Cameras in Movies, Part n+1

<p><strong>Cameras in Movies, Part <em>n</em>+1</strong><br /> Over the years. Photo.net has seen a posts on cameras seen in movies.<br />For example, <br /><br />the Exakta in <em>Rear Window</em> ( multiple discussions at http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00VBtt , http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/009F9p etc)<br /><br />the camera used by <em>Alfie</em> in the eponymous film ( http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00JcwH ) <br /><br />the use of the Stereo Realist in the big bug movie <em>Them</em> ( http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00YCII ) <br /><br />the probable, as I now think, use of a Ricoh Mirai in the 1989 version of <em>Batman</em> ( http://www.photo.net/modern-film-cameras-forum/00Yk4S ).<br /><br />There may even have been a prior discussion of <em>Close Encounters of the Third Kind</em> ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860/ ), but if so, it is lost in the long list of titles of close-up photos of tigers, flowers, and such.<br /><br />Any how, as the <em>Rear Window</em> list shows, topics never grow beyond the possibility of recall.<br /><br />Sooo, here are a few examples of cameras in the <em>CE3K</em> movie, in this case all pretty much in the Classic Manual mode, as would be expected of a 1977 movie.<br /><br />Not too far into the latest edit, comes the recovery of the lost steamer Cotopaxi in the Gobi Desert:<br /><br />As the UN party moves closer to the site, some men in a truck prepare their cameras, then a photographer in a helicopter shows one of the few cases in the movies of a Nikon "twist" or "shuffle" - the wrist twitch still noted in veteran Nikon photographers when they mount a lens:<br /><br /></p><div></div>

<p>I'm reasonably sure from some details not shown here that the camera is a Nikon F2 Photomic.<br /><br />Another shot of a photographer with a motorized drive, likely a Nikon F2 as well.</p><div></div>

<p>Just a few frames further on, still in the "Gobi" (actually California, of course), a medium format camera makes its appearance as the team approach the Cotopaxi (actually a small model very close to the camera).<br /><br /></p><div></div>

<p>I have a dim memory of a Rolleiflex TLR glimpsed around somebody's neck (maybe Bob Balaban="David Laughlin"?), but I couldn't find it.<br /><br /></p>

<p>In the unrest in the Roy Neary household after the first sightings in Muncie, some kind of Polaroid or perhaps Kodak instant camera is used by the boys to take a picture of their dad's (Dreyfuss) half sunburn. Ronnie (Teri Garr) takes the camera and tells the boys it's not a toy. She retrieves the picture that has fallen out of the camera:<br /><br /></p><div></div>

<p>In preparation for a return to the site, Roy clumsily tries to load an easy-load Instamatic camera and takes it to the curve in the highway:</p><div></div>

<p>And finally, at Devil's Tower after contact is made and she has recovered her child Barry ("One-take" Cary Guffer), Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) pulls out a Rollei B35 with an f/4 Triotar and shoots about a hundred or more frames without any visible indication of reloading the film. She at least does wind it on.<br /><br /></p>

<p>BTW, low light was apparently not a problem for beginner level cameras in 1977.</p><div></div>

<p>Appropriately, as the Mother Ship (note that it is a large mammary poised over the site) departs with Roy Neary, Jillian (lower left) is still shooting with that remarkable Rollei B35 "Infinity" model.<br /><br /></p><div></div>

<p>Did I miss any? Quite possible, especially that elusive Rolleiflex or other TLR.</p>

<p>Any other mysterious, or not, cameras in film? </p>

<p>The above images were taken from the screen by me with my Canon 5Dii, FWIW.</p>

<p>Really interesting to see JDM, I'm sure that many people will come back with CMC movie stars! I was watching a doco on the Queen Elizabeth's 60th Jubilee and there was a shot of here in the Mediterranean with a Leica, M3 or M4?</p>

<p>In "Close Encounters" that is a Kodak 'Colorburst' instant camera she is holding. Kodak had to discontinue the film when they lost the lawsuit polaroid filed against them for patent infrengment. Too bad, it was better than the polaroid SX film.</p>

<p>John, the color burst cameras come up from time to time in Fleabay as "collectors" items...some at very adventurous starting prices!<br>

I agree that the film was better than the SX70, but the cameras were much more ungainly.</p>

<p>In the movie <em>Twister</em>, I seem to recall seeing a Canon F-1N and a Nikon F3 on the dashboard of the red Dodge pickup truck.</p>

<p>Nice study of CE3K. My favorite use of cameras in movies remains (an obvious choice) a film in which photography is a central element: Antonioni's <em>Blow-Up</em>, in which David Hemmings uses both a Nikon F (with plain prism) as his walk-around camera and a Hasselblad 500C in the studio.</p>

<p>Funny, last night I was wondering what exactly Gary Lockwood used in Model Shop. A Rolleicord maybe?

