Konvas
Encyclopedia
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
Works of Cinema Equipment (The holder of the Order Of The Badge Of Honour - Орден «Знак Почета»), at one time in the late 80's had over 2,000 employees; now OAO "MOSKINAP", and for a short period at the same factory after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The factory was manufacturing Laser soundheads, and 35mm sound projectors originally were made by Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
PO KINAP some time ago. The camera line is no longer made, although many working models are still circulating at reasonable prices worldwide. The name "Konvas" is a portmanteau that comes from the first three letters of the first and last name of the camera's designer, KONSTANTIN VASILIYEV.
Later renamed to Konvas-Avtomat (Automatic) for electric-driven models.
Initially, the camera was used widely by fiction, documentary, and news cameramen throughout the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. The relatively small size of Konvas cameras and its low price (it often sells for almost the same price as the more primitive, older Bell & Howell Eyemo
Eyemo
The Eyemo is a 35 mm motion-picture film camera which was manufactured by the Bell & Howell Co. of Chicago.-Background:Designed and first manufactured in 1925, it was for many years the most compact 35 mm motion-picture film camera of the hundred foot capacity...
) makes it popular with independent filmmakers throughout the world to this day. There are very good and useful modifications for these cameras these days. You might be surprised for some prices, but its functionality is much more valuable than its price always.
Konvas cameras are reflex, using a spinning mirrored shutter, allowing the operator to view the scene through the main lens during filming. Because of the camera's movement mechanism, the shutter opening is 155° as opposed to the 180° which is standard on many other cameras. Consequently, the shutter speed
Shutter speed
In photography, shutter speed is a common term used to discuss exposure time, the effective length of time a camera's shutter is open....
is slightly higher, for which the exposure must be compensated from the usual 24fps frames per second light meter
Light meter
A light meter is a device used to measure the amount of light. In photography, a light meter is often used to determine the proper exposure for a photograph...
setting by 1/3 of an f/stop. It has an extended dwell time for film transport like in ARRI 35 series, thus provides more steadiness despite it has no register pin. Some models including -2M and 8M accept a single OCT-19 mount lens, others have a three lens turret including -1M and 7M.
All Konvas cameras accept a 60 meter (slightly less than 200 ft) load of film via a detachable camera magazine, some also accept a 120 meter (roughly 400 ft) detachable magazine. The magazines are very easy to change, however; they are not easy to load and often present a challenge for camera assistants not familiar with the Konvas magazine.
The Konvas runs on an electric 12 Volt DC motor mainly. Some are capable of running at very accurate "X-tal Sync" speeds @ 8, 12, 16, 24, 25, 32fps via 17EP-16 APK, 18EP-16 APK and 19EP-16APK motor drives while 15EPSS motor drive provides electric regulated speeds. The camera is noisy (about 55dB), making sound recording difficult, so it can be used as a MOS camera. This was not a problem in the Soviet Union, as Soviet cinema usually re-recorded all sound during editing
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
via a process called "ADR
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
" or "dubbing/looping
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
".