ATRsea Posted April 17, 2005 Share Posted April 17, 2005 (edited) Hi . I'm really wanting to purchase one of those russian KONVAS cameras as I have I have a couple K3's and an Kinoflex camera and I really like them, reliable,cheap etc.. Problem is that when I contact the sellers on Ebay about using Escrow for the purchase they all refuse for various reasons. It seems no one outside the former iron curtain sells the Konvas 35mm camera and I'm not sending 1-3 thousand dollars to Moscow on blind faith. Any suggestions ? Edited April 17, 2005 by ATRsea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 17, 2005 Share Posted April 17, 2005 You can buy one direct from this guy... Konvas 1M Seller He is in the Ukraine but 100% reliable and great to deal with. I have made many purchases from him with no problems at all. He will have you send your check to a USA address, then he'll ship your camera. He'll most likely sell to you for a similar price to ebay sellers, ask him fo JPEGs of what he has in stock and he'll send them. Responds to e-mails quickly. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Pacini Posted April 18, 2005 Share Posted April 18, 2005 Are any of the Kovas' quiet enough to shoot sync sound, or are they all noisy beasts? Matt Pacini Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Sean Morris Posted April 18, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted April 18, 2005 Hi, I agree with Richard, Olexandr is a great guy for sales, parts and top quality repairs. No, all the Konvas are quiet noisy, like a food blender on low, some people have tried making blimps etc.. But this is really just a MOS camera and designed for MOS applications only. The Kinor 35 is a different story, syc-sound but way larger in size than the Konvas and costs more do$h.. a lot more. Cheers Sean Morris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Yes Konvas cameras are quite noisy. Great for MOS work though, guess what they are still used to make big budget Hollywood features as crash cameras or when you want a camera close to an explosion. Are you going to put the 1 million dollar Panavision 20 feet away from a huge fire ball? Not likely. Send in the 1M, she'll get the job done. The 1M was also the first movie camera used in space. Keep in mind not all 1Ms are created equal. There are old ones in bad shape with hideous motors and horrible lenses. Then there are the newer ones which are quite nice and run great. Handy to have three lenses ready to go, you don't have to stop and change lenses. You can use the 400ft Konvas mags on the 1M by the way. There was a company in CA that did high end modifications on Konvas cameras but their web site appears to be gone. They put digital frame counters on the camera, the whole works. Want a great 35mm system? By a 2M and get an Arri lens mount put on, then you can rent 50K primes for your shoot and get some amazing imagery. All you'll have to rent is the lens and save a fortune! Matt I have done sync sound with my 1M, we just did ADR on the lines after the film was transfered to video. Worked fine. RDCB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Montes Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Another reliable source for Konvas cameras is: http://www.rafcamera.com/ He comes highly reccomended. Also some owners sell their Konvases on the Konvas Smart Group: http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/Konvas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Pacini Posted April 19, 2005 Share Posted April 19, 2005 Which models are the newer ones? Russian design is so ugly, it's impossible to tell. They all look like they were made by Cro-Mags. MP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 20, 2005 Share Posted April 20, 2005 What? Russian design is ugly? I beg to differ. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess. The Russians take a very practical approach to design and make their gear to last. I've dropped one of my 1Ms onto a concrete floor, picked it up and it still ran fine. I'd like to see an Arri do that. Any whoo, any 1M made past 1990 is the same as the 2M in terms of the body. You can interchange the 1M and 2M motors. If you're doing ADR the 2M motor is better and can run on 12v vs the silly 8.4v system the 1M uses. RDCB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Sean Morris Posted April 20, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted April 20, 2005 Matt, The 2M, as always remember "caveat emptor" Buyer's Beware esp when it comes to Ebay!... I have purchased a fair amount of russian cameras and lenses from Ebay with no problems, Kinors 16/35's and Konvas gear, only so far had one camera requiring a re-build, and all sorts of mess with the camera to be fixed up by a camera tech. And I was told it was tuned in a specialized film studio by the seller!. you can find some awesome info at: http://www.commiecam.com/ Cheers Sean Morris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Earon Kavanagh Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 Hi . I'm really wanting to purchase one of those russian KONVAS cameras as I have I have a couple K3's and an Kinoflex camera and I really like them, reliable,cheap etc.. Problem is that when I contact the sellers on