Camera Obscura
Comments: 13
Someone wrote to me today asking me about the camera in the header at the top of the page. Before I answer him (and Ed, let me apologise to you now for keeping you waiting – but I’ve been meaning to play this little game for a while and just didn’t get around to it until you gave me the push), does anyone want to take a guess at the significance of the camera?
It’s not terribly difficult. In the unlikely event of it being necessary, I’ll post the answer tomorrow.
And Ed – yes, you should buy the one you saw for $10.
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Posted to General Rants • 2003.01.08 (Wed) • 02:11
Comments
Posted by Derren Wilson 2003.01.08, 02:42
Having view>source’d a few times on your site (cheat - but I promise I haven’t nicked anything), I think it’s the Zapruder camera used to film the assassination of JFK.
Posted by resonance 2003.01.08, 03:27
I thought for a moment it might be one of those super-cool, gratuitously-hip-like-lomos-these-days PixelVision 2000 cameras (such as the one used to shoot parts of 1994’s Nadja, but somehow I doubt that there’s a Fisher Price label anywhere on the gadget pictured above.
Posted by milov 2003.01.08, 08:45
I suspect that since it is an analog camera, it could be considered “anti-pixel”, whereas a digital camera would be “pro-pixel”.
Posted by jh 2003.01.08, 11:07
Derren gets it right first time! It is indeed Abraham Zapruder’s camera (and yes, the answer was contained in the file name!).
The still is from an FBI shot of camera taken after it was ‘taken into custody’ by the feds after the assassination.
Posted by Mary Beth 2003.01.08, 12:15
And heck, here I was going to suggest it was part of the new iLife package announced today by Steve Jobs! Great keynote I thought - how about you?
Posted by chris 2003.01.08, 13:21
well, it’s an analoge camera and thus free from all the pixel-resolution-blinkiblinki-computer crap.
I never get why so many people name their websites pixelthis or pixelthat anyway. it’s just a damn unit. what’s next? a hype around centimetres?
Posted by victor 2003.01.08, 14:25
It’s ot just a unit, unless you take a very limited view. It’s more like an atom, the undivisible components of images and designs. Designers are like physicists, building things from scratch. Like alchemist, transmuting one substance into another.
To speak of antipixels is alike to speaking of antimatter.
Posted by Ed 2003.01.08, 19:12
It’s a !6 mm camera and the Zapruder fim was 8mm I recall—I will buy this camera and follow your advice— Ed
Posted by jh 2003.01.08, 23:09
Ed — It’s an 8mm camera, a Bell & Howell 414PD. I think these cameras looped 16mm film but exposed only one side of the film each pass. The film was then split at the lab during processing.
Victor — Thank you! More eloquent than I could be tonight.
Mary Beth — I’m posting this comment from Safari. The keynote was a bit of a stunner considering how much gloom and doom were being rumoured beforehand. I want me one of them 17 inch PowerBooks, that’s for sure.
Posted by pixelkitty 2003.01.09, 12:23
my site is called pixelkitty because my cat is called pixel, and he is a kitty.
plus, I push pixels for a living. ahem.
I was going to guess at the camera, but I would have been a little way off, so I didnt.
buy it for 10 bucks, thats damn cheap!
Posted by Mr. Stinky 2003.01.10, 23:32
It looks like a circa 1960’s Bell and Howell 8mm Filmo movie camera. A similar camera was used to make the infamous “Zapruder’ film of the Kennedy assassination.
Posted by John Whitley 2003.08.02, 07:20
For an amazing and astonishing overview on the Kennedy assassination, see ‘The Men Who Killed Kennedy’ page at http://www.survivalistskills.com/KENNEDY.HTM. Thus was one of the pivotal events in American history which precipitated the United States onto the slippery slope to New World Order globalism.
There’s a substantial archive of fascinating and invaluable ‘New World Order Intelligence Update’ articles on the New World Order at http://www.survivalistskills.com/sect22.htm and archived also at http://www.rarehistorybooks.com/NWOLINKS.HTM. The ‘NWOIU’ site itself is currently down for substantial re-construction, but these archived articles are well worth reading.
Posted by John 2003.09.19, 08:15
I have tried a couple sources to find the answer to two questions and have not received an answer. The first question is did Zapruder’s camera record? I don’t think it did, but I need to make sure of that. Second question is, when did Bell and Howell stop producing this camera? (P.S. I am writing a manuscript (science fiction) based on this assassination and the information you give me will be useful. Thank you. I will be looking to hear from you. I am hoping to hear from you.
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