American Gangster and Pentax

[kfrog]

<p>Most on this forum have seen or mentioned seeing Ringo Star in <em>A Hard Days Night</em> using a Pentax camera. A Spotmatic I think it was.</p>

<p>But has anyone seen <em>American Gangster</em> with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe? Crowe plays an undercover cop investigating a drug kingpin in Harlem during the 1970's. In the early part of the movie the cops are taking picture after picture in scene after scene with Asahi Pentax cameras! See photos in this link from Pentaxeros.com.</p>

<p>http://www.pentaxeros.com/forum/index.php?topic=37218.0</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>The earlier one(s) is actually a 1960-61 <strong>Honeywell Heiland</strong> Pentax H2 (probably, can't tell about the lens). That's not impossible for a movie set in 1973, but unusual.<br>

As noted at the link, the later camera is an Asahi Pentax K1000 which is also anachronistic because it is a 19<strong>75</strong> camera.</p>

[andrewg_ny]

<p>Lens looks like the lens in the first picture is Carenar 35/2.8 Auto Wide. If someone is dying to try one, there's one on e-bay now with a current bid of $0.99.</p>

[will_daniel1]

JDM, are you sure about 1975 for the K1000? That may be the correct year for Japan and Europe, but I remember it differently in the U.S. I was a Honeywell Photo Div. sales rep when we introduced the K series in the U.S. Our initial offerings were KM, KX and K2. The K1000 came later as a promotional model, but I'm not sure how much later. Memory fades. While we sere selling the KM, KX and K2, we still had lots of screw-mount models to sell, and our promotional items were SP1000 and SP500. Regardless, the K1000 is indeed a movie anachronism if it is set in 1973. I think you're right on the money about the H2. I had one of those.

[JDMvW]

<p>No, I'm not at all sure about the date, which I did not check. The date was from the link provided in the OP.</p>

[andrewg_ny]

<p>Think Will might be right, probably 1976 for the K1000 along with the K2DMD (motor drive-compatible) as well. Seems like I've seen a number of photographs of the KM + KX + K2 together without K1000, probably from initial release promotions.</p>

[will_daniel1]

<p>Here is <a href="http://www.willdaniel.com/stuff/portfolio2.jpg">an ad </a>that I ran for a customer in Pittsburgh. I'm pretty sure the year was 1975, but I can't tell from the ad. Note that the low-ball promo item was the SP1000. We definitely did not have K1000s in the U.S. when this ad appeared, or this particular customer would have featured it in his ad.</p>

[jpo3136b]

<p>I specifically told Denzel and Russ to have a lady there with a clipboard, checking continuity, if they wanted to use my K1000.</p>

[will_daniel1]

Right, Andrew, about the K2DMD. I almost mentioned that in my earlier post. That was a wild camera. Didn't sell well, though -- a little overpriced as I recall.

[harveysteeves]

<p>If I remember correctly, the K1000 was not part of the original K introduction. The K2 was the ESII, KX-Spotmatic F, KM - Spotmatic II correlations. The K1000 came later, if I remember right; the SP1000 stayed in the line-up for awhile.</p>

 

[charles_c1]

<p>According to the Pentax website time line, the K1000 was released "overseas" in 1976. It went "...on to become one of the most popular cameras for student photographers."</p>