recently bought k-3

Jacob Miller · October 6, 2013

To cinematography.com community,

I recently just purchased an m42 krasnogorsk 3 off of ebay for 17.50 (which was a steal) , but i want to know some things.

1st- What lenses are compatible, any m42 or will shorter focal lengths cause vignetting?

2nd- What film works best with the k-3 unmodified? I want something balanced for tungsten but can be shot in daylight with a filter.

3rd- Is it worth it to get the light meter battery adapter, or should i use an external meter?

4th- Is the super 16 mod worth it?

Thanks,

J.M.

Will Montgomery · October 10, 2013

1st- What lenses are compatible, any m42 or will shorter focal lengths cause vignetting?

Any M42 mount lens should be compatible. The Pentax lenses are particularly good for this camera. Almost M42 mount lenses (other than the Meteor lens that comes with it) are built for 35mm still cameras so no vignetting; even in Super 16.

2nd- What film works best with the k-3 unmodified? I want something balanced for tungsten but can be shot in daylight with a filter.

Any and all 16mm camera films will work just fine. Kodak Vision 3 200T would make a great choice, so would the 500T. I love 50D outside; it's the lowest grained film Kodak makes for cameras these days.

3rd- Is it worth it to get the light meter battery adapter, or should i use an external meter?

I've always used an external meter. Much more accurate, and even if you get the internal meter working it's probably old and not reliable.

4th- Is the super 16 mod worth it?

Depends on how much you spend. I actually noticed a difference when mine went to Super 16 with the same film and shooting conditions. Widening the gate is easy, the trick is to find a re-tooled mount to re-center the lens. Not absolutely needed but helpful if you're using the Meteor zoom. You'll see vignetting with the stock lens in Super 16 without re-centering the mount... and probably a little at the widest setting even after that.

Another easy mod would be to go Ultra-16 and just widen both sides of the gate. Plus is that it's cheap to do, downside is that not every telecine house can handle images between the sprockets.

Jacob Miller · October 11, 2013

Thanks for the reply. I received the k3 today and it's awesome. It works fine and is plain cool. I am going to look at the lenses you recommended and order some Kodak Vison3 50d film so i can shoot a test roll. If i like the results i will stick to reg 16 but will probably upgrade to the super 16 gate in the future.

J.M.

Will Montgomery · October 29, 2013

Let us know how it works for you.

Rudy Velez Jr · November 19, 2013

I own a K3 and have shot with it. If you'd like I can send you a link. Its a great camera thats ultra sturdy and has a great lens. 17mm-69mm. It takes 77mm screw on filters. If you need a wide angle use the peleng 8mm fisheye, its wide angle and has awesome DoF. I can provide a link to footage I shot with the peleng. I am not professional so you can image if a pro used this camera who great the results would be. I do not recommend super 16, way to expensive to upgrade and its pointless really..regular 16mm is great. If you need to upgrade the camera then go Ultra 16mm, but you cannot see what your framing anymore in the viewfinder.

The only mod you should concern yourself with the K3 is the removal of the plastic loop informers which just scratch your film. I have not done this mod but once done you should have no scratches. I have shot some film with the loop informers and have not got scratches, I have also shot footage with the camera and have gotten smaller scratches. In the end my scratches do not bother me (what bothers me more is something in the film gate like a hair that appears on the edges, remember to always check your gate and clean it with some compressed non liquid based air). In the my most recent usage of the camera I have not seen scratches, but I will eventually take my camera to Dual camera here in NYC, for 225 $ they will remove the loop informers. My footage counter never worked and that is minor bummer but quite frankly its not the end and hopefully when I go to get the loop informers removed they can fix it. You can hear when the camera is done anyways.

If you need a sound barney you can just wrap the body up in some jackets or blankets or w.e to suppress the sound of the camera. my camera is not to loud and its from 83. One last thing I recommend is that you always protect the lens with a screw on filter, some come with the camera.

I have yet to use the close up screw on filter so I wonder how that works. I have used the yellow filter that came with the camera and its awesome.

Philippe Lignieres · December 26, 2013

Removing the loop formers is very easy and fast.

You can chek here http://krasnofilmoandco.wordpress.com/k3/ and you will find the links to the tutorial videos.

I would not pay 225 S for that...

Another thing : i would not use the close-up filter because it soften focus. It is easier to just unscrew a little bit the lens and you will see you can focus more closer. focus is perfectly sharp in this case, and this is very easy to do...