The Konvas is a portable 35mm motion picture camera that was manufactured in Soviet Russia. It is no longer made, although many working models are still circulating. The name "Konvas" comes from the first three letters of the first and last name of the camera's designer, Constantine Vasiliev.

Initially, the camera was used widely by fiction, documentary, and news cameramen throughout Eastern Europe. The relatively small size of the Konvas cameras and the low prices they usually sell at (it often sells for almost the same price as the more primitive, older Bell and Howell Eyemo) makes it popular with independent filmmakers throughout the world to this day.

The Konvas cameras are reflex, using a spinning mirrored shutter, allowing the operator to view the image through the actual "taking lens" during filming. Some models accept a single lens, others have a three lens turret.

All Konvas cameras accept a 60 meter (roughly 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 DC powered motor. Some are capable of running at very accurate "sync" speeds from 8 to 32 frames per second. The camera runs very loud, making sound recording virtually impossible. This was not a problem in the country the Konvas was designed in, as Soviet cinema usually re-recorded all sound during editing via a process called "ADR" or "dubbing/looping".

See Also

• Eyemo