OT: Vintage cameras on TV/Movies

bmattock

bmattock

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I was having a root beer float with my wife last night, and we were watching some stupid TV show, I don't recall what. A commercial came on for MCI's "The Neighborhood" calling plan, with James Taylor singing "I Just Wanna Stop (and Thank You, Baby)" and a little girl taking pictures of various couples. The camera she was ostensibly using was an Olympus Pen-F, a half-frame 35mm SLR from the early 1960s.

Anybody else notice older/vintage/rangefinder cameras in use in movies, TV, etc?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
The one that hit me hard was a commercial for a new Chemotherapy drug. It showed a bunch of kids outside playing, and then shifted inside. Their grandfather's Nikon Ftn was sitting in its half-case, but Grandad was too worn out to get up and use it to take pictures of the kids.

Also, at the Beatles exhibit at the Smithsonian, Museium of American History (aka History and Technology), you will see lots of shots taken by Nikon SP's. The Beatles press photographer is pictured with his SP, and many shots taken of press photographers with SP's, F's, Speed-graphics, and Rollieflex's. Ed Sullivan is there too. I remember watching the Beatles on that Ed Sullivan show.
 
In the movie Coal Miners Daughter actor Tommie Lee Jones is taking Sissy Spaceks photo with a Super Graphic 4x5. He is focussing using the groundglass and has the 4x5 film holder on top of the bellows. After he gets the composition right he inserts the film holder into the back of camera and takes the picture which amazingly turns out great, even though he did not remove the dark slide from the film holder!!!. I need some of those "magic" film holders that let you always make great photos without doing every thing correctly.

Wayne
 
In the John Waters movie, 'Pecker', the star, Edward Furlong, picks up a rangefinder camera from his mother's used clothing store and goes on a photography tear - shooting everything in sight and becoming an overnight sensation in NYC's art scene.

Trouble is, he never seems to change film - he gets 80 or 90 shots per roll. He must need film though, because he shoplifts it from the local grocery store (he has no money). How he gets the prints developed is a bit of a mystery.

He also likes to obscure the rangefinder or the viewfinder with his hand while he adopts his classic 'famous photographer' poses.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
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And the MCI ad obscures the name on the camera too, just showing the "F" on the front instead of "Olympus-Pen F". Looks odd and I noticed it right away. That camera is pretty distinctive in appearance anyway!
 
I know this is book but...
In William Gibson's 'Count Zero', there's reference to a female TV personality with expensive Carl Zeiss Jena implants on lease, with the logo on the iris.

The fun part is when she gets knocked off in the jungle by terrorists; the TV station has to retrieve the implants.

Stu 🙂
 
How about Jude Law's sinister photographer in "The Road to Perdition", loading a folding camera (to me, a Zeiss Ikon or some such thing) in the diner where he's planning to knock off Tom Hanks' character? At least they gave him the right film?

Not a rangefinder, I know, but that's the only one I could remember... besides the Leica in "The Big Fish."
 
movies

movies

Das Boot (the Boat): great movie, lots of screw-mount Leicas.
 
I need to check this, but I believe that in the movie, " Under the Tuscan Sun," the nice Polish kid takes everybody's picture with a Kiev 4.

... Kiev cameras, good wine, and Diane Lane.... heaven....
 
Back in the late 1960's network television introduced what they called a, "made for TV movie" It was a two hour long (with commercials) feature, usually a drama of some kind. At first they were one of a kind stories, but they later evolved into a series of recurring characters like "McMillan and Wife" with Rock Hudson and Susan St. James.

One of the very first ones was a rather obtuse spy thriller where a travelling writer was mistaken for a spy and dragged into all kinds of hazardous situations. Eventually he fought back and triumphed. Throughout the story he took pictures with what I think was a Konica Auto S2 or perhaps an early Canonet QL 17. At the end he replaced the innards with an explosive device and tried to kill the bad guys. Does this sound familiar to anybody?

-Paul
 
Not that I really know these kinds of movies, of course, but I just remember something. When I was younger there was a "romantic" film in which that great hero John Holmes plays a swingin' fashion photographer.
What was he shooting with (so to speak)? A black Nikon SP! (I swear this is true if anyone wants to find it.)
 
Slightly more accessible than the Johnny W. Holmes pic mentioned above (do not ask me how I know that, I *was* a Marine once, hehehe), consider the Argus Match-Matic C3 used in the latest "Harry Potter" movie to take a picture of a snake!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
I know this is an "ancient" thread but couldn't help myself.

While watching Close Encounters, during the scene where the UN is rushing to document a ship found in the Gobi desert, a photgrapher rushes into the frame with what looks like a Mamiya 6. Too quick to tell.

Mind you, there are helicopters and trucks kicking up clouds of sand and in the same scene another character has a Hasselblad strapped around his neck.

You can imagine what is going through my mind. It has nothing to do with the story line at all.
 
I was watching "Godfather III" a couple of weeks ago, for the __th time. I just noticed Sofia Coppola using a Leica (M3?), to take shots of Michael and Kate as they walked along the train station in Sicily. Hard to do with a 50mm, shooting the moving subjects while walking backwards in front of them. 😉
 
Vintage. . . maybe not so vintage, but the camera that Nicholas Cage is using to shoot his character's soon to be wife in "Lord of War". Looks like a CL or CLE. . . not sure.
 
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