Stunning Video of Paris Captured Through the Viewfinder of an Old Pentax 67
If this video doesn’t make you want to go out and buy a Pentax 67, nothing will. Paris is beautiful enough as-is, but there’s something about exploring it through the viewfinder of a classic medium format camera that will tug at your photographic heartstrings and have you nostalgic for the good ol’ days.
Created by photography and filmmaking enthusiasts Mathieu Maury and Antoine Pai of production/advertising company Maison Carnot, Paris Through Pentax was the result of serendipity.
“It’s actually quite a funny story,” Pai told us in an email. “Mathieu passed by my place with the Pentax 67 and almost the same day I received the Blackmagic pocket camera and it just seemed obvious to us when the two cameras were lying together on the table.”
From there on it was just a matter of figuring out how to rig the two together. A teensy bit of DIY experimentation and they came up with this:
Add a black paper-covered board to help with reflections, and you arrive at the final rig:
“As Parisians, we are so used to the charm of our city that we forget sometimes to take a minute and observe,” explains Pai. “Marcel Proust once said, ‘Mystery is not about traveling to new places but it’s about looking with new eyes.’ That is totally what we felt while shooting this film.”
Whether you’ve been to Paris many times or the only exposure you’ve ever had to the city is the myriad photographs you’ve seen of the Eiffel Tower, this video has something for you. And seeing as it’s shot entirely through the viewfinder of a gorgeous medium format camera like the Pentax 67, anybody with a thing for photography should already be sold.
Check it out for yourself above, and then be sure to visit the Maison Carnot website, Facebook and Twitter to see more of Pai and Maury’s work
Image credits: Photographs by Mathieu Maury and Antoine Pai and used with permission
