What kind of modifications can I do to my Konvas & Kinor?
- Details
- Created on Monday, 10 September 2007 04:26
- Last Updated on Saturday, 15 December 2012 13:22
- Written by Administrator
- Hits: 4248
On January 3rd of 2001, Matt Uhry made the following suggestions for Konvas 2M modifications:
1) Change the Crystal Motor plug [on the 17ep] to XLR 4-pin (get rid of the other motor [the 15epss]). Now you can use any battery or cable made for mopix.
2) Remove the locking pin and cog from the magazines, this makes the camera much easier to load (get rid of the 200' mags [or use them for spare parts] as they are a real pain).
3) Check the film path in the gate - some of my mags had places where the film would catch, especially on the lower sprocket. You can take the parts from your 200' mags and swap them with the parts on your 400's that were made poorly.
4) Take the mask out of the rotating finder. It is annoying, the edge of image reflection that you get without it is much less annoying.
5) Swap the camera body screws (6 on the back and 1 inside) for metric allens. Easier to work with - get stainless ones if you have a good source.
6) Get it converted to PL mount - if you are working professionally with the camera [and often find the need to use/rent other lenses that didn't come with it].
For a few thousand dollars, you can get your Konvas or Kinor 35mm camera modified to 3-perf, or even 2-perf (aka, Techniscope), saving literally thousands in up-front production costs over shooting 4-perf 35mm. It also allows for much more shooting time per magazine - where a fully loaded 4-perf 400' magazine, shot at 24fps, will only give 4 minutes of shooting time, 3-perf adds 33% more time, resulting in 5 1/2 minutes of shooting per 400' magazine. 2-perf doubles the time to 8 minutes for a 400' magazine and 20 minutes for a 1000' magazine! Films shot in 2-perf include (but aren't limited to), "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", "THX 1138", "American Graffiti", & even some shots in "Titanic" (the underwater shots).
You can also "upgrade" from the standard crystal or electronic motors (which, in good condition, work great) to a brand new crystal motor that can be set at 0.01 FPS increments, can do ramping at all speeds, and phase shifts while running. The plus side of this mod is that it is great for doing things like time-lapse or slowing down the action, even in the middle of a shot, but the down-side is that it adds to the overall weight of the camera and makes it much less "hand-held" friendly.
The Russian 16mm Krasnogorsk k-3 and 16mm Kinor cameras can both be converted to Super16 by a technician, if so desired.