Michael Waite

I'm hoping for some advice or recommendations on a suitable gel or other material. I'm exhibiting some work in a gallery that has windows that allow direct sun. Over the course of the afternoon there are different light and shadow patterns moving over the walls and this will sometimes make viewing the work difficult. I don't think the gallery is interested in a long term solution for this, so I want to execute a reasonably priced short term (one month) fix. There are 6 window panes, each about 1 x .5 meter. Perhaps I could just buy sheets of tracing paper, cut them to window size & then position over each pane with some of those new sticky dot adhesives. I was also pondering something like ND or diffusion gels, but haven't had any experience with them. Just wanted to put this out for any ideas or suggestions.

Hi Ian, it does still have the loop formers & your explanation makes sense. I'll remove them & try again. Thanks.

Here's a link to a brief clip showing how the K3 footage looks. It has the potential to be nice but there is a serious problem with image stability. I sat in on the telecine & the operator reckoned it was caused by a shutter problem. It's the irregular vertical jerkiness, should be obvious even on youtube. I bought this camera after waiting more than 2 months for the first K3 I ordered to arrive. The day after I exposed this test footage the original camera was delivered. It took over 3 months & I suspect that Australia Post had mislaid it. I didn't have any film to test it with but it looks in great condition and seems to run very well. So I think if the first camera had been delivered on schedule I would have had a well functioning camera & no need to stuff about with the problems the second camera has caused me.

Update - my repair guy got the camera running by using a washer to get the shaft back into alignment. Everything else seems OK. Over the past few days I exposed two rolls of Kodak 250D that are currently at Deluxe Sydney for processing. Should be ready in the next day or so. They're very nice people at Deluxe, by the way. I'll have it telecined along with some Single 8 that I just sent to Japan for processing, so I probably won't get to view the footage for a week or so. The film looked & sounded to be running through the camera smoothly. The repair cost was very reasonable & the seller is going to refund 10% of the purchase price so things have worked out slightly better than they might have. Thanks for all the advice. I also picked up a B+W 77mm 1 stop ND filter on sale for $45 which was a good deal. I can use it on the K3 lens & a couple of my Canon still lenses.

Retro is still in business, I bought 5 rolls of 25 from him last week. Delivery was very fast. I didn't email him, I just sent the money by paypal & included a message confirming what I wanted. I'll be sending the 5 rolls back to him on Monday for processing. A year or so back i also bought some camera bits from him, a viewfinder cup for a Fujica Z800 & some other part. Prices were reasonable & he was easy to deal with. The R25N film looks beautiful, a real 1970s look. I put some on youtube but their processing desaturated the colour to an extent that dosn't make it worth using as an example.

I showed it to a camera technician & he found the problem pretty quickly. Next to the shutter trigger button is the main shaft from the spring that drives everything. At the top of this shaft is a brass adjusting screw set in a piece of cast iron. The cast iron has been slightly bent at some time, probably by being dropped when the front cover was off - couldn't have happened during shipping or anytime the cover was on. It may be fixable by adding a washer under the cast iron to get it back in alignment - can't try to bend the cast iron or it will break. By loosening the screws under the cast iron he did get the camera to run. My options are to pack it up & send back to Ukraine & try for a refund, which would be a pain in the arse & cost me about $100. Or, let the tech have a go at correcting it. He mostly does still cameras but is excellent at what he does & if a simple washer fixes it them I'm in business shooting film. Will report back when i have a conclusion. BTW I did take the baffle plate off when the spring was fully wound & nothing happened - obviously due to the stuck shaft. Thanks for the advice everyone.

You're right, I worked that out today, pull up on them slightly & they move out of the way. So that's not an indicator of the problem. I suspect it's something to do with the shutter button action. It doesn't feel right when I press it, like it doesn't travel far enough. I did have a look inside & can't see anything that is obviously broken or out of position. I'm going to try & find a technician in Sydney to look at it, if that doesn't work out I'll be arguing with a guy in Ukraine about a refund & looking to buy a third one.

