MovieChat Forums > The Midnight Meat Train (2008) Discussion > The Crappy Camera

The Crappy Camera

posted 15 years ago by Grimm-Grimm
13 replies | jump to latest

This isn't the first movie I've seen where one of the main characters is the a photographer using a mediocre camera. I don't understand why they would ignore that of all aspects and give the guy a crappy camera to use. He's a professional and would be using a pro camera. Most people know what pro cameras look like. They are big and bulky. The old ones are big and black with some metal on the top, they can be used as weapons in an emergency, put it that way. The new ones are like the Nikon D90 and are big bulky black things with a big photo lens attached.

I used to do photography but most people know that a pro camera isn't this little camera with a crappy short stock lens. The camera is so damn small that the guy in the movie looks like he's having trouble focusing the lens.

MySpace/Music Links @ www.GrimmWebsite.com
www.myspace.com/TheFutureLooksGrimm

[–] darksorcerer 15 years ago

atleast he is not using a kodak digital 6 megapixel piece of crap

don't point that beard at me, it might go off... Groucho marx

[–] alesiaflint-1 15 years ago

Looks can be decieving. It's a Lecia M6, which is a perfect camera for the kind of work he's doing. http://photo.net/equipment/leica/m6

[–] jsprine-2 15 years ago

Agreed! The lovely Leica M6 is a wonderfully tough, compact, quiet little camera which can use the finest lenses on Earth. I see no reason why a seasoned professional would feel underequipped with an M6, though I have seen a lot of posers sporting heavy, complicated, expensive, and delicate gear that crapped out when the going got tough.

No, this is a non-issue; the little Leica was a perfect choice for the sort of work "the Photographer" did.

[–] kiie06 15 years ago

Come on, it's a Leica!!

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] alven75 14 years ago

As a professional photographer I've never pondered the importance of being able to use my camera as a weapon before... what kind of photography where you into exactly?

Also, I think I speak for all of us who actually do this for a living (as apposed to those who think it would be really cool if people thought they did) when I say: The MOMENT someone invents a way to do all the stuff we need to be able to do, with a small light camera, we are going to be all over that in a heartbeat! Try walking around with a 8 lbs camera and a 25 lbs gear bag for a whole day sometime and report back if you still think heavy camera equipment in and of itself is "cool".

Oh, and the great thing about Leicas, apart from having incredible build quality and top of the line optics, people who are not really into photography look at them and thinks they are "mediocre cameras", which is great if you want to run around New York City in the middle of the night without getting mugged.

[–] danya_chang 14 years ago

OP got owned

[–] random_beef 14 years ago

clearly. You know nothing about photography.

Nikon D90 is a beginners camera.

Lieca's are precision cameras.

[–] UndeadMollusk 14 years ago

Danya_Chang beat me to it, but I'll reiterate it.

OP got hosed... Big time. I'm not a huge photography buff -- I did take photo journalism for a semester but that's about it -- and I could tell that was a pretty solid camera.

[–] gottfrid 14 years ago

I met a professional photographer in London one of the times I was there on holidays, he was staying in the same hotel I was, and we talked a little bit. He was publishing a book on his work, and Vivienne Westwood wrote the introduction to the book, so I guess the guy was not mediocre.

And he told me he despises digital cameras, and thinks that the images he can capture with his old professional metal camera are way better. Having a look at at the guy's book, I couldnt agree more. He showd me his camera, and it was very similar to the one Bradley uses in this film.

maybe the film tells the story of a classic-driven photographer, like this one I met in London.

"No... no... notorious" (Duran Duran)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=558536338&ref=name

[–] eer85 14 years ago

When shooting stills on film, size hardly matters: a good shutter apparatus and a roll of film don't need a lot of space. Hasselblads cameras are still considered among the finest (if not THE finest) in the field and they generally are pretty compact pieces of equipment, well smaller and lighter than bulky, top-of-the-line digital-SLRs like the Canon 1D MKIV.

Usually, most pro-SLRs are lighter than the lens (well, at least when it comes to medium-to-long and tele lenses). Instead, DSLRs are generally heavier than the lens.

[–] Jokke_r 13 years ago

Hasselblad makes medium format cameras which are all pretty much larger or same size level as pro-level DSLR's like the 1D mark IV with a large lens. But Every Medium Format camera with a Digital back nowadays is really huge and heavy, and mostly only used for studio shooting. It's not the type of camera you would use to shoot fast action like the 1D mark IV.

Rangefinder cameras like the leica in the movie are mostly used for street type shooting. They don't really work well with a wide variety of lenses since the optical viewfinder doesn't adjust for different optics. Anything wider than 35mm lens and you can't see the entire frame in the viewfinder, and long tele lenses only use up a very small portion of he viewfinder so it's harder to compose.
Leica cameras while they have excellent build quality they're pretty much riding on their brand name. Their film cameras cost used up to many thousands of dollars, which is ridiculous. Especially when shooting film where the actual film itself has a huge impact on quality, and while Leica lenses have been elevated to some strange legendary status, truth is there are plenty of equal or better lenses for other systems by canon or nikon which are more versatile and practical and cost effective.

[–] DoKTOr_GonZOO 14 years ago

Nikon D90s are not beginner cameras a nice beginner camera would be a canon ft SLR or a Nikon FM 10.
Some of the best pictures I have taken are from cameras I have made.