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Kodak K100


Pavan Deep

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Does anyone want to share their thoughts and experiences of the Kodak K100, like; has anyone used an external motor or a hand crank with this camera. I have searched the forums and a lot of online posts about this camera seem to be a few years old.

 

Thanks

 

Pav

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The K100 has the longest running time on one wind I've seen on any camera. It's built like a tank and extremely reliable.

BUT, if you don't have a reflex lens for it, focus and framing are done manually as in measuring the distance or doing your "best guess" which is ok for home movies but when you're spending $150 for three minutes of footage, you may want something a little more likely to be actually in focus.

It was like the Cadillac of home movie cameras in the 50's but something like a Scoopic where you can actually see through the lens to focus & have a motor + decent autoexposure may be better for you. I know there's a big price difference but you've already spent that difference after 3-4 rolls of film/processing/transfer.

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Thank you for your comments. For me it all started when I got hold of a Kodak Model BB Junior 16mm from the 1930's and I was very surprised how quiet and smooth this camera ran. In a way this started a sort of chain reaction as I started looking at other Kodak 16mm cameras; and learned that most of them run smoothly. I got a Kodak K100 16mm camera, it is heavy, 'built like a tank' as you say, but surprisingly its not awkward to hold or difficult to wind like so many others, it’s incredibly easy to thread and use. The wind is brilliant as you say the camera has a very long run with a single wind and there’s a very useful indicator telling you how much ‘juice ‘is left in the spring motor. So far I have been quite impressed with it, though I haven’t exposed any film it yet, the camera also has a port to attach an electric motor. The viewfinder’s, although ‘parallax’ is much better than other 16mm cameras of that era, for accurate reflex viewing and focusing I have an 16-17mm ‘dog leg’ lens.

Pav
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On 6/2/2020 at 2:05 AM, Pavan Deep said:

...for accurate reflex viewing and focusing I have an 16-17mm ‘dog leg’ lens.

Just be aware that the majority of those "dog leg" older lenses don't actually allow for critical focus; just framing. I went through the exact path you're describing and was incredibly frustrated that the lens didn't let me focus through the lens. Not sure why they even bothered with those except for framing.

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I know what your saying, I had an older Som Berthiot 'Dogleg' lens and there was nothing in the frame for focusing. I now have an Angenuiex 17-68 lens, it's smaller  and it fortunately allows for critical focusing, in the centre it has ground glass circle.

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