Blackness in K3 viewfinder!

Post by **Patrick** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:52 am

Today, I took out my K3 (with no film in and it) and fooled around with it a bit. I looked through the viewfinder and noticed that a little over half the viewfinder was black! This was really bizarre. I wound up the camera to see if that would make a difference and I looked through the viewfinder again and it was normal again. Have other K3 owners experienced this at all? If so, do you know what causes this unusual phenomenon?

Post by **Joe Gioielli** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:57 am

Take the lens off the camera and see it there is an obstruction. It could be that the shutter is messed up. Hopefully, there is just a bit of debris in the relex viewfinder. There is a little rectangular opening where the mirror is for the reflex viewer. Perhaps a bit of film is jammed up in there.

Joe

Post by **Patrick** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:10 am

I removed the lens but I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary inside the camera. I wonder why winding up the camera made the blackness go away....

Post by **lastcoyote** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:26 am

I experience that too, then I found out that is because the Butterfly shape shutter mirrors was half covered the view, It is normal when the windup lossen the mirror can turn a half frame. which will cover half of the view.

I would advice you not too worry about it.

Post by **Patrick** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:58 am

Not a great worry during regular filming but I wonder if it could be a concern when doing time lapse.

Website · Post by **BigBeaner** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:03 am

Turn the key, turning the key will make the butterfly shutter to rotate into position and poof, no black. It's no problem whatsoever and probably will happen in other similarly designed cameras.

Post by **lastcoyote** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 8:31 am

Patrick wrote:Not a great worry during regular filming but I wonder if it could be a concern when doing time lapse.

If you wind up it all and it will not happen, it happen only when the wind up finish and the shutter become loosen. Just turn the key slighty and the butterfly shutter will position back to what it should be.

This is how I check the film gate to turn the shutter half and show the gate. Once again... No Worry!!!!!

Post by **Joe Gioielli** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:05 pm

Sorry guys, I mis-read the post. I didn't see that winding the camera made it go away. D'oh.

So, yes, mine does that as well. If I let it wind all the way out, every now and again the shutter will do that.

Joe

Post by **eggart** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:32 pm

Mine does this as well. Not to hijack, but has anyone tried one of these add-on handles?

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Krasnogorsk-3-add-on ... dZViewItem

Seems way over priced, but I ordered one last week because I hate using the wind key, and doing some silent-movie hand cranking could be fun. The only problem I can see is it doesn't fold down to get it out of the way.

YouTube · Post by **Andreas Wideroe** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:53 pm

Most likely the shutter covering some parts of your view. I don't think it's something to worry about. When you let go of the trigger the shutter will just stop somewhere.

By the way, the K3 are horrible for timelapse. It leaks light like a strainer - atleast if you have longer intervals than 4 seconds.

/Andreas

Post by **Will2** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 8:17 pm

Its normal, just the shutter caught half closed. Annoying, but normal.

I loved my K3 for a while, but got so tired of winding the thing or missing a shot. Now I'm in love with my Scoopic MS and just wish I could make it Super 16.

Post by **Patrick** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:32 am

"By the way, the K3 are horrible for timelapse. It leaks light like a strainer - atleast if you have longer intervals than 4 seconds."

That's something I am going to test for. With the next film I'm going to run through this camera, I'm going to expose a frame once every minute. Though I have read when doing time lapse with K3s, it's not only recommended to cover the eyepiece but also the lens (between exposures) as well. So that's definitely what I'll do. I plan to do a fair amount of time lapse with the K3 on Kangaroo Island in January next year. I know a Bolex would be more ideal for time lapse but I don't have one.

Post by **lastcoyote** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 3:57 am

eggart wrote:Mine does this as well. Not to hijack, but has anyone tried one of these add-on handles?
Seems way over priced, but I ordered one last week because I hate using the wind key, and doing some silent-movie hand cranking could be fun. The only problem I can see is it doesn't fold down to get it out of the way.

My K-3 installed it, very cool and you won't be reglad to buy one of it. Very easy to install. Cool thing is, the hand crank not only for wind up purpose... It can use as handcrank camera... It's fun! Worth to have one because you rather spend a little bit of money to save your fingers...

awand wrote:By the way, the K3 are horrible for timelapse. It leaks light like a strainer - atleast if you have longer intervals than 4 seconds.

Yeah I agree the light leaking is serious, but I've also try to cover the eyepiece by the cap of "35mm Still film container".. It fit the K-3 eyepiece perfectly. Then the light leaking will improve a lot.