This page is intended to show examples of the use of historical cameras in TV films.
The explicit use of cameras in films interests me. One thing that's obvious is that in so
many cases the camera and position make no sense: long teles, photographers far too close to
their subjects, standing in ridiculous positions. That's not lack of understanding: any of
these sets is teeming with photographers. Yes, they're mainly video photographers, but you
need to be a rank amateur to make that kind of mistake.
The other thing is the choice of camera in films set in the past, and that's what I'm
collecting on this page.
But that's a small difference: the Pentacon Six was the successor of the Praktisix. Off to investigate, in the process
discovering a number of errors in the Wikipedia pages, one of which was that the Praktisix
page didn't exist, and that the camera was described under Pentacon Six.
The lens is a 120 mm f/2.8
Biometar, produced between 1956 and 1988, and rather longer than you'd expect for a
camera of this format.
Heartbeat: Miller's Tale
On 2 September 2021 we watched “Miller's Tale” from the British series Heartbeat. It was first broadcast in
October 2005, but it takes place in eternal 1969. Here's the camera used by a reporter:
Clearly it's a Nikon, and the first lens is clearly identifiable. I didn't recognize the
“Nikkor-H”, but “Auto” suggests that it's far newer than 1969. But I was wrong: this page shows that the lens
model was made between January 1964 and February 1967, and the serial number (600010 <
685618 < 704258) suggests some time in late 1966.
The other lens isn't identifiable, but what about the camera? Clearly it has a Photomic
head and a motor winder, but what's the grip on the right? I don't know of any Nikons of
the day with a grip like that. And the Photomic head, the position of the flash sync
connector and the lack of a pin for the rabbits' ears make it clear that it's not a
Nikon F.