So, a K3 arrived in the post today, reasonably well packed & looks in good cosmetic condition, however it doesn't work. I wound the main spring (anti-clockwise), pushed the shutter button & nothing happens. I've read up a bit about them - previous troubleshooting threads on this forum & the manual & videos at the k3camera site, so I think I know the basics of how they work. There is one thing I have noticed when looking into the film loading area. Not sure of the correct names of the parts but there is a black spool just to the right of the film gate which is surrounded by four rollers set in pairs, 2 above and 2 below. From looking at the manual I think the black spool is the main sprocket, not sure if the small rollers have a name but the film runs between them & the main sprocket. In a video I watched about how to load film in the K3 I saw the operator was able to pull the roller assemblies away from the main sprocket for ease of getting the film in. However on my camera these roller assemblies appear to be jammed in position, with gentle pressure I cannot get them to move. Does this suggest what the camera problem might be? I know there is a small catch off the side of the main sprocket near the film gate that gets pulled aside to allow the rollers to open up but moving this makes no difference. I'm thinking that something is seized inside & that's why nothing happens when I press the shutter. I'd appreciate if anyone with inside experience of these cameras could give me some advice. I'm prepared to have a go at repairing it if I have an idea of what section to work on. By the way, this is the second K3 I've paid for. The first was posted from Poland in mid November & has never arrived. Perhaps I'll get post office compensation down the track. So now I've bought this one that was DOA. All I want to do is shoot some film.

I'm buying a K3 which comes with the usual accessories including 5 filters. There is a 2 stop ND which would be useful as I have a couple of rolls of 250D to shoot. Does anyone have any experience with the quality of this filter? Does it cause any colour cast for example? If it's OK I'll use it, if they're bad I'll buy a quality brand filter.

I recently learned that there's a lab in Sydney that processes short rolls of ECN-2. Neglab at Hurstville does it for $15 a roll, although I'm pretty sure that is process only and doesn't include a positive film print as A&I used to. Probably not of much interest to people in the USA, but I intend to use them.

In my experience with a standard 814 the internal meter is accurate. I'm sure Canon took any light loss into account when designing it. I don't think it loses a stop anyway, more like half a stop. I used to check the camera meter against my Soligor spot & they were always very close. Of course what Alessandro says is also sensible re technique.

Thanks for posting these, I like the look of that film. The frame of the guy at the phone booth at night is beautiful. Can you tell me how you lit that, e.g. what is creating the pool of light he's standing in and also the light on the big tank in the background. The frame below it with the couple dancing is also interesting. Are those blue circles a particular lens flare from shooting a certain lens wide open? Overall most of the daylight shots look somewhat soft and pastel, is that the nature of the stock or some art direction also? Generally to me it looks a bit '70s/'80s, in a good way.

The Sound & Vision Stock Shop in Artarmon, Sydney has a good supply of Kodak stocks.

In July this year these guys told me that they still process short rolls of ECN-2. I haven't used them, but they must be one of the last still offering the service. I'd be interested to hear from anyone with direct experience re the quality of their work. frank@thecamerashop.com Frank Ringsmuth Plant Manager The Camera Shop 25 7th Ave. S. St. Cloud, MN 56301 Phone 320-259-5826 Toll-Free 800-793-0112

Hi John, thanks for writing about how you made the video. It looks good, very moody. I always like seeing some interplay between different colours of light, in this case the cool tones of the night interior and the fish tank room contrasted with the warm light that comes near the end. Two slight criticisms for you, #1 your website looks good but the text is a little hard to read, white (or is it very light grey?) on a black background is difficult. #2 and this is probably nit picking but I felt the two lights coming from behind her through the window in the night lounge room scene were too bright. They are exposing almost white on the window and I think they would have looked nicer & suited the mood better a bit dimmer and bluer.

I've watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers a few times over the years & it's close to perfect as an intelligent sci-fi noir film. The '70s remake is also not bad, but you can see how acting changed over a couple of decades, they are much more flamboyant & I prefer the restrained, low key style of the '50s. The great thing about this story is that the monsters are people & all they do is change their behaviour slightly.

I agree with the OP. I don't go to see many recent movies because they are generally so offensive to my intelligence & humanity. However I did watch 'I Am Legend' (Soy Legenda) at the cinema when I was in Mexico City in January. It starts with him driving fast through the city with his dog. The city is abandoned with weeds growing from cracks in the road. A herd of deer is running alongside the car. It should have been an exciting & visceral entry to the story. Instead, I sat there rolling my eyes & thinking how obviously fake the deer looked. No way did they look like they were running along that road. They looked cut & pasted & the fakeness of it took me right out of the story.

Interesting that you mention Scum, which I saw at the cinema when it first came out. I can certainly see the similarity with McVicar. Both were shot in 1979. I suppose you could even make the case that they are part of the long tradition of naturalism in British cinema with films like A Taste of Honey, Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner etc. Vernon Layton has a simple one page site at http://vernonlayton.com/. He started as an assistant in stills photography & then became a camera operator on TV shows such as Ready Steady Go. He also worked on documentaries for the BBC. He mentions that he moved into feature films after some mentoring from Walter Lassally, the DOP of A Taste of Honey. Funnily enough I went to a screening of Taste of Honey with a Q&A with Walter Lassally at the Hammer centre in LA in January this year.

