That style of meter fitted all Pentax models made after April 1961 which had a cut-out in the shutter speed dial for the meter coupling pin: this included the H1 and H3, also marketed outside the USA as the S1 and S1a and the SV. The 1964 version has the rounded casing shown in the Beatles picture, whereas the 1965 version has a rectangular casing and a hi/off/lo switch to set the metering range. I bought one for my SV in cape Town in 1969, and used it for many years to get very accurate exposures considering the simplicity of the metering algorithm - a simple 30° Cadmium Sulphide cell. Both camera and meter were stolen in 1975, but I have now replaced them both, and they still work extremely well.
I have a feeling that the other Beatles camera was also an SV see Frank Theriault and Joe Wilenskys conversation of February 2004 on the same subject! And this from http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/v-print/m-1211282681 <quote> George said, Weve all got Pentax cameras. They look good. Theyre black. George also told me about his own work, I have some good photos but most of them are nothing. Ive also got a fish eye lens on my camera. When I asked Ringo about the photos in his book he told me, Theyre mostly photographs of the boys. When we were making the film I had my own Pentax and I just kept clicking all the time. I asked about the camera that fell into the river in the film and he said, Well, although I used a real camera in the rest of the film, we had a dummy one in the river sequence made up of old Pentax parts. </quote> John Coyle Brisbane, Australia -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Sessoms Sent: Monday, 27 October 2008 11:56 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Beatles Pentax Sighting (or: I Want To Hold Your Pentax) From: "John Celio" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz/2626869860/ > > I knew Ringo used a Pentax in A Hard Day's Night (anyone know what > model/lens?), but I had never seen George using one too. Pretty nifty. :) After a quick little bit of Google research, it looks like it's an SV with a clip on meter. It's the style of the meter on the left maybe? http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00K/00K3Ct-35107284.JPG It says the SV was introduced in 1962, and was the model that preceded the Spotmatic, so it would have been the current Pentax model at the time the movie was filmed. I doubt it's the same camera Ringo uses in Hard Days Night, since that one gets dunked in the river while Ringo's playing "deserter", but that camera looks like an SV as well; without the clip on meter. http://www.collection-appareils.fr/pentax/images/PentaxSV.jpg Standard lens would have been a 55mm f/l.8 Super Takumar -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
