Screen Grabs: Lost's Ben shoots Nikon
Screen grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.

Ben (aka Benjamin Linus), leader of the Others and all around creepy manipulator, doesn't just shoot guns all the time -- as we find out in a flashforward to 2005, he also apparently shoots Nikon as well. Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with a D100, but Ben does kind of strike us as the calculating, discerning type that would probably prefer a full-frame Canon though, you know?



















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
b82000 @ Apr 27th 2008 7:32PM
Correction:
Flashforward.
Rafer @ Apr 27th 2008 7:35PM
Beat me to it.
sinai @ Apr 27th 2008 7:36PM
i don't watch lost, but maybe he meant the episode which aired in 2005, in RL?
Josh @ Apr 27th 2008 7:41PM
Nope. It was a flashforward to 2005 where Ben was taking pictures of the funeral procession of Sa'yid's wife.
b82000 @ Apr 27th 2008 7:42PM
nope, the episode aired this past thursday.
brandon_r87 : Brawl : 4897-5857-5091 @ Apr 27th 2008 7:42PM
No, this was a very recent episode, and it was a flash forward. The new season has mostly been flash forwards, with one exception I think.
Chad @ Apr 28th 2008 12:08AM
Maybe he prefers the ridiculous reliability of Nikon vs fall apart Canon DSLRs that I gave up on a few years ago.
supermeerkat @ Apr 28th 2008 5:37AM
I'm amazed Ben isn't toothless and brain damages, given all the beatings he has recieved at the hands of just about everyone in Season 4.
xenon @ Apr 27th 2008 7:34PM
It's good to know that I'm not the only one sad enough to notice and/or care :D
Alex @ Apr 27th 2008 8:11PM
haha same here
Mark @ Apr 27th 2008 9:17PM
o snap!! datz so dope I alwayz new he wuz flyn wit da nikonz.
IndiaTech @ Apr 28th 2008 1:09AM
Welcome back from the dead, Alex...
stankychicken @ Apr 27th 2008 7:35PM
third!!
Jordan @ Apr 27th 2008 7:38PM
Moron!
Neebs @ Apr 27th 2008 8:04PM
Weren't you already told to piss off in the Seiko Slimstick thread?
eric cumbee @ Apr 27th 2008 7:38PM
where do i go to get the last 15 seconds of my life back?
Jordan @ Apr 27th 2008 7:43PM
I too am way too stupid to understand the meaning of this post and too lazy to google it.
Ethan @ Apr 27th 2008 7:44PM
Smoke three cigarettes.
compuguy1088 @ Apr 27th 2008 7:40PM
I've used a D100, and it is a perfectly good camera....though the megapixel of the camera are quite low (from its age).
Richard Lai @ Apr 27th 2008 10:12PM
I'm still using a D100, got it second hand, a great bargain on ebay. It does the job apart from having to tweak almost every photo to fix the levels.
Ethan @ Apr 27th 2008 7:47PM
He bought it because his Apple III doesn't have Canon drivers.
Mike @ Apr 27th 2008 7:50PM
Haha, maybe the 1.5 crop helps getting closer shots of the target :)
Tim @ Apr 27th 2008 11:39PM
well assuming for a given model range the full frame version has a proportionally higher megapixel count than the 1.5x crop, then why not just crop the final image, and gain the increased light levels from the larger sensor?
henry @ Apr 27th 2008 7:53PM
heh heh... HD can't hide the strip of electrical tape covering up the bottom of Nikon on the front of the camera. Not only that but he was shooting with the memory card door open in a couple of the takes!
compuguy1088 @ Apr 27th 2008 8:02PM
I guess he wanted to switch CF cards quickly?? lol
Jason O @ Apr 27th 2008 7:56PM
The red dot on top of the lens shows to me at least that it's a VR lens... So he's at least trying to keep a steady shot going. And maybe the increased zoom factor he gets from the smaller frame was the calculated part of it. Sneakily getting 150 mm out of a 100 mm lens......
..... nah, I too lost 15 seconds of my life just replying to this...
Bellerophon @ Apr 27th 2008 7:58PM
Camera buffs: What lens was he using? Looked snazzy.
Thanks.
Bellerophon @ Apr 27th 2008 8:05PM
Replying to myself here but, I'm gonna take a punt and think it is a 80-400mm lens. Since Jason's sharp eyes spotted it's a VR lens... and its size seems to fit... I think.
vasu @ Apr 27th 2008 7:58PM
I was also impressed that they made sure to use a D100 and not something that was available after 2005. Good attention to detail there
Josh @ Apr 27th 2008 9:45PM
And yet the game of Risk they were playing didn't get released until 2005. I guess they evened the score with the camera. lol
Mike @ Apr 27th 2008 11:45PM
Haha I thought they just wanted an inexpensive but big camera
That's a good catch
remmelt @ Apr 28th 2008 9:35AM
What? The original risk was released in 1957, according to Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_(game)
Is that a special version I didn't notice?
Paul @ Apr 27th 2008 8:03PM
Is he using a 80-200mm lens?
Eric Gore @ Apr 27th 2008 10:15PM
was not using the 80-200, as what he was using had the gold ring, which the 80-200 doesnt have
Paul @ Apr 27th 2008 8:10PM
Upon reviewing the episode, I can see that Ben is using the Nikon 80-400mm VR lens with his D100.
w00t @ Apr 27th 2008 8:14PM
Ok, maybe I'm just drunk... but I don't have a clue what any of you are talking about!
DarkLightConnection Unbanned @ Apr 27th 2008 8:35PM
You're just drunk
Mike @ Apr 27th 2008 11:46PM
It's a camera gear thing :)
perardi @ Apr 27th 2008 8:26PM
I dunno about the full frame thing. The crop factor would give his telephoto a little more reach, which could be handy.
Chris Muir @ Apr 27th 2008 8:33PM
I think that the general consensus is that Nikon is easier to manipulate than Canon, and we all know Ben is all about the manipulation.
Silas Miller @ Apr 27th 2008 8:43PM
"discerning type that would probably prefer a full-frame Canon"
Yeah sure as opposed to the D3 that would take his lenses, cost-half-as-much, and be the best full frame camera for the money.
And yes I stink of Nikon fanboy. So sue me.
jollyllama @ Apr 27th 2008 8:47PM
Yeah, I was thinking that too, but D3's weren't available in 2005, the time this was supposed to take place. But, as noted above, a full frame wouldn't necessarily be a better choice in these conditions: the D100's cropped sensor lets this lens (80-400) be an effective 600mm, also known as a freaking telescope.
omgitsacamera @ Apr 28th 2008 12:43AM
Wasn't the D200 already selling in 2005?
Gene @ Apr 28th 2008 6:07PM
The D200 was available in November, 2005, after when this scene took place.
I.E @ Apr 27th 2008 8:52PM
OMG!, didn't know discerning types prefer full-frame Canons.
ian @ Apr 27th 2008 9:32PM
agreed
Jason B @ Apr 27th 2008 9:41PM
Kinda short and kinda useless. Slow newsday.
takamaru @ Apr 27th 2008 9:59PM
Leave Nikon alone! They make a perfectly good camera for all situations and they produce wonderful pictures.
/rant
Andrew @ Apr 27th 2008 10:42PM
Oh no... a seemingly novice photographer taking pictures of a person to be used by only himself wasn't using a canon? what a travesty. get that nikon out of his hands right now!
Joshua Walters @ Apr 27th 2008 10:51PM
They use Nikon on CSI as well.