What kind of camera did they use for this ANH scene?

I found this photo via David Prowse’s twitter and I can’t figure out what kind of camera it is. In all the BTS photos I’ve seen from ANH they’ve used Panavision camera, however his looks more like an old technicolour camera. Anyone familiar with what this is?

It looks like one of these old cameras, but I don’t see why ANH would need a three-strip technicolor camera.

I know they used VistaVision cameras for the special effects which this shot clearly is. VistaVision shoots 35mm film 8 sprockets vertically instead of the 4 sprocket horizontal feed of a normal cinema 35mm camera.

In DSLR sensor size, VV is comparable to FullFrame and Super35 (the full 4 sprocket 35mm cinema frame) is comparable to APS-C.

That camera is NOT a three strip camera. Look at the magazine. There is an obvious single strip feed and a single strip takeup section.

Found it! According to this article linked at the bottom it’s a Technirama camera which was basically VistaVision with an anamorphic lens. I’m sure they simply used aspherical lenses on the camera.

http://www.cinematographers.nl/FORMATS3.html

Mavimao said:

I know they used VistaVision cameras for the special effects which this shot clearly is. VistaVision shoots 35mm film 8 sprockets vertically instead of the 4 sprocket horizontal feed of a normal cinema 35mm camera.

In DSLR sensor size, VV is comparable to FullFrame and Super35 (the full 4 sprocket 35mm cinema frame) is comparable to APS-C.

That camera is NOT a three strip camera. Look at the magazine. There is an obvious single strip feed and a single strip takeup section.

I know what a Vistavision camera is, I just didn’t recognise this camera design. I didn’t really belive it was a technicolor camera, but it look very similar.
So I guess this might be a old vistavision camera? That technique, from what I remember, was first used in the 50’s around the same time that three-strip technicolor became obsolete. I guess that might explain the design similarities.

Do an image search on Google with “technirama camera” and that particular model is everywhere.

Mavimao said:

Found it! According to this article linked at the bottom it’s a Technirama camera which was basically VistaVision with an anamorphic lens. I’m sure they simply used aspherical lenses on the camera.

http://www.cinematographers.nl/FORMATS3.html

That’s typical, if I’d just looked at the site the picture I posted was from I’d have the answer to my question immediately.
At least I was right in it being an older camera.

Mavimao said:

Do an image search on Google with “technirama camera” and that particular model is everywhere.

Yep, there it is. Some of the images are even from ANH. Seems like they used it for the Mos Eisley establishing shot as well.

We’ll, that solves that mystery. Thanks.

During the 50s and 60s the studios were coming up with all sorts of widescreen formats and would often reuse older cameras. That technirama camera could very well have started out as a three strip camera but gutted and refurbished.

flametitan said:

Being that they used both Vistavision and Technirama, and I assume a third camera for non effect shots, I wonder how hard it was to mix the negatives, seeing that to my knowledge you’d have three different anamorphic scales for the shots.

VistaVision and Technirama are, for all intents and purposes, the same format (35mm, 8 sprockets wide, vertically loaded - exactly like a 35mm still camera). I seriously doubt they used the Technirama anamorphic lens and instead used a normal aspherical lens. The anamorphic system is quite poor for analog special effects work because of the reduced depth of field, the soft edges and the anamorphic squeeze being inconsistant across the frame. All it does is introduce more errors in your work flow.

They more than likely filmed all of the special effects shots and composited them using the flat 8 sprocket format, then cropped the top and bottom, added a 2x squeeze and printed it to 4 sprocket anamorphic 35mm.