Ebay about using Escrow for the purchase they all refuse for various reasons. It seems no one outside the former iron curtain sells the Konvas 35mm camera and I'm not sending 1-3 thousand dollars to Moscow on blind faith. Any suggestions ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I bought one off ebay on april 3. It's a 2M. It arrived this afternoon. I got it for $765.00. I am a DVX100 user and bought the Konvas for the lenses (it came with four lenses). Everything seemed to work fine but i haven't fired up the motor as i need a battery. The guy i got it from wouldn't take escrow so I was more than a little suapicious and worried. But he came through. I am still waiting for the 2 16 mm cameras I bought. I cannot afford 35 mm film. Here is the guys ebay name: sp314 (N Borodijchuk - Kiev, Ukraine Ukraine) He's been an ebayer since 1998/1999 and has got good feedback. I might even be willing to sell you mine with one of the lenses. If you are interested in exploring that you can contact me at etearon@yahoo.com earon kavanagh, vancouver/BC www.themainstreetfilm.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rene212121 Posted June 11, 2005 Share Posted June 11, 2005 Hi . I'm really wanting to purchase one of those russian KONVAS cameras as I have I have a couple K3's and an Kinoflex camera and I really like them, reliable,cheap etc.. Problem is that when I contact the sellers on Ebay about using Escrow for the purchase they all refuse for various reasons. It seems no one outside the former iron curtain sells the Konvas 35mm camera and I'm not sending 1-3 thousand dollars to Moscow on blind faith. Any suggestions ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I got one and I'll do scrow, it even has a blimp, doesn't help much with noise but looks very cool! hehehe... The thing is that I have also a BL2 so I don't have much use for it, let me know rene@hispana.com.mx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Appelt Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 1. For russian cine equipment, I recommend www.rafcamera.com, it has been a pleasure any time I did business with Rafael. He's a great guy and extremely helpful. I bought from many other sellers on eBay with no trouble, but as I just learned, there are some people out there who simply do not know what they are selling. If the item is OK, they will give you no trouble, but things change when you get a wrong lens or something that does not work... I ran into trouble with such a character and got called some *nice* names - still waiting for my money. :blink: 2. If you buy a Konvas on eBay, be prepared to have it checked and lubricated and to shoot tests before you start any project. (You can do a lot of service work yourself if you are not afraid to learn.) Don't expect to take a Konvas that has sat on a shelf maybe for 20 years and run it without trouble. Every lens, every mag has to be checked. If you don't like that aspect, go ask your friendly rental house for good rates on an older MOS camera. I love these Konvas cameras, they can take great pictures. B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 "I love these Konvas cameras, they can take great pictures." That's for sure! Especially since the genius of a film camera is not the mechanics, it's the film stock you run through it, that's where the high tech stuff is. The cine camera has remained virtually unchanged since the days of Edison. Has any one else noticed how the new Panavision cameras look oddly similar to the Konvas camera? Look at this guy.... http://www.panavision.com/product_detail.p...ode=c0,c1,c2,c3 Hmmmm, looks almost exactly like my Konvas system. Maybe the Russians where ahead of their time and Panavision has realized that making a camera you need a fork lift to move isn't such a good idea any more. Especially with the high useage of stedi-cam work these days. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Sean Morris Posted June 14, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted June 14, 2005 Hmmmm, looks almost exactly like my Konvas system. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Richard, Maybe I am missing something, but my Konvas 2M looks nothing like a Panavision!. Cheers Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 It doesn't? What type of 2M is that? I'm refering only to the Millennium Panavision camera. Then again, ever get into one of those situations where a guy says "my son looks just like me," and you're thinking "I don't see any resemblance at all." R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Sean Morris Posted June 14, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted June 14, 2005 (edited) mmmm...I wish my Konvas looked like a Millennium! B) Konvas - http://www.geocities.com/kinor35/konvas-2m...-2M-kit-big.jpg Millennium- http://www.panavision.com/publish/2004/07/08/xlstudio.jpg Then again, ever get into one of those situations where a guy says "my son looks just like me," and you're thinking "I don't see any resemblance at all." <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ...blame the milkman.. :P haha Cheers Sean Edited June 14, 2005 by Sean_Morris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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