Celebrity Pentax Sighting

<p>A Hard Day's Night came on at a Beatles party at a bar downtown. Ringo not only was able to take pictures with an early 1960s vintage Pentax while walking in full stride down London streets, but it fell in the water and kept working, and he gave it to a kid to use afterwards. Wonder what it would cost to get him to use one now?</p>

<p>Yes, I noticed that he was using a Pentax. Since the movie came out in 1964 (or was it 1965) and obviously had to be filmed and edited before release, it was probably too early to be a Spotmatic. Didn't notice a meter port so it was likely meterless. I'll bet he was shooting Ilford film.</p>

<p>Some more trivia - actor Peter Sarsgaard uses a vintage Pentax SLR in the just released (in Australia) movie An Education - the movie is set in 1961 London and Paris. I don't know my early Pentax well enough to tell you the model.</p>

<p>In the 60's pentax made good cameras of excellent reputation. My first one was a S1a and it was (and still is) a quality item that performed well and and feels good in the hand. The pentax slogan at the time was "just hold a Pentax" When you campare a current model to the 'real' ones you realise just how badly standards have dropped in all of the main areas for hand cameras. Current models by all makers are now permanently time warped in the 1980's with the black plastic blob type sith sensor instead of film. When you look at the older quality models you see how cameras could be again but won't because theres more profit in bad design and poor materials,...and increasing features by the 'drop feed' method to get people feeling the need to up grade every year,....for example by adding video, but not adding the sound features to make it useable,..until the next model.</p>

<p>It's a sad comment that the latest celebrity Pentax sighting was 40+ years ago (not including Mr. Skaarsgard's recent retro effort).</p>

Everybody used a Pentax in the 60's. It was the camera to be seen with....

Some says it still is...:-)

<p>Somewhere back in time, I believe Jimmy Olsen (played by <a title="Jack Larson" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Larson" title="Jack Larson">Jack Larson</a> ) used a screw mount Pentax in the Superman TV series starring George Reeves.<br>

BTW, he used other cameras from Speed Graphic to Minolta, and Nikon.<br /> <br /> Cheers!</p><div></div>

<p>I have been seen in public with my Pentax a fair amount. You didn't know that was a celebrity sighting?</p>

<p>No John, we didn't.</p>

<p>Caught the Beatles documentary on VH1 Classics channel about a month ago and saw this image taken just before they made it big in the states:</p>

<p>http://www.eskimo.com/~bpentium/beatles/beatax.jpg</p>

<p>It seems Pentax may have sponsored them to some extent.</p>