Film Cameras in Movies and TV Shows

34 Comments

1. I have a few more at https://www.flickr.com/photos/rick_oleson/albums/72157716695911828

   :)=

2. In THX1138 Minolta 1degree spot meters are used as futuristic cameras

   1. That’s DOCTOR Peter Venkman, please. Interesting and fun article – thanks!

      1. In the poster for the Oliver Stone movie Salvador (1986), James Woods is holding a Canon F1 with a 24/2.8 lens. I seem to recall another character using a Leica M series camera, possibly an M3, as well.

3. In one scene from the 1957 film Funny Face, the character played by Fred Astaire has at least 3 Rolleiflexes hanging around his neck.
   Within the last few days I’ve viewed one episode of the original US TV Perry Mason series in b/w, which is being aired in the UK, shows Paul Drake with a Rolleiflex, but I suspect that the print from the original has been copied back to front as Drake winds on in reverse for each exposure he makes. He winds anti-clockwise and completes the sequence by winding clockwise. He does this 3 or 4 times so I had ample time to do proper checks. Rolleiflex users know that we wind clockwise first and then anti-clockwise to bring the lever back to its resting state.

4. what a great list! My partner doesn’t appreciate me freeze framing cameras in movies either 🙂
   Off the top of my head some additions: Canonet 19 in Ramen Shop (2018), Instax Mini in Yes Man (2008), Minolta HiMatic AF2 in The Wailing (2016), Mamiya Family in Serpico (1973)

5. “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” TV show had quite a few instances as they had shameless product placement. (Such as when Coke was a sponsor and Harriet comes into the living room with a tray with six bottles of cokes, all with straws pointed skyward at the same angle and all with the name facing the camera to offer to the guests. But I digress.) Kodak was, I think, an original sponsor and then with stronger presence later. For a while, at the beginning every episode where the family is introduced Ricky has a Kodak camera around his neck. Looks like the model “Pony II”. You can see it at 0:20 seconds here: (104) 1959, Ozzie and Harriet “Ricky the Bullfighter” with KODAK tv commercials – YouTube . The 57th episode “The Cameras”, Jan 15, 1954 has a storyline where Ozzie buys four cameras for the family. You first see the cameras at 5:20 here: (104) The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Camera Show – YouTube They look like Kodak “Baby Brownie Special” cameras to me.

   1. I see the YouTube links didn’t work out in my Ozzie and Harriet show comment. Here is the one for the typical cast introduction with Ricky with a camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJnCPR3T1jg&t And here is the “The Cameras” episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkiihm0tn7Y&t

   2. I see the YouTube links didn’t work out in my Ozzie and Harriet show comment. “Ricky the Bullfighter” that shows the intro with Ricky with a camera is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJnCPR3T1jg&t and “The Cameras” episode is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkiihm0tn7Y&t

6. There was an unusual camera in a TV episode of “The Saint” (Roger Moore starred). A woman is at some tourist place at a stone wall using a Tessina camera. This is a fairly unique camera that is quite small and straps to the wrist. 14×21 mm pictures on 35 mm film in a special cassette. Sorry, I don’t know the episode, but did take a photo of my TV screen showing it.

   1. Charles, a wonderful little camera, stainless steel body, clockwork film advance, and it’s a TLR* to boot! Mine is missing its dedicated wrist strap, but I do have a (non-working) exposure meter, waist level finder, and magnifying hood.
      *In fact it is a twin TLR sysem. Conventional TLR for viewing, but also the taking lens reflects off a mirror to the film, and this results in a reversed image. This means that when printing, the negative is placed shiny side down in the enlarger, rather than shiny side up.
      Whilst not quite 1/2 frame, the negative is a little larger than the 17x14mm standard on many of the 16mm film sub-miniature cameras of the day.

7. I’m surprised the Minox isn’t on the list. It has probably been used in more TV and movies than any other camera as a “spy camera”. Some examples I could easily find are the 1968 movie “Pretty Poison”, 1988 movie “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” where Jeff Bridges is using it attached to binoculars with a cable release and you see the camera only very briefly, 1990 TV movie “Family of Spies”, 1985 movie “The Falcon and the Snowman that also shows on a desk the little Minox tripod and camera holder, 1997 movie Grosse Point Blank, 1959 movie “Up Periscope” where James Garner used one, 1948 movie “Northside 777” where Jimmy Stewart used one, and, of course, a Bond film – the 1969 “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”.

8. https://www.spotern.com/en/spot/tv/the-prisoner/158101/canon-dial-35-camera-used-by-number-six-patrick-mcgoohan-as-seen-in-the-prisoner-s01e0

   Canon dial 35

9. There is the ubiquitous Minox. Certainly seen more than any other camera. Just a few examples. 1948 “Northside 777” (Jimmy Stewart). 1959 “Up Periscope” (James Garner). 1998 “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” where Jeff Bridges uses one attached to a binocular and a cable release. 1990 TV movie “Family of Spies”. 1985 “The Falcon and the Snowman” where it also shows on a desk the little Minox tripod with camera holder. 1898 “Troop Beverly Hills”. Bond of course in 1969 “Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. And more. Plenty of TV shows, too.