I caught the last 45 minutes or so of this film on TV the other night. I'd never seen it before & just stumbled across it while flicking around the channels. It's an English crime film, based on a true story about a hardened crim who escaped from prison & went back to doing armed robberies. More complex than that of course, but that's the bones of it. The star was Roger Daltrey of the Who & the film was produced by the Who. I actually had no idea it was a rock star when I started watching it, otherwise I might have expected the worst. In fact he does an excellent job of playing the main character. It was an interesting story, well acted & scripted but the thing that most struck me & still has me thinking about it was the overall look. Some googling has shown me that the DOP was Vernon Layton who started as a camera operator in London in the '60s and is still shooting today. The overall look of the film was naturalistic with realistic & motivated lighting. There were some scenes that I felt were over diffused, esp an idyllic sequence when he went to a park with his wife & child. Still, even that looks of its time. The look of the film stock really blew me away. It looked like classic Kodachrome. Colours were rich but not overly saturated. When they shot scenes on the streets I was continually noticing things like the colour rendition of yellow and red cars. Not artificial but incredibly real. I've tried searching to learn what film stock was used but with no success. I'd be interested if anyone can supply details of this. Also keen to hear other opinions of this film.

If selling on ebay I would list the camera & film separately. The interest in the film will depend on the expiry date & how it was stored. If expiry was the last few years & it was kept in a fridge then you might get $20 per roll. When I hear "elderly relative" I think of stuff that hasn't been used since the 1970s. If the film is that old it will probably process with a magenta cast. That's assuming it's the modern Kodachrome that can still be processed. The expiry date should be on the boxes. I don't know anything about the Bauer cameras but there are people on this forum far more knowledgeable about Super 8 than me & they should be able to help. The important thing I look for when buying a camera from ebay or whatever is how informed the seller is about it. Top marks go to someone who guarantees that the camera is in good working order & has been shooting film with it recently & getting good exposures. The other end of the scale is the person selling on behalf of the elderly relative & who knows nothing about the gear. In this case it is a wild gamble to buy it & hope it is functional, so I would only pay a very low amount. Based on this, if you wanted to maximise the price you are likely to sell it for you could put some new batteries in & if the camera is working you can expose a roll or two of the Kodachrome & get it processed. If all goes well you can give a more accurate report when selling. Bear in mind there is only one lab in the world that still processes Kodachrome film (Dwayne's in Kansas) so this will be a somewhat slow & expensive option. Plus you need access to a projector or viewer to be able to check the processed film. That might sound tedious to you or it might even turn out to be fun. I write this having bought several Super 8 cameras & a dozen or so rolls of old K40 from ebay with varying degrees of success.

I'm also interested, if you will ship to Sydney. Have some film that I bought from A&I.

I think you are way over complicating things. A camera obscura image is projected upside down & has no lens, just an opening. Our eyes focus the outside world onto the back of our eyes upside down - our brain turns things up the right way. Look at the illustration in the link that David gave - it's a simple principle of light traveling in straight lines. There is no logical reason why anyone would want a camera image to expose on the film right way up relative to the subject. You take the film out, process it & put it in the enlarger or projector so the image is the right way up. There is no issue of horizontal flipping as you seem to be suggesting, as long as the emulsion is the right way round.

Something I noticed a lot when I was in LA, not sure about other parts of the USA, is that a lot of security guards and other guys with jobs that require them to wear a uniform, seem to adopt this quasi military persona. Particularly when it comes to barking out orders, e.g. "Sir! You are required to stay behind the yellow line". I even had a car park attendant say to me "Sir! You have to move your car" Can anyone explain the reason for this? Are these guys all ex-military or do they just wish they were? Or do they think it makes them seem more authoritative? I found it either annoying or amusing depending on my mood, but it did seem widespread & I haven't encountered it in other countries.

You pretty much described my dilemma with that sentence. I would love to go to the movies & be entertained by comedies, blockbusters - whatever, as long as the films have some amount of quality & respect for the audience. But with most modern films I just sit there feeling bored & insulted. I hardly go to the cinema anymore. I was in Bangkok recently & was tempted to see Dark Knight at the IMAX cinema, seemed like it could be a real blast, but the trailers put me off completely. Same old formula. And I hate the shoddy CGI in contemporary films. I saw 'I Am Legend' when I was in Mexico City & the poor quality CGI kept me right out of the story. I've spent a lot of time staying in hotels over the past year & watching their movie channels have had the opportunity to sample most of the films I've been avoiding over the past 10 years & most of them were even worse than I had imagined. Hasta La Vista, Baby.

Is Coldwater Canyon a good place to live? I drove through there earlier this year when I was in LA & it looked a nice place & not far from North Hollywood.