Super 16mm film in K-3...

Niall Conroy · February 4, 2012

Can a K-3 take super 16 film without modification? I know one would want change the regular 16mm gate for a wider super 16 gate. but that aside, I've read on websites that it can accept super 16 - but I can't get my head around the fact that regular 16 having 2 perfs on either side and super16 having just the one - therefore, would the camera not have trouble gripping the super 16 film seeing as it only has the perfs on the one side?

If it is possible, and it is no problem - how would one load the camera? I also read it only likes to take 100' foot rolls? would one need to take a 400' roll and just cut 100 feet off? Seems like it would be rather tricky to do in the dark.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Adrian Sierkowski · February 4, 2012

There's no such thing as Super 16mm film. Almost all 16mm film anymore is 1R, or 1 perffed, unless you order special film for high speed work, which is the only time you'd get getting 2R film. This is what you would get. As the K3 only has 1 claw, you'll be fine. It'll grab and pull the film down. If you put 2R film in the camera, it wouldn't care either, as it only has 1 claw.

You'd order 100' daylight spools, which can be loaded in daylight, if you'd like. You'll fog the beginning and end of the load, of course, but it comes as 100' spools.

Niall Conroy · February 4, 2012

There's no such thing as Super 16mm film. Almost all 16mm film anymore is 1R, or 1 perffed, unless you order special film for high speed work, which is the only time you'd get getting 2R film. This is what you would get. As the K3 only has 1 claw, you'll be fine. It'll grab and pull the film down. If you put 2R film in the camera, it wouldn't care either, as it only has 1 claw.

You'd order 100' daylight spools, which can be loaded in daylight, if you'd like. You'll fog the beginning and end of the load, of course, but it comes as 100' spools.

Ahh cool - this clears thing up. I didn't realise it only had 1 claw - it just seemed unlikely to me that it would have 1 claw, considering that I assume the daylight rolls have 2-perfs and the K-3 is designed for daylight loads.

So if you didn't have access to 100' daylight spools would it be possible to insert cuts of a 400' (or greater) roll into the K-3? I can only imagine it being a bit tricky?

Mark Dunn · February 4, 2012

You'd have to wind down the longer rolls onto a 100' spool, this being the only way to run film in a K3, and with single perf you'd have to do it twice to get the perfs in the correct orientation.