Presenting the K65K 65mm Camera |
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| Written by: Thomas Hauerslev. Pictures by: Luca Bonicalza | Date: 01.01.2026 |
 Thomas:
Tell me about yourself and your 65mm cameraLuca Bonicalza: I'm a camera and lens technician, I've worked for two large rental companies here in Italy but now I'm running my own servicing lab. I am the inventor and designer of the K65K: the first high-speed camera built on 65mm film format. The project was born to combine the unique aesthetic of large-format film with advanced engineering that allows for extreme slow motion, opening new creative possibilities for cinematographers. It originates from a 70mm Type 1 camera that has been converted to 65mm, then optimized for cinematography rather than bomb tests, with photographic Mamiya lenses and a patent-pending internal focusing system. It is an ongoing R&D project, and I sometimes joke that the day it is “finished” will probably be the day I get bored. • Go to PDF Presenting the K65K 65mm Camera Thomas: What is the history of your camera? Luca: This camera came from Photosonics (US). 10K it's a rotary prism camera for 70mm film type 1, a film used by the military only. All the cameras I have came from White Sand Missile Center (USA), and this mean that they were probably used to photograph test firing of rockets and missiles. I also know that other cameras were used to test nuclear bombs but mine is not radioactive! So this camera was using a film format that is no more available. |
More in 70mm reading: in70mm.com News Peripheral Vision, Scopes, Dimensions and Panoramas in70mm.com's Library Presented on the big screen in 7OMM 7OMM and Cinema Across the World Now showing in 70mm in a theatre near you! 70mm Retro - Festivals and Screenings Luca Bonicalza Project Inventor P | +39 338 3602 087 W | www.k65k.com K65K speedcameras |
 Thomas:
What kind of work have you done transforming it into a 65mm camera, and
the technique behind it. My first job has been to convert all the sprockets to 65mm film. This is why I do have a strange frame. The original frame was 10 perforations with something like a 5,9 mm pitch. Well, when you convert to 4,74 mm pitch, perforation number increase and reaches 12 perf. But I have also the chance to do a smaller format with higher speed and I have 6 perf frames this means that is slightly larger than 5 perf but you can print on 5 perf of course! About the running time, I have a magazine of 400' ft and working on a newer version of 2000' ft. as Kodak suggested. Btw, Kodak is my partner in that project. My 400 feet magazine last 4 seconds at full speed, but then you can squeeze it to one minute circa at 24 fps. 2000 feet magazine will last 26 seconds. To reach maximum speed it requires 5 seconds and 50 meters of film, and there is not speed down as the film pass through the camera that needs more than 2 minute to stop. |
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 Thomas:
You say 12 perf, and 6-perf – how does that “translate” into normal
5-perf for cinemas? Luca: Today 99% of production do digital post production so, apart some complicated parts related to scanning, will be very easy to find a place for this strange format via digital intermediate: 1:1 12 perf is very close to 4:3 so eventually IMAX 15 perf can be extracted (with a little bit of enlarging, of course) from the format. On the other hand 5 perf will be possible just by cropping a 6 perf format using a digital intermediate, which is available right now. And this is not only how I believe things should work. The second issue is about the lenses. Photosonic used only lenses starting from 300 mm, can you imagine? So I eventually came out with a system to mount Mamiya 67 lenses, and I can start shooting with a 50mm. |
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 Thomas:
How do you see the use of your 65mm camera today?
Luca: We are preparing a commercial and a feature film with this pipeline. We already have a working pipeline with Kodak in London and Digital Orchard and we are able to scan up to 5k x 5k at 16 bit, but will look to improve it, as there are machines ready to scan up to 13k! On the other hand I’d be interested in developing an optical printing machine for this purpose. Only two optical printing machine for 65mm were made, and I believe one is destroyed, the other should be in USA. As you know, rotating prism cameras are affected by image bouncing and even if we are perfecting it, stabilization need to be performed on rough frames. So this is why we are also using DI right now, and why my optical printing machine will also be able to optimally stabilize the image. On the other hand, probably only Sir Nolan is interested in direct printing so not sure if it would make enough sense to build it. It’s a very big camera! Eventually I painted it red as everybody would love to take pictures of it. Red make it more visible! On Instagram you can see the picture of the dolly with my colleague Artjon, and also picture of us with Hoyte van Hoytema and Brady Corbet! Thank you so much for your interest in the K65K – it would be a real pleasure to see the project featured on in70mm.com! At the moment I don’t have a formal press kit ready, but you can already find images, videos, and stories about the camera on our website k65k.com and on our Instagram page k65k.speedcameras. There you will also find “Jumping to Conclusions,” the first short film ever shot in 65mm high speed, which was also featured on Kodak’s page. We are very proud to be supported by Kodak. |
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issues Updated 21-12-25 |