter?

Well, Cicero at least did not have his camera taken away... disguise not always pays off...

 

[Helios 1984]

Here's a classic among classics, James Stewart in "Rear Window" (1954) holding a beautiful Exakta VX with the gigantic Heinz Kilfitt 400mm f/5.6 ”Fern-Kilar”. For those who haven't watched this masterpiece, the camera was central to the story.

 

[Diapositivo]

But can a Minox cope with a camera built into lighter?

Well, Cicero at least did not have his camera taken away... disguise not always pays off...

And the lighter works, too!
Anyway the guy seems to have managed to recover his spy camera.
A Minox is more intelligent. People can ask you your lighter, and they can even pocket it!

 

[mshchem]

Here's a classic among classics, James Stewart in "Rear Window" (1954) holding a beautiful Exakta VX with the gigantic Heinz Kilfitt 400mm f/5.6 ”Fern-Kilar”. For those who haven't watched this masterpiece, the camera was central to the story.

TECHNICOLOR BAM!

 

[Kevin Ekstrom]

 

[Helios 1984]

View attachment 187334 View attachment 187335 View attachment 187336

Salvador (1986) to whom it may interest.

 

[OlyMan]

(In reference to post #208)
I see.
That would actually be a gorgeous way to increase slide sales, because a slide, viewed through a 3D visor, would be just gorgeous.
You cannot do that with digital and you cannot do that with negative film, either.

The simplicity of the slide film with the attractiveness of 3D. Imagine a party of friends, passing the visor from hand to hand.

Viewmaster did this. But the reels were nearly always just childrens' interest (because unlike Sawyer's, GAF marketed them really as a toy), it only used tiny frames similar to disk-film frames (so the quality was limited), and what they didn't give us was a camera through which we could shoot our own Viewmaster reels. Not as far as I'm aware in any case.