10. Nage/Kodak Vollenda on the ‘new’ Perry Mason. I’ll watch The Public Eye tonight or tomorrow and try to spot as many as I can in it

11. The new film One Night in Miami keys in on Malcolm X’s love of film cameras. He’s got a plain-prism chrome Nikon F, and at one point waxes rhapsodic about his other camera, a Rolleiflex 3.5.

12. In the movie Operation Petticoat, as the submarine pulls into a harbor, it is photographed with a Pacemaker Crown Graphic
    then shown in a frame. This movie takes place in 1941~2. The trouble is the Pacemaker was produced from 1947-1973,

13. Mike, another candidate is a Contax II used by James Mason in one of his early b/w films. I’ve consulted the EMBD film database but none of the film descriptions ring a bell with me.

    1. There’s a “Movie Planes,” “Movie Cars/Trucks,” and Movie Guns” database. So, are you proposing a “Cameras Seen In The Movie” database? That would be quite interesting, since these other databases feature movie stills as well. I suspect that for movies of the Silent Era, you would need this and other vintage camera sites to distinguish a Wet Plate from a Dry Plate camera of the 19th century. I would also guess that the “professional hand camera” seen at the moon base in “2001: A Space Odyssey” is a prop, rather than an actual image taker.;)

       1. Patrick, there’s also a watches in films site. A lot of the names you’d expect, such as Rolex, Longine, Jaeger Le Coulter as these are often placements, but the fun bit is trying to identify regular brands.
          Next time (oops, a pun) look out for watches worn by actors playing German military personnel of WWII and see if you can spot Doxa, or Tutima and Hanhardt for the Luftwaffe.I believe Hamilton was popular with the US military.

    2. Commenting on my own post earlier, the James Mason film has just been broadcast on UK TV. “Hotel Reserve”, 1944. My memory was faulty in recalling it was a Contax II, as it turns out to be a Contax 1. Nice close up, about 4 minutes into the film.

14. The other night I had music videos (remember those?) on while I folded laundry, and I caught a glimpse of a camera in Paula Abdul’s “The Way the You Love Me” video. I had to grab my laptop and figure out which one it was…a Leica M6. I feel so much better now about this oddly obsessive behavior.

15. I am slightly embarrassed to say I scrolled quickly through your list to see if there was a Voigtlander on the list 😛

16. Mike, as usual, this was a great article. One TV show that featured many different cameras was the 1958 series “Man With A Camera” starring Charles Bronson. The DVD set is available online. It’s a very fun series to watch if you are an avid photographer.

    1. Jim, thanks for this. I’ve discovered it’s available in the UK via Amazon Prime, so I’m looking forward to viewing the series.
       You’ve also reminded me of another US series “Kolchack, The Night Stalker” from the 1970’s, starring Darren McGavin as a newspaper reporter. Unfortunately, the NTSC transfer to DVD shows the horizontal resolution lines of the original standard definition broadcast system of the time and which are quite noticeable with movement when viewing on a present day HD TV.
       Anyway, he uses a Rollei 16, although a search reveals it is a 16S. I have both versions, the only difference being the “S” stands for its snake skin covering.

17. I’m presently watching a TV broadcast of a 1963 film, The Mouse in the Moon, and the actor Terry-Thomas has a Periflex 2 or Periflex 3. The image quality of the transmission is quite soft and we never see the camera in close-up, but the circular viewfinder which was common to Periflex, as is the tube like lens, is quite a giveaway.

18. Joe Pesci makes use of a number of interesting cameras in The Public Eye, based on the life of Arthur “Weegee” Fellig. Along with his Speed Graphic, Pesci uses a Univex Mercury II and an Exakta, although which model I am not sure.

19. A Nikon F Photomic co-stars in that classic movie, Animal House. Makes only very limited appearance.

    And, the Julie and Julia features some sort of Rolleiflex.

    In the series Your Honor, some sort of M2 or later Leica (I’m not a Leicahead, forgive me)

    And how does Peter Parker get to have an S3 Y2K on a cub reporter’s paycheck……………..did he sell a kidney?

20. Another example from a British TV series, Life on Mars. In episode 5, a street photographer is clearly seen with either a 6×6 Prakisix or Pentacon Six. Weirdly, he’s using it at eye-level, with no pentaprism, and with the waist level hood closed! And instead of the clap of the shutter, the audio gives us a more normal 35mm slr sound.

21. The cameras in the first picture are maybe from right to left an Exakta Varex, Yashica-D. The other one is hard to see.

22. Olympus OM-4Ti is prominently featured in the opening credits of the James Bond movie “A License to Kill.”

23. In the 2001 movie The Royal Tenenbaums Margot (when she was Young) and Richie (as an adult) takes pictures with a Rollei 35S a nice choice for Wes Anderson visual style and aesthetics,

24. I’m interested about the most common cameras and lenses used on movie sets to take pictures during the takes. The kind of takes or backstage pictures than we find on internet about movies. Often times these pictures look amazing with lots of clarity and no movement blur even on darker sets (surely very fast lens)

25. Late I know, but the “Eyes of Laura Mars” (1978) extensively features Nikon FM with MD12 and Hasselblad cameras.