What 35mm camera is Paul McCartney holding?

[Trask]

Have a look at the Beatles photo at http://www.wolfgangsvault.com -- it's of the group arriving in San Francisco in 1966 for their final U.S. concert. (Click on it to see full-screen -- and look at the other great stuff on this site from impresario Bill Graham's collections.)

What camera do you think Paul is holding? Not a Spotmatic, I don't think, so I'd go with a Nikon F due to the shutter speed dial size and what I can see of the film advance lever. I guess Paul would have seen enough Nikon F's in the hand of myriad photographers that he'd gravitate in that direction.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

I'd really go for a black Spotmatic SP: no hotshoe, and the angle of pentaprism look like it.

BTW, that's an awesome shot!

 

[Jerevan]

Looks very much like a black Pentax SV. By the way, I really miss the "Unofficial Asahi Pentax Spotmatic Home Page" that once existed - a great resource...

 

[Richard Kelham]

What camera do you think Paul is holding? Not a Spotmatic, I don't think, so I'd go with a Nikon F due to the shutter speed dial size and what I can see of the film advance lever.

Definitely not a Nikon – the shape of the pentaprism is wrong. Probably some sort of Pentax.


Richard

 

[MattCarey]

Can't tell the camera, but maybe this will help--

Here is another view of that day.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/12/01/MN72382.DTL&o=0

Matt

 

[MattCarey]

I'd say he used a pentax...just a guess...


Dead Link Removed

Matt

 

[Trask]

Well, I guess I got stuffed on that one! I should have gone with my first instinct -- Spotmatic all the way.

 

[Steve Smith]

Well, I guess I got stuffed on that one! I should have gone with my first instinct -- Spotmatic all the way.

I think he owned a Nikon F as well. There was an interview in Amateur Photographer a few years ago with his brother Mike McCartney who is a photographer and was a member of the band The Scaffold.

Just after the Beatles made it big and therefore had a bit of spare money, Paul bought Mike a Nikon F as a christmas present. I'm fairly sure it said that Paul bought one for himself too.


Steve.

 

[BradS]

Looks very much like a Pentax SV. The self timer dial under the film rewind crank gives it away. The SV was before the Spotmatic.

 

[snegron]

I wonder where that camera is today!

 

[benjiboy]

Probably

I wonder where that camera is today!

He probably still has it Snegron, I heard a recent radio interview with him, he said he still has every musical instrument he ever owned he's probably the same with cameras, or maybe he gave it to his daughter Heather who is a pro photographer.

 

[doitashimashite]

Looks very much like a black Pentax SV. By the way, I really miss the "Unofficial Asahi Pentax Spotmatic Home Page" that once existed - a great resource...

Well, this site seems to be archived:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.arnhem.telekabel.nl/~pjonkman/index2.html

 

[snegron]

He probably still has it Snegron, I heard a recent radio interview with him, he said he still has every musical instrument he ever owned he's probably the same with cameras, or maybe he gave it to his daughter Heather who is a pro photographer.

Now if we only knew where Paul Simons' Nikon is...

 

[Eric Rose]

Now if we only knew where Paul Simons' Nikon is...

Ya and his Kodachrome.

 

[kb244]

Ya and his Kodachrome.

His mother took it from him.

 

[Jeffrey A. Steinberg]

Wasn't Linda a big Nikon user?

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Fun: What's Paul carrying?

Can you tell? Text with the photo should help:

"Paul McCartney, followed by Ringo Starr and John Lennon of the Beatles, arrive by plane at San Francisco International Airport on August 29, 1966. The four-member British band was set to perform that night at Candlestick Park—a concert that would prove historic, as it turned out to be the last time the Beatles ever performed live together."

 

[Rick A]

That's not the last time the Beatles performed live together. They played a live set from the roof top of Apple studios on 30 January, 1969, which is the last time they played together for an audience. Candlestick Park 1966 was their last booked concert.

 

[Trask]

From eight years ago -- the linked photo in the original post is gone, but it was the same picture:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Maybe we'll get different answers eight years later!

 

[Chrismat]

I believe that he is carrying a Pentax S1a. Pentax gave the Beatles the cameras, and they used them quite often. If you watch the part of the Anthology dvd set where Paul talks about visiting Miami for the first time he mentions they all carried their Pentax cameras with them. I have a Pentax SV and the only difference (besides mine being chrome) is that the SV has a self timer and I don't think the S1a does.

Interesting article on what may have been George's Pentax selling on auction:

http://www.theonlinedarkroom.com/2012/11/what-price-george-harrisons-pentax.html

 

[frank]

Agree. going by the shape of the film advance lever.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

From eight years ago -- the linked photo in the original post is gone, but it was the same picture:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Maybe we'll get different answers eight years later!

Ha. Funny. Well, it is an old photo. Got it from an article on the tearing down of Candlestick Park which is going on right now:

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/06/the-lights-go-out-on-candlestick-park/395633/

 

[benjiboy]

Who cares about such trivia ?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Threads merged.

 

[ic-racer]

Ha. Funny. Well, it is an old photo. Got it from an article on the tearing down of Candlestick Park which is going on right now:

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/06/the-lights-go-out-on-candlestick-park/395633/

A little tangent, but the reproduced B&W photographs numbered 10 and 15 are, of course, classic examples of darkroom dodging and burning. #10 dodging of a silhouette against the playing field and #15 burning for foreground flash. I suspect some day there will be an instagram filter to reproduce the inexact nature of the density manipulation.