a question abut the k3

Oron Cohen · May 26, 2005

hello to you all, my name is Oron, and I'm a student in the "SAM Spiegel film school -Jerusalem", I wasn't familiar with the k3 until i read about it here at this site, most of the films i shoot i shoot on Arri-SR II, what i want to ask is if you can load 400ft mag in the k3, and if so how can i do it, i simply place the all camera(without the lens or its not important)into a black bag and load it, i hope someone will be kind enough explaining me how this camera work, and another thing how good is the lens quality compare a standard Arri zoom lens(like the Arri ST zoom lens)?

looking forward to see you in jerusalem the most beautiful city in the world(even though I was live near tel-aviv), watch out for films form our school in film festival, bye

oron

May 27, 2005

If you go to the K-3 Website most of your questions will be answered! :D

You can download the manual, or just look at the pictures.

Oron Cohen · May 27, 2005

thank you dom, NCSProducts.

the site that you gave me was very helpful, but it didnt solve completely my two questions.

1:what is the lens quality?

2: i didn't understand from the Manuel how can i load a from a 400ft can 100ft of film, do i simply cut it by hand inside a black bag and how do i put the film in camera, they didn't write were i put the camera, what they wrote was that you put the camera in a place without direct sunlight to me it seems weird.

if you ask your self from where all this questions come from, it come from the sad fact that in Israel there is no film culture , and there is no labs around. we develop and print in Europe, because of that i have small access to all the thing that to most of the world look obvious

if you can (everyone)comment on this it will help a lot, thanks again

oron(sorry for the bad English).

Mike Lary · May 27, 2005

You should search the forums for K3 lens questions. This has been discussed before. Some like the lens. Others think it's horrible. It depends who you talk to. It's a cheap lens that is sold with a cheap camera, so don't expect it to compare with a lens that cost more than both combined.

The K3 only accepts 100 foot spools. If you have a 400 foot roll, you need to transfer it to 4 spools. I would not do this in a changing bag. I would bring it to a photo lab and have them do it. When you load the spool into the camera, the camera must be in darkness or subdued light. Otherwise, the light will destroy your film. This is standard procedure.

Mike

Nate Downes · May 27, 2005

I own two K-3's, and the lens quality is radically different between the two of them. One of them I've swapped out for a Zeiss as a result of its lens being of sub-par quality. The other one still amazes me over it's sharpness.

My big thing is wondering if anyone makes a replacement front panel so as to take a Nikon lens mount instead of the M42 or Bayonet?

Mike Lary · May 27, 2005

"My big thing is wondering if anyone makes a replacement front panel so as to take a Nikon lens mount instead of the M42 or Bayonet?"

You might check with duallcamera.com . They'll convert the M42 to arri style bayonet. Maybe they do a Nikon mount conversion as well. I have not heard of a replacement front panel for the K3.

Mike

Nate Downes · May 28, 2005

Not the M42 mount, I want to keep that camera as/is, it's the bayonet mount model I have that I want to swap-out.

Robert Hughes · May 28, 2005

Try Roger Evans aka Moviestuff.tv:

http://www.moviestuff.tv/testimonials.html

He's built camera mount adapters for the K3 in the past & might do one for you.

Freya Black · May 28, 2005

thank you dom, NCSProducts.
the site that you gave me was very helpful, but it didnt solve completely my two questions.

1:what is the lens quality?

Best to assume the stock lens is not great, but people get excited because the K3 has an M42 mount, which was a standard mount for 35mm Still cameras at one time, so there are lots of high quality prime lenses for still cameras that can be attached to it and also bought cheaply off e-bay.

Wide Angle can be a problem tho.

2: i didn't understand from the Manuel how can i load a from a 400ft can 100ft of film, do i simply cut it by hand inside a black bag and how do i put the film in camera, they didn't write were i put the camera, what they wrote was that you put the camera in a place without direct sunlight to me it seems weird.
if you ask your self from where all this questions come from, it come from the sad fact that in Israel there is no film culture , and there is no labs around. we develop and print in Europe, because of that i have small access to all the thing that to most of the world look obvious

if you can (everyone)comment on this it will help a lot, thanks again

oron(sorry for the bad English).

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Okay, the K3 does not have a magazine. It uses 100ft daylight spools. Film can be bought fresh on 100foot spools. Failing that, if you have empty spools, you can respool film off a 400foot core and onto 100foot spools. You need to first spool it onto a 100foot spool, and then spool it back off again onto another 100foot spool from the first one. This is so the film is the right way round.

Obviously this must all be done in complete darkness (you knew that already right!)

It is best to load the camera in complete darkness too.

The K3 tends to have variable build quality and it can be fairly easy to get a bad one.

An Arri is a very high quality camera that most people using a K3 would be very happy to have access to. The K3 is very, very low quality compared to an Arri.

love

Freya

Dudu Stoz · May 31, 2005

The K3 camera do not have a M42 mount and dont accept M42 lens.

It has a type of russian bayonet and the only lenses that are fit to this mount(besides the camera standart zoom lens) are some rare russian primes by Peleng, Helios and Mir brands.

Mike Lary · May 31, 2005

You are mistaken. There are two versions. One has an M42 mount and the other has a bayonet mount.

http://www.k3camera.com/k3/k3mount.stm

The K3 camera do not have a M42 mount and dont accept M42 lens.

It has a type of russian bayonet and the only lenses that are fit to this mount(besides the camera standart zoom lens) are some rare russian primes by Peleng, Helios and Mir brands.

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