Thoughts on 16 cameras

Antonio Bunt · April 1, 2016

Hello, I have seen Kinor 16 cameras come and go on ebay. How good are they? Are they silent? Reliable? How good is their image quality? What are the lenses it can take?

Thanks!

Antonio Bunt · April 1, 2016

Sorry, I forgot the Kinor before 16!

Perry Paolantonio · April 1, 2016

Hello, I have seen Kinor 16 cameras come and go on ebay. How good are they? Are they silent? Reliable? How good is their image quality? What are the lenses it can take?

Thanks!

I used to have one of these (20 years ago). It was an absolute tank. The lens mounts were bayonet, but I don't think they were compatible with most western lenses (though I'm sure adapters could be made if they don't exist already). Mine had a set of 9 primes, and they were tack-sharp. I had several 100' mags and one 400' mag. The 100 footers could be a bit noisy but that was mostly from the daylight spool scraping against the inside of the mag. The 400 footer was pretty much totally silent if you had the film on a core. I would say it was just slightly noisier than my Eclair ACL, which is pretty damned quiet.

It was built like a tank, by the way. Super-simple, no electronic interfaces, just couple knobs and switches. My only complaint was that it was really heavy, and slightly awkward to hand-hold, which is why I ended up getting an ACL.

Antonio Bunt · April 2, 2016

Thanks for your insight Perry! I have been looking for an Eclair II for ages but now the All-mighty US dollar exchange rste against the Mexican peso makes it more complicated so I am looking for options. Thanks again!