<p> </p>

<p>hmmm... for the sake of historical accuracy... i'm not sure i see the nikon shuffle in that scene, at least not in the version i have here... i asked my poor CTS wrist and it agrees, just a regular AI mount... wouldn't be needed on an FM either :)</p>

Where would Bond be if he didn't have an inconspicuous little camera that converts into something he really needs?<br><img src="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/threaded/files/2012/11/q-james-bond.jpg">

<p>As for the "twist," if you look at the hand/wrist as the lens is mounted, both in the pictures above and in the film, you will see the hand turn first counterclockwise, then back.</p>

<p>Nikon started AI lenses in 1977, the year CE3K was <em>released</em>, and the camera sure looks like the earlier model F2 Photomic to me (see last frame above). I'm guessing the props department or whoever still had non-AI cameras and lenses. The images are too unclear for "product placement", I think. Now the Rollei B35 might be another matter, since at least once the name is fairly clear.</p>

<p>However, on reflection, this scene was one of the later shots in the film...</p>

<p>In 1977, even if it weren't necessary, everyone who had been shooting Nikon still did it. Heck, my hand wants to do it when I mount a Canon EF lens, nearly 10 years after some 30 years of shooting non-AI Nikkor lenses.</p>

<p>QG,<br>

In the Bond shot, could that be a КИЕВ 88?<br>

Jes' funnin' ya. ;)</p>

<p>In the movie Crazy Heart, Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a reporter who interviews Jeff Bridges (a once-famous country and western singer.)</p>

<p>She also shoots her own photos for the interview, with what looks like a Pentax MX and Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8.</p>

<p>oi, JDM, as a lifetime owner of a mighty stable of both F2 and FM boxes (practically to the exclusion of all other models), i'm sticking to my story--the FM-ness is dripping from that cut! :)<br /><br />but hey, really not important, all in good fun. you made me look up the excellent-quality, full-length copy on youtube, so big thanks for your research and some relaxing moments<br /><br />(<em>under fire</em> still tops my own list of "most convincing F2 handling by an actor" ;))</p>

<p>Well, I've still got an F2, and I say that -- even if that is an FM (also a 1977 camera, BTW, so even as a late shot, it might be pushing it) -- the guy does the Nikon "twist"/shuffle, all the same. :)<br>

Not that it really matters, as you say. But this is TRIVIA, you know. I don't know if there are CE3Kers like Trekkies? LOL.</p>

<p>The "Collector's Edition" (1998) that I have (not Blu-ray) is a much better film as a whole than either the original release and particularly better than the "expanded" version of 1980, I think. The Gobi scene was added in the latter, but I don't know if it was filmed between 1977 and 1980, or not. If it was, then the FM ID is at least easier to explain, without my necessarily accepting it.</p>

 

Perhaps a bit unrelated. I have missed Mad Men ( will play catch up this summerr) but they're showing MAgic City and the lady photographer and the usual black mail are themes... Have seen some vintage cameras there too

<p>Of course, in Bridges of Madison County, Clint Eastwood swaps his 44 Magnum for a Nikon F...not that much difference really!</p>

<p>This thread mentions several: <a href="/classic-cameras-forum/00WqpO">http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00WqpO</a> like the Argus C3 in <em>Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow</em> (discussed here <a href="/classic-cameras-forum/009WS4">http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/009WS4</a>) and the Matchmatic in Harry Potter #2 (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4116617472/tt0295297">http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4116617472/tt0295297</a>) and Canonet 28 in <em>Pecker</em>.</p>

<p>More recently, a Nikon F Photomic T in <em>I am Number 4</em> (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1480164608/tt1464540">http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1480164608/tt1464540</a>) </p>

<p>A Canon New F-1 in the 2002 <em>Spider-Man (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4033388032/tt0145487">http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4033388032/tt0145487</a>)</em></p>

<p>And while not big-screen, there is a <strong>Midsomer Murders</strong> episode <em>A Picture of Innocence</em> (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0908628/">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0908628/</a>) where the entire plot is based on the conflict between a old-style "Classic Manual Camera" club and the new digital interlopers. It's got some hilarious stereotypes like the film guy who only takes photos of this one tree (using a Rolleiflex) and the spray-and-pray digital users....</p>

<p>In <em>42</em>, the movie about Jackie Robinson's breaking major league's color barrier, there are many scenes of the press photographing events. Since this was in the 1950s, most of them use, as far as I can tell, Graflex cameras with flash. Now, which Graflex cameras are they? Speed Graphics? Crown Graphics? Super Graphics?</p>

<p>The movie <em>Simon</em>, made in 1980, has the press using Nikon F, or is it F2?</p>