Scratched film - Does anybody recognize this?

[Bruce James]

Hi all.

 

I shot a short with my K-3 last year and haven't used it since because of these scratches. This is a still grab from an SD video transfer. This pattern, or one very similar to it, appeared in several rolls, but only on about 1/3 of the film and never on an entire roll.

 

Has anybody seen this pattern before? I still have the loop formers in my camera. Could that be the problem?

 

Any help you can offer would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

- Bruce

 

[John Brawley]

Hi all.

 

I shot a short with my K-3 last year and haven't used it since because of these scratches. This is a still grab from an SD video transfer. This pattern, or one very similar to it, appeared in several rolls, but only on about 1/3 of the film and never on an entire roll.

 

Has anybody seen this pattern before? I still have the loop formers in my camera. Could that be the problem?

 

Any help you can offer would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

- Bruce

 

 

Hi Bruce.

 

Firstly i don't know the K3.

 

Are the scratches in the same place on each frame ? If so I'd suggest your loop size is too big. It's contacting with a part of the camera that it's not meant to. I don't know the specifics of how loop formers work on the K3 but if it's possible to set a tighter loop then you should do so. I know for example an Aaton loop is meant to be 12-14 perfs. Anything bigger and it will work but it will get noisy and possible scratch.

 

Do you have a perf count for the K3 and can you set it and have it stay set ?

 

jb

[Saul Rodgar]

Definitely looks like the loop is too big as John suggests, and getting scratched against the plastic loop formers.

 

People often break the plastic loop formers on K3's. You may want to give that a shot if making the loops smaller does not work. They should not touch anything (besides the gate and pressure plate and the sprockets) as the film runs through the camera. You can set the camera to 8ftps with the door open after loading the film. Then press the button on the lower part of the loading compartment until the loop formers release the film. Then run the camera for a few sec's while pressing the button and make sure the film is running freely, without touching any surface

Edited October 22, 2008 by Saul Rodgar

[Ian Cooper]

Yeah - loose the loop formers, I'm pretty sure that'll be your problem.

 

If you don't fancy the idea of breaking them off, it is possible to remove them properly in such a way that you could always replace them again at a later date. How to go about it has been mentioned a couple of times recently. It's so easy to load manually you don't need the loop formers anyway.

[John Sprung]

Yup, loop formers.

 

That's fixable in post, Digital Vision and MTI make semi-automated dirt and scratch removal systems. Depending what your market and budget are, that may be the way to go with what you've already shot.

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Bruce James]

Thanks for all the responses. I went out of town shortly after I posted and didn't get a chance to check back before I left. I'll loose the formers.

 

- Bruce

[Olex Kalynychenko]

Hi all.

 

I shot a short with my K-3 last year and haven't used it since because of these scratches. This is a still grab from an SD video transfer. This pattern, or one very similar to it, appeared in several rolls, but only on about 1/3 of the film and never on an entire roll.

 

Has anybody seen this pattern before? I still have the loop formers in my camera. Could that be the problem?

 

Any help you can offer would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

- Bruce

 

I can suppose :

Too big size of upper loop.

The film touch of upper end of film gate at time between phase of moving film of main cog's wheel, up to time of transpot pin go.

 

Or, the film touch of end of surface of plastic film leading.

Edited November 4, 2008 by Olex Kalynychenko