20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek: First Contact
13. It Was The Last Trek Film To Use Practical Models
First Contact marked a major milestone for the Star Trek movies by being the final one to use a practical scale model of the Enterprise during production.
Most of the shots of the Enterprise throughout the film were achieved through practical motion control photography, with the model being filmed and then inserted into a CGI environment and enhanced with digital effects.
From Star Trek: Insurrection onwards, the various effects shots of the ships were entirely digital, initially working from high-resolution images of the Enterprise model taken during production on First Contact.
And naturally, it goes without saying that the J.J. Abrams-produced reboot franchise also opted for 100% CGI ships, given that VFX are considerably cheaper than practical elements these days.