Cameras appearance in movies/television database?

Has anyone made a searchable database that identifies cameras that appear in films or television?

No but some of us have individually posted on cameras in various movies.

I was watching an old Magnum episode and it seems they make a habit of putting black gaffers tape over the Nikon logo.

The old lady in Waiting for God was a photographer in the series and fiddles with old Nikons.

It'll be hard to find those posts here, because some of us call a movie a film, and if you try searching photo.net for posts using the words 'camera' and 'film', ...

I've noticed brand names are taped over in many shows/movies, especially more recent. Don't recall the last time I saw a modern-ish Canon or Nikon logo. Animal House does show a Nikon F body near the end.

 

Rick H.

I wish there was a data base. Watching MASH, Ive seen several cameras used from Rollies to Medalists.

 

Perhaps we should start one here we can contribute to as we find them?

I did an exciting series of posts on the FB "Traditional Film Photographers" group. Here's one from an episode of "Poirot". You will note that the collapsible Elmar is collapsed in this shot. David Suchet (Poirot) was a Leica collector, and the fault is corrected in later episodes.

 

And here is what I believe to be a Kodak Autographic, from a slightly later episode of the same series.

 

Anybody knows what kind of Canon EOS they used in the 2000 movies Harrison's Flowers?

I've noticed brand names are taped over in many shows/movies, especially more recent. Don't recall the last time I saw a modern-ish Canon or Nikon logo. Animal House does show a Nikon F body near the end.

 

Rick H.

NCIS uses Digital Nikons that are clearly visible(probably paying ad fee to the show to use them and be visible). With DVR available on cable and freeze/zoom on tv's it is easy to see which ones are used in to broadcasts....

You can find some by keywords at IMDB; the keyword 'pentax-camera' found me just two movies, for example, and 'nikon-camera' found 35!

'argus-camera' found none at all (though I know from this old photo.net post; Famous old camera and their users

that an Argus C3 has been in several movies). The keyword 'camera' gets 3052 results; if someone wants to sit and watch 3052 movies and make some notes, you might have the first version of a database!

 

Apart from the keywords, the entries at IMDB aren't much help (because they aren't camera nerds): so the entry for Rear Window doesn't say what camera James Stewart uses (I think an Exakta?), though it has a few keywords like 'telephoto-lens'.

 

I also learned that IMDB allows users to add some odd and tacky keywords!

Rear Window doesn't say what camera James Stewart uses (I think an Exakta?)

 

Yep-

No doubt about the Exakta, although the ID of the telephoto lens has been argued about (probably Kilfitt):

 

There’s a great “camera scene” at the end of John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle. The caper at the heart of the movie has unraveled and the police commissioner is holding an informal, wrap-up press conference in his office. For reasons I don’t want to give away because, if you haven’t seen the movie you might want to, the commissioner turns up the volume on four radios so that overlapping reports coming into the police can be heard, all while flashbulbs go off which continue over the silence once he turns the radios down. It’s a strong visual and audible use of cameras, beautifully filmed, just as one would expect from Huston. The scene doesn’t really fulfill, as far as I could tell, the trivia side of just what make and model cameras were being used. It’s more about furthering the story and punctuating the action. By the way, the opening scene of this movie has a terrific wide shot, with a skewed perspective, of an urban landscape. Great intro to the story to come. I mention that because there was recently some discussion about such skewed photography. The movie also has a not too shabby though brief appearance by Marilyn Monroe very early in her career.