jon w

I also started out with film in skateboarding, good place to start, considering the level of acceptability in a skateboard video is nowhere near the level of acceptability anywhere else. sad but true, 99% of skateboard footage is dependant on the person or the trick. for the most part you dont have to worry about matching, lighting, crew, scedules or anything else really besides composition, exposure, and the subject. most people that shoot film for skate videos dont even use correction filters shooting tungsten film outside bucause "duh... the transfer dude makes the color right". yes its sad, but the good thing for me was shooting random short ends, learning, testing, screwing up lots of film, but it was all still useable because of the way video parts are cut (random shots from the previous year or so cut to some music) so it didnt really matter. it will give you a good base understanding of working with film, which is good. enjoy the k3!

i have a 16bl that i shoot and crop with regularly. on mine, and im assuming all, when you open the side door of the body, the groundglass is sitting right there on the left hand side (it lines up to the viewfinder). you can take it off with a couple screws and mark the inside, but i ussually just tape it off from the outside (which is not as accurate because the outside is a convex lens).

i just went through this with my camera, and was given a good idea for a decent low budget fps check. get something else that is crystal controlled (other camera, progector), with the camera to be tested frame up something on the other camera (i shot into the lens port of an 16bl). run the camera to be tested, looking through the viewfinder, if it appears that whatever your framed on is not moving, then your running at the same speed. when i did this, i found my camera running a little off, so i adjusted the variable speed motor on the bl until it matched, reading the tachometer on the bl told me what the camera in question was running at.