K3 - Scratches from Improper Loading?

[Marc De Acetis]

Hey everyone!

 

Here's a video of some 16mm film I shot recently

 

Picked up a K3 off Ebay for pretty dirt cheap, looked like it was never even used before. I loaded some 7222 stock into it and paired it with my 1.5x anamorphic. Shot some stuff just to test if it worked. It looks pretty solid but I'm getting consistent scratching on my footage. (and I knew I didn't clean the gate before shooting, so that's the lint in the corners) Any ideas as to why my footage is scratched? I still have the loop formers in the K3 and I've heard mixed things about it scratching footage (some say yes, others no).

 

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

Cheers!

[Mark Dunn]

If the gate is very dirty there might be some grit in it, but it's unlikely to be so persistent, so my money would be on the loop formers. They're not hard to remove.

Load up a test roll, or just a short length, of unscratched film, run and stop it. The film which hasn't been through will be unscratched, so you'll be able to see where the scratching starts.

Edited January 18, 2019 by Mark Dunn

[Will Montgomery]

Loop formers definitely will scratch film. Doesn't mean it happens on every camera all the time but I had that issue multiple times until I had them removed and never saw it again with that camera. Got pretty good at making the loop without them and preferred it for loading.

 

Don't forget to clean that gate before loading each reel! :)

[Jeremy Saltry]

What type of 1.5 anamorphic did you end up using?

[Wilfried E. Keil]

One thing is to clean the gate, but the other thing is that the vertical scratches are always the same. And they are mainly on the bottom and some of the top of the frame. If it were the loop formers the scratches would be more continuesly on the film.

But I had never problems with a K3 and scratches with a loop former. And I used three different ones.

Clean everything very carefully, also the lens and the anamorphot and try it again and use also a completely different lens for some shots. Maybe it is a problem with the lens or anamorphot.

Or maybe also there is a problem with the telecine? It depends where you have done the telecine.

It is a bit strange. With my footage I never had such a problem and I have used a lot of cameras from Super 8 to Super 35mm.

By the way, I like the footage!

What a anamporhot you use? One for shooting or one, which is normally used for projection?

I am interested in it. And maybe also this could be a reason for this scratches.

[Marc De Acetis]

What type of 1.5 anamorphic did you end up using?

 

One thing is to clean the gate, but the other thing is that the vertical scratches are always the same. And they are mainly on the bottom and some of the top of the frame. If it were the loop formers the scratches would be more continuesly on the film.

But I had never problems with a K3 and scratches with a loop former. And I used three different ones.

Clean everything very carefully, also the lens and the anamorphot and try it again and use also a completely different lens for some shots. Maybe it is a problem with the lens or anamorphot.

Or maybe also there is a problem with the telecine? It depends where you have done the telecine.

It is a bit strange. With my footage I never had such a problem and I have used a lot of cameras from Super 8 to Super 35mm.

By the way, I like the footage!

What a anamporhot you use? One for shooting or one, which is normally used for projection?

I am interested in it. And maybe also this could be a reason for this scratches.

Hey guys! Glad to hear such interest. It is a projection anamorphic that screws onto the front of my Meteor 17-69 lens on the K3. It is called the Widescreen Supa60, it is quite a rare scope. There's not much info about it online, actually. It has some Interesting characteristics and blue flares similar to LOMO anas ! I am also using the Rapido FVD-16A single focus diopter screwed on the front of the anamorphic. (Both Meteor lens, and Anamorphic lens are at infinity, the anamorphic was calibrated by a lens tech to ensure optimal sharpness) I'm viewing a squeezed image in the viewfinder, but with 1.5x you can sort of tell the focus actually, it's not too tricky.

 

As for the scratched. I'm not so sure it'd be the anamorphic cause it never caused me problems on digital.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Marc De Acetis

[Mark Dunn]

No, the lens can't damage the film.

The test I suggested should help you locate the source of the scratching.

[Wilfried E. Keil]

Mark, you are definetely right: a lens cannot damage the film!

I made myself not clear enough.

I meant that if you have a filter or anamorphot or something else before a lens you can see from scratches on the filter, anamorphot, etc. disturbance on the film.

But this is not here the case. I took a second look on the footage.

And also you, Marc, used the anamorhot with a digital camera.

But we can see in the footage different things:

A lot of fuzz in the gate and also some which is wandering through the image. But that is only a cleaning problem.

And the main problem are the scratches on the top and the bottom.

And they are not changing. At the footage I can see the use of different focal lengths.

So it has only to do something with the camera or later with the material.

If you have scratches they are normally continous through the whole image.

So it could be only to do something with the film transport.

And we have also to be aware that black and white film stock has no remject layer.

So we also can get scratches from the other side.

I am at the moment not at the place, where my K3 is, so I cannot take a look, what it maybe could be.

But try the text Mark suggested and see what happens. Maybe than everything is clear, but maybe not.