Talk About Yer Bad Ideas

Don't use it to take pictures of the police...and when you go to that rally for the President or Prime Minister, better leave this at home!

Mike
(Thanks to Mike Plews)

Send this post to a friend

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[toto]

Instead of that pop-up frame for a viewfinder, it should have a laser sight.

[Chuck Albertson]

...unless you're in Arizona, where showing up for a Presidential visit with a M-16 over your shoulder is hunky-dory.

That thing really takes interchangeable lenses?

[amcananey]

What I find interesting is that Mike has linked to another website, which isn't the original source of the picture, but which itself links to a third website, which quite obviously isn't the original source of the picture either, yet which gives absolutely no information as to where IT got the information from.

[I don't know why I find this interesting, other than it just shows you how random information gets passed around the 'net with no way to check it or track it back to its original source.]

Best,
Adam

[Al Patterson]

That depends. If you wish to commit "suicide by cop", this is as good as an Uzi water pistol...

(Note: NOT a recommendation, I just have a twisted sense of humor. I'd buy one of these, but I'd be EXTREMELY careful where I point one)

Second note: I had an Uzi water pistol 30 odd years ago. Now I can't even find one in a quick Google search to add the link, so believe me, they made water pistols that looked like Uzi's in the late 1970's or early 1980's.

[Robert Noble]

The idea isn't new.

[Christian]

There's a long history of these, as I know from my copy of "Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital" - a book you once recommended.

I've found a couple old ones online:
http://www.oobject.com/14-cameras-that-look-just-like-guns/marey-gun-camera/2498/

http://gajitz.com/point-and-shoot-5-more-weird-gun-shaped-cameras/

(here's one reportedly from 1862):
http://www.mariasphoto.com/2007/09/21/thompsons-revolver-camera/

The last neat thing I found when trying to find old gun-cameras is this site that lists a bunch of "historically important cameras" and features a couple gun cameras, a cane camera, and some other bizarre cameras.
http://johnsrolleionlypage.homestead.com/historicallyimportantcameras.html

What's weird to me about the one you posted is that it looks pretty new. It seems to me that in 1862 a gun camera might be less of an issue in public than one today would be. You were probably less likely to get arrested or shot when wielding one (wield seems like the right verb).

The other thing this makes me ponder is why all our cameras today (obviously not all) are shaped like cameras. It seems like digital technology is perfect for designing a camera that looks like a pocketwatch or a cane or a large piece of "bling" around your neck.

[Paul Amyes]

Sorry but I'll pass, an ordinary camera can get you tazared and a night in the cells.

[Mike Johnston]

"The idea isn't new"

No indeed! Almost as old as cameras, in fact. But maybe a worse idea now than ever....

Mike

[charlie]

I've seen these things before. All of them should be filed under WTF was I thinking?

[hugh crawford]

That looks like a Doryu 2-16 http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Doryu_2-16
It has a bizzare flash that could cause problems if used in public to say the least.
"The handgrip contains a magazine, just as the bullet magazine of a real pistol, loaded with six magnesium cartridges"

and from
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Mamiya_Pistol

The demand from the police forces was made more pressing after the "bloody May Day incident" a clash between Tokyo protesters and policemen on May Day 1952, where two people were killed and more than 740 were injured. It is said that various policemen were injured while taking photographs of the protesters: with their eye on the viewfinder they could not see their opponents. As a result, the Japanese police wanted a camera which would be easy to aim without raising it to the eye, and a pistol-shaped camera was considered ideal because the policemen are supposedly good at gun handling.

[Martin Doonan]

I recently had the opportunity to borrow a photosniper. I was afraid to take it out of the house. Thing is, it's by far and away the best means of hand-holding a long lens I've yet encountered.

[Richard W]

IIRC: A goodly portion of the 'Gun Cameras' produced were designed and built as Training Devices for Military and Police forces so 'live action' training exercises could happen without real bullets flying around AND Instructors and Students would have a living record of what folks were seeing and shooting at when the triggers were pulled. Of course this technology predates todays miniature video cameras, lasers, and 'gelatin' tipped bullets for live fire exercises.
I don't have first hand experience with the things or their use, but the things I recall from reading McGowns Price Guide point that way.
Richard

[John]

NRA meets Paparazzi!!! Charlton Heaton is smiling in his grave.

[MJFerron]

That one made me burst out laughing. One can get enough dirty looks just aiming a P&S around. That baby will have SS guys jumping on your back in no time.

[Petersson]

The Foto Sniper is rather common. It is a Zenit 12 SLR mounted on something that makes it look like a rifle.
http://cameras.alfredklomp.com/fs12/
It makes it easy to hold the camera steady. I bought mine in Moscow, but I choose not to use it on the red square though.

[Antony Shepherd]

I'm pretty certain I've seen that before, they were made for the Japanese police.
Oh look!

http://www.debtloanweb.info/doryu-2-16-pistol-camera.html

http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Doryu_2-16

[Lynn_B]

My wife took one look at the picture, and remarked "that HAS to be American - what were they thinking?"

[Mike Johnston]

Lynn,
No, it's Japanese, from the early '50s.

Mike

[Kevin]

Guns are irresistible, aren't they?

http://gizmodo.com/026341/gizmodo-in-japan-gun-guitar

Was it Bob Marley (or maybe Peter Tosh) that used to play one of these.

[Sean]

I can see myself trying to explain it to the old bill... Hello, hello hello...What's all this then? Oh this? I'm going to shoot David Cameron with it.

[Steve Damascus]

For a nice example of a rifle-stock camera in use, rent a copy of "How to Murder Your Wife" with Jack Lemmon. In the opening scene, Terry-Thomas' character photographs Jack Lemon in a live-action version of the comic book hero Lemmon draws.

[David Bostedo]

"rifle stock" camera mounts are actually relatively common in nature photography - especially for moving wildlife - where handholding large lenses is pretty common.BushHawk makes a bunch of different models, and there are homemade ones out there.

[Robert Noble]

Just picture how much friendlier your subjects would be if you pointed a teddy bear at them instead of a pistol! (This one's for video, but in theory the eyes could be big enough to hide a Summicron.)

[Tom Duffy]

Need to have a really good lens on that or your last picture will have lots of flare from the police officer's muzzle flashes.

[Archer Sully]

Gives new meaning to "street shooting." ;-).

[Keith Loh]

This may be apochryphal, but I heard that some park rangers tried banning the use of Bushhawk-style stock mounts because it would condition park species to be too comfortable around rifle-like objects and humans.

[Peter Hovmand]

can I please take your picture, Mr. President?

[Peter Klein]

I'm worried enough about my Minolta Spotmeter M, which has a pistol-like grip.

[Rana]

Heh.

(My fiancé just quipped, riffing off of The Animaniacs, "Good idea: making your gun look like a camera. Bad idea: making your camera look like a gun.")