[Konvas] Kinor 35 PL conversion

[colcam at aim.com]

 This is the "lull before the storm" in camera gear. 

There are huge issues with most of the digital, but no one talks about it because they want you to hop on and pay up right now-- while if you look at Sundance you'll notice that a large number of "very good" or better movies did not get any offers.  It is not as simple as most people think, and it doesn't hit you until you go to 4k most of the time, but then it bites like an angry alligator and won't let go until the lab bill exceeds the cost of shooting the movie.  Over 3/4 of the cost of Avatar was in post, and fixing the original images so they could be properly used in post was well in excess of one hundred million dollars.

The Arri 35BL series is underpriced right now, and so is the Kinor 35S series-- the model that has a video tap port built in at the factory, better viewing optics, quieter, you name it, as compared to the 35N.  

I am not allowed to talk about it, but there is a "ISO 100 equivalent" 8k 32bit color 24p digital camera being tested now.  The "preliminary" budget is that it will rent for about one to one and a half million dollars for an eight week feature. 

Things are changing, but some of the change is like the guys who claimed the microwave would make stoves obsolete.

Hype is hype is hype.

 


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Taylor <taylorcobmw at yahoo.com> 


I second colcam's take on this. Arri BL's are very inexpensive now, and the cost 
of buying and converting a Kinor with a video tap and new electronics would 
equal the cost of the Arri, even before you had it converted to PL, which, if 
you can find someone to do it, would cost thousands. As several have pointed 
out, the advantage of the Kinor is the inexpensive, excellent OCT19 glass.
 
I spoke to Kinor guru Anders Banke about the PL conversion which he has done to 
at least one of his Kinors and he said he would never do it again. The 
problems are the shorter ffd of the PL mount and limited clearance behind the 
lens of a Kinor 35H.
 
Another issue is reliability. I have had Richard at Cinema Engineering working 
on my Kinors, and every time I see him he shakes his head and comments on the 
odd ideas the Russian's used in assembling the Kinor. And every time I remind 
him that the Kinor 35H was designed as a location camera to be sent out with a 
"camera mechanic" to keep it running.
 
Bruce Taylor
www.indi35.com
 


--- On Fri, 2/5/10, colcam at aim.com <colcam at aim.com> wrote:

The reason to go Kinor is the oct19 glass, and for the cost of a Kinor and 
conversion you can pick up a ready to roll PL hard fronted Arri 35BL or 35BL2 to 
stick the PL mount lenses onto.