JFK, Dealey Plaza, RF camera. 11/22/63

[CameraQuest]

Zapruder Camera affected JFK Analysis

Zapruder Camera affected JFK Analysis

one thing I have never seen explored in any JFK documentary is Zapruder's movie camera.

Every analysis seems to believe that movie cameras take pics at a standard rate the entire event, and so the events can be dependably timed.

not true.

variables include

working condition of the camera which affects frame rate

where on the roll of film the JFK pics were -- a slightly different frame rate for beginning, middle, and end

and how recently was the camera wound before taking the shots? that movie camera had a mechanical spring drive which would affect the frame rate

add all of these up, and who knows what frame ratethe motorcade pics were really filmed at, or whether or not the frame rate stayed constant during the filming.

change the frame rate, and you change interpretation of the events.

add to that at least one investigator believed the film had been altered by changing frame sequences.

as a side note, the famous pic of Oswald being shot was taken with a Nikon S3!


Stephen

 

[trph_2000]

Very interesting points, Stephen. I think the Warren Commission
analyzed the film very carefully from a technical standpoint and
some of these issues may have been addressed, but I'm not sure.
A lot really does hinge on the film, because modern theorists now
believe that the missed shot was the first, rather than the second
(as initially proposed by the WC) after carefully reviewing the film and calculating that Oswald was unlikely to have had time to fire a shot between the two clear impacts seen on Zapruder.

 

[David Murphy]

Very interesting points, Stephen. I think the Warren Commission
analyzed the film very carefully from a technical standpoint and
some of these issues may have been addressed, but I'm not sure.
A lot really does hinge on the film, because modern theorists now
believe that the missed shot was the first, rather than the second
(as initially proposed by the WC) after carefully reviewing the film and calculating that Oswald was unlikely to have had time to fire a shot between the two clear impacts seen on Zapruder.

Posner's book "Case Closed" has a discussion of some pretty definitive analyses done of the shooting using the Zapruder film coupled with computer simulations of the entire dymanics of the event (bullet trajectories, xyz locations of participants, the car, the time sequence, etc.). He debunks most of the conspiracies. I can't remember all the details, but one argument for the Grassy Knoll shooters has always been the fact that Kennedy jerks backwards when one of the bullets hits. It turns out that this is a well-understood involuntary reaction of the nervous system to the trauma of getting shot in the neck from behind that has been known to pathologist types since WW I. Pretty gruesome stuff, but worth pursuing to get clarity.

The only thing that Posner was not really able to debunk in his book is the true fact that Oswald was proceeding in the direction of Ruby's apartment after fleeing the Book Depository. Of course he was 2 miles from it and the streets in Dallas are largely on a grid, so that was probably just a coincidence.