RF camera in Space: 1999

[nksyoon]

I was watching some old Space 1999 episodes on DVD. In the episode "Testament of Arkadia", an engineer is using a scanning device which looks like a 50's medium-format RF!

Can anyone identify the camera? Thanks!

 

[mr_phillip]

It's a Mamiya Press Camera with what looks like a Leica VIDOM finder on the top.

 

[nksyoon]

That was quick, thanks!

 

[Rayt]

Who knew retro can be so futuristic.

 

[furcafe]

Well, sideburns & porn 'staches have made a comeback, so perhaps the kids will soon be using Mamiya Presses, too. After all, photo/art god & hipster hero William Eggleston uses one:

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/watch/william_eggleston_in_the_real_world/

Who knew retro can be so futuristic.

 

[Darkhorse]

It's amazing in these old shows and movies how much the advancement of technology is simultaneously overestimated and, more noticeably, UNDERestimated. For instance in Back to the Future II people in 2015 are using Laserdiscs, have TVs with lousy resolution, use Fax machines with terrible dot matrix print quality, and absolutely prehistoric (but at least holographic) computer animation. But they still have flying cars powered by trash.

 

[JohnTF]

It's amazing in these old shows and movies how much the advancement of technology is simultaneously overestimated and, more noticeably, UNDERestimated. For instance in Back to the Future II people in 2015 are using Laserdiscs, have TVs with lousy resolution, use Fax machines with terrible dot matrix print quality, and absolutely prehistoric (but at least holographic) computer animation. But they still have flying cars powered by trash.

Quite right, I do not recall any prophetic story lines that say, would have included the almost total demise of Polaroid.

Three minute snips of family life in double 8mm films were quite interesting and technological advanced in their time, I recall doing a project for a friend that involved my shooting two rolls of 8mm film, cutting and splicing them together, involving symbolic poetry and music-- something a 10 year old would find technologically over simplistic today.

I think now we probably understand much of the underlying current technology at about the level we understood the technology of the Jetsons then. ;-)

There is something satisfying about understanding a bit more of the process, but conversely, I do not think very much about what is actually happening when I switch on the cable TV and Hi Def screen.

Regards, John

 

[goo0h]

I loved that show growing up - used to watch it when I was a kid!

The Eagle was the bomb!

Yeah, me too! 🙂