SLR/Iris cameras, and stoning

[Sea Change]

No: HPFGUIDX 97305

 Pippin said:

[small snip]

Ppp> Unfortunately she must not  have had her glasses 
Ppp> on at the time.They would have protected her, as Colin, looking 
Ppp> through his camera, was petrified, not killed. 

_____________________

Sea Change responds:

Some film-using cameras (typically cheaper SLRs) have a separate
viewfinder opening that doesn't look through the lens.  These
viewfinders show the image slightly to one side of where the lens is,
and would be like looking through glasses.  Some film-using cameras
use a mirror system, so the viewfinder opening shows directly what the
lens sees.

So, it is possible that Colin didn't look directly at the basilisk,
but a mirror image.  We don't know this for a fact, because all JKR
says is that it's an old-fashioned camera.  The film suggests it's an
old iris camera, which type often used mirrors, but this is
contamination.  (SLRs were *the* newfangled thing when I was a kid,
but they sure aren't now!)

Does anyone remember if Harry had his glasses on still when he fought
the basilisk?  Perhaps Fawkes' deorbitation of it was unnecesary!



Sea Change, who wonders if a modern digitized CCR image of a basilisk
is as deadly as the real thing.