Krasnogorsk-3 and 500T film question.

[Giedrius Dzencevicius]

Hello,

 

I want to shoot night city footage with Krasnogorsk-3 camera and with Kodak Vision3 500T film.

But Krosnogorsk has setting of max film speed 250. So my assumptions will be to use setting of 250 on the camera

and to use Neutral Density 2 filter. Am I correct?

i understand this is noobie questions, but i cant find answer anywhere, so maybe someone will help me.

 

thanks a lot.

 

liquidspace

[Ian Cooper]

Depends how you use the camera.

 

If you don't use the internal light meter, then totally ignore the speed dial on the camera, set your external light meter to EI500 / 500asa and just transfer the reading from that to the lens.

 

If you are using the internal light meter, then set it at EI250 / 250asa. The reading this gives will be one stop over-exposed - so if the meter indicates the exposure is correct with the lens at f5.6, then adjust the aperture to read f8 instead.

 

 

If you put any neutral density filter in front of the lens it will affect both the light meter and the film by the same amount. Putting a 2 stop neutral density filter on the camera would "reduce the sensitivity" to the same as a film stock of 125asa without any filters, but you'd still need to set the light meter on the camera to 500asa to match the filmstock actually loaded.

[Giedrius Dzencevicius]

thanks for the answer. as i know external light meters are quite expensive so ill try second option. thanks again.

[Ian Cooper]

thanks for the answer. as i know external light meters are quite expensive so ill try second option. thanks again.

 

 

Depends on the type, some external light meters are expensive, but basic models can be picked up for more reasonable amounts.

 

A possible alternative would be to use a normal 'still' SLR camera as a light meter. You'd need to set the film speed to 500asa (probably one dot after the 400asa marking) and you'd want to set the camera's shutter speed to 1/60th second (which is the closest you'd get to the K3's shutter speed).

 

Assuming the light meter on your K3 works, sticking with that and just opening the lens up 1 stop from the indicated setting is probably your quickest/easiest option. If nothing else it saves carrying around another camera.

[Giedrius Dzencevicius]

maybe You can drop some manufacturers or models of light meters. lets say i can invest around 50-100$ if is it possible to buy something in that range? :)

[Ian Cooper]

With that sort of budget you're probably better off looking at second hand.

 

A new Sekonic L308 is about £125 ($191), so you might find a second hand one on ebay that's just inside your budget.

 

Personally I'd stay away from the analogue moving needle meters. Although I have got a Western Master which was very good, isn't really any competition to my digital meter.

 

A reliable light meter is a useful tool which will last for years, and the cost of a basic one isn't much different from getting 400ft of film processed and telecined.

[Robert Houllahan]

You definitely do not want to add ND if you are shooting at night in a city, I would recommend working at a T2.0 with the K3 Jupiter lens some neon will blow out but you will get plenty of shadow detail. The K3 (at least mine is) light meter is set in Gost units and not ASA anyway and there is a small conversion factor. I have always used an external light meter and even left the battery out of the K3 a Sekonic Studio L398 analog meter is what I started with and major films have been shot with only that meter and it is inexpensive and requires no batteries. The advantage of a newer digital meter like the 508Cine I have is spot metering I don't think the incident is more accurate than the L398 though.

 

-Rob-

[Giedrius Dzencevicius]

thanks guys, there are plenty of information to sort of in my head :) will inform about results as soon they will be available.