ANH Graflex Saber: Is this not a Graflex Clamp in this screengrab!?

Hey guys! I was scrolling through the Graflex Addics group on Facebook when I noticed this picture, talking about the alignment of the grips to the D ring assembly.

But then somebody pointed out that the clamp has no holes in it like a normal Graflex Clamp. I noticed that as well and under more examination, I saw that not only does the clamp have no holes, but the lever actually looks very close to an MPP Flash handle lever.

The MPP clamp is obviously much shorter and isn't long enough to fit as many bubbles as shown in the first picture, but is there another clamp that shares the same lever style as the MPP? Or could it be some sort of hybrid?

It’s a Graflex clamp, the lever looks different due to the quality of the photo.

It does look like there is crome tape on the clamp and sidebars, but it doesn’t appear to have tape in any of the other shots or in the movie.

Optical/ photo illusion?

I think to some extent we forget just how much they were flying by the seat of their pants during production. And given the fidelity of the picture back then, I think they had to prioritize on the big details and not the small ones. They certainly were not nearly as obsessive as we are now, that's for sure!

It was a pretty scrappy picture, and no one had any idea how successful and transformative Star Wars (neé A New Hope) would become. If they had, they might have preserved the props after production ended! ;-)

MasterJedi said:

...But then somebody pointed out that the clamp has no holes in it like a normal Graflex Clamp...

Click to expand...

Good eye, man. When one of Roger Christian's Graflexs came up for auction in the last couple of months, it reawakened the reflective-tape-on-the-ANH-clamp argument.:

https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=277448&highlight=christian

It's a viable if not probable scenario. Like many I'm not putting that crap on my props, though.

This picture has been discussed before. At the right angle, with the same lighting, this effect of the clamp holes not being present can be replicated.