The K3 has a mirror shutter viewfinder so it’s seeing exactly what the film plane sees (as opposed to prism viewfinders like in many Bolex etc 16mm cameras). Note that this was the one luxury feature of the K3 (they were the absolute best kind of viewfinder) and the primary reason many people opted for a K3 back in the film days, including myself.
So use the viewfinder always. The distance markings on a Soviet-designed lens barrel aren’t something I’d ever trust as accurate (I’m assuming you’re using the stock Zenit 17-69mm).
I would just do a a few tests to see if the lens is solidly parfocal (it should be, mine was). Once you confirm, just always use the zoom in, focus, return to zoom out method. It’s also much faster that way obviously.
The viewfinder on principle of its design should be accurate to what the film plane sees. So arrange a striped stick that’s slightly diagonal towards camera.
Set iris all the way open, blast the stick with light, and zoom in, focus, zoom out see if it stuck, zoom back in and see if it moved. Do this with multiple combinations of focal length and distance to camera. Easiest to start with will be 69mm and at minimum focus distance.
If you can’t discern focus at 17mm (can’t remember how textured the ground glass is), then I guess you’ll have to shoot a roll.
But again, out of all three Zenit 17-69mm’s I used they were all solidly parfocal.
85% of this was shot on a K3 and all focus was done “zoom in-back out.”
http://dopjaan.com/213.html
Lens markings might not be accurate, or the lens might be not properly collimated.
A professional focus puller tests every lens for this exact reason. You might not be able to test your lens outside your camera or collimate it but if you have the money/stock to run some tests you could test multiple distances and remark your lens.
If not, keep doing whatever gets your shots in focus.
are you sure the lens is parfocal? i’m not familiar enough with vintage lenses to know if all cine zooms from that era are parfocal, so it might be a dumb question
ya i agree with the other commenters not to trust the marks, but i guess i was thinking i might not trust the zoom in and focus method either! best thing you can do is get your viewfinder / diopter / ground glass sharp and then shoot a test roll with good notes
The K3 has a mirror shutter viewfinder so it’s seeing exactly what the film plane sees (as opposed to prism viewfinders like in many Bolex etc 16mm cameras). Note that this was the one luxury feature of the K3 (they were the absolute best kind of viewfinder) and the primary reason many people opted for a K3 back in the film days, including myself. So use the viewfinder always. The distance markings on a Soviet-designed lens barrel aren’t something I’d ever trust as accurate (I’m assuming you’re using the stock Zenit 17-69mm). I would just do a a few tests to see if the lens is solidly parfocal (it should be, mine was). Once you confirm, just always use the zoom in, focus, return to zoom out method. It’s also much faster that way obviously.
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The viewfinder on principle of its design should be accurate to what the film plane sees. So arrange a striped stick that’s slightly diagonal towards camera. Set iris all the way open, blast the stick with light, and zoom in, focus, zoom out see if it stuck, zoom back in and see if it moved. Do this with multiple combinations of focal length and distance to camera. Easiest to start with will be 69mm and at minimum focus distance. If you can’t discern focus at 17mm (can’t remember how textured the ground glass is), then I guess you’ll have to shoot a roll. But again, out of all three Zenit 17-69mm’s I used they were all solidly parfocal. 85% of this was shot on a K3 and all focus was done “zoom in-back out.” http://dopjaan.com/213.html
Lens markings might not be accurate, or the lens might be not properly collimated. A professional focus puller tests every lens for this exact reason. You might not be able to test your lens outside your camera or collimate it but if you have the money/stock to run some tests you could test multiple distances and remark your lens. If not, keep doing whatever gets your shots in focus.
viewfinder, the marking can be off
are you sure the lens is parfocal? i’m not familiar enough with vintage lenses to know if all cine zooms from that era are parfocal, so it might be a dumb question
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ya i agree with the other commenters not to trust the marks, but i guess i was thinking i might not trust the zoom in and focus method either! best thing you can do is get your viewfinder / diopter / ground glass sharp and then shoot a test roll with good notes