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Digital Bolex raw camera, no longer made
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  • +1 @luekio

    And do not forget the great specs on the sound system.

    However, we still do not have a sample longer than five seconds from the final camera, only a few highly graded and stylized samples. Hmmm.

  • @philiplipetz That is what I find odd. Supposedly ready to ship cameras, yet nobody has seen more than very short snippets of film created by the designers. At least with BMPCC, there was quite a bit more footage available as release was getting closer, and while it was not from a bunch of different sources, it seemed a little bit more honest.

  • @luekio Think you're going to be surprised with Panys new camera. I would probably hold off on speculating with those comments. Itight be sooner than you think :)

  • @tosvus

    Y'all are behind on the times! I'm surprised you don't subscribe to our forum or blog for easier trolling! 5sf and Max Well have released footage shot on the production camera and posted it online. Joe Dante used the camera for the opening titles of his new film BURYING THE EX. We've shot A and B unit on 2 episodes of Netflix's HEMLOCK GROVE. Another feature film is using the camera in New York as we speak! The tides, they are a changin'.

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  • @elle oh c'won girl, if we had to go back trolling to every place we spit dirty little daggers at, there would be no time left for us to actually - - - here fill with your mind. So, from my very insignificantly dark trolling heart I wish you and mr. Rub best of lucks, no BS here, I really do; as you may see back in the thread I played and was very impressed with dng's from d16 =)

    @all guys, there's a lady in the house, show your manners :P
    @vicharris , quick hide the barbies!!!

  • @elle

    Ouch, look that we have here. :-)

    Welcome. What delayed you for so long?

    As far as I understand all cameras must be already in the hands of their owners, as far as I know express posts speed.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev I've been here from day one, handsome ;) and I'm still hurt that @Rambo would leave me at the bar.

    We've shipped 6 cameras out now including two demos (old bodies not up to QA for Kickstarter backers), about 15 are in various build stages right now and should ship right after the holiday. Last week we were building 1 unit a day, this week was faster, will speed up over time. It's a learning process for our assembly team.

    We're all going a little stir crazy in the Toronto office. For all the pragmatic naysaying that you guys have done in the past, there are some completely asinine things to deal with when starting this kind of business that you guys would never imagine. Like the foam arrives, and it immediately starts shedding dust. Foam dust. An actual thing I had to deal with. Or parts being held at customs because the shipping company improperly labeled them. Ice storms. Improper paint thickness. Having to create 200 coupon codes to go to backers for all their free stuff that have to be controlled through three different spreadsheets that take 10 hours to type up. Have you ever spreadsheeted for 10 hours straight?! I did yesterday and I think I have PTSD.

    First cameras arrive to backers tomorrow or Monday, depends on where they live. It's going to be a fun Christmas. I hope you guys like the footage that other people besides us post.

    From those of you who stalk my twitter know (sorry about the lack of beach photos this year, too many trips to Canada), I've been working on a documentary about Dick Miller for longer than I've been working on the camera, and when we got the camera on Joe Dante's set it meant that I get my name in the credits of a film that has Dick Miller in it, which was really special for me.

    Anyway keep on with the hating, it's all good. If we impressed everyone 100% of the time, how would we motivate ourselves to do better?

  • @elle why would you expect me to subscribe to a forum of an unproven company releasing a camera with so many red flags? Browse this website a little bit; in my opinion it contains some of the most honest discussions on the positives and negatives of every camera on the market. This is such a breath of fresh air, especially when there are sites like nofilmschool.com writing puff pieces every other day ignoring some real concerns about your camera. Let's hope the D16 turns out well; in the meantime, I would hardly call it trolling if some of us were to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism in the absence of ungraded footage shot in extreme conditions that would actually show what the camera is capable of. I don't want to wait for the next season of Hemlock Grove to see what the D16 can do; that show is bad enough as it is.

  • @elle

    Elle, I'll tell you a secret now. Things are not such as you perceive them in your brain.
    You also do not have any "haters" here.
    Some harsh comments present here mostly aimed to strange actions and constantly missed promises.
    But I fully understand how it can look.

    We've shipped 6 cameras out now including two demos (old bodies not up to QA for Kickstarter backers), about 15 are in various build stages right now and should ship right after the holiday. Last week we were building 1 unit a day, this week was faster, will speed up over time. It's a learning process for our assembly team.

    So, let us clear things up. 4 actual cameras to backers had been shipped?
    After the holidays you'll be shipping about 1 camera per day, correct?

    If we impressed everyone 100% of the time, how would we motivate ourselves to do better?

    This part is good, First part I omitted is not so. :-)

    Elle, can you openly answer to some questions raised here.

    I mean here actual role of Ienso boss.
    Source of development and manufacturing financing (as it is clear that backers money are long gone).
    Support and warranty plans?

  • elle, to be honest i think you're a goddess living among mere mortals. i truly admire what you've accomplished. pay no heed to the naysayers (well pay heed to constructive criticism perhaps) but some people are dopes and petty. it's a revolutionary and visionary product and people make all these silly criticisms and complain about petty details and pricing, having no idea what goes into developing such a thing or what goes into creating a new product.

    as far as i'm concerned, you're a role model and an inspiration. seriously, if i wasn't half a shmuck, i'd ask you to marry me.

  • it's a revolutionary and visionary product and people make all these silly criticisms and complain about petty details and pricing, having no idea what goes into developing such a thing or what goes into creating a new product.

    We have real pluralism here :-)

    Hope you are right and other people are wrong.

  • "in my opinion it contains some of the most honest discussions on the positives and negatives of every camera on the market."

    ...and you forgot to mention the bashing of cameras that no one knows anything about.

  • ...and you forgot to mention the bashing of cameras that no one knows anything about.

    I think it is time to stop with fantasies :-)

  • on the recommendation of @elle I just looked over at the digital bolex forum: I just don't understand how people can be so on board with a product that they have never truly seen in action; it's flat out weird. Yes, the camera has some good specs, but the global shutter is the only variable spec-wise differentiating it from the BMPCC and the BMCC which are both significantly cheaper. And if you were to "pre"-order the D16, God knows when you would receive it, and I would be willing to bet the Blackmagic 4K would be shipping by then which is only $700 to $400 more than the D16 depending on what size SSD you got with the Bolex. And I'm no Blackmagic fanboy: I do have the pocket (which I bought after seeing plenty of reassuring footage and knowledge that the early kinks were worked out) and use it as a B or C Cam on shoots and find that with a shoulder rig or IS lenses, the jello shutter is nullified. And there are some worrisome specs too in the D16 like max 400 ISO, native C mount, unusable 320x240 monitor (at least with the pocket you can use a loupe).

    @babypanda I'm not bashing the camera, and you're right that no one knows anything about it, including you. None of this is to imply that the camera might not turn out well. Anything is possible, but it's very hard to see what a camera is capable of when the only videos released are heavily graded or in very neutral lighting. People can do what they want with their money, but I think it is foolish to drop over 3 grand on a camera, sight unseen, from an unknown company with zero track record.

  • 6 cameras have shipped so far. We have more built, but they each need to be hand tested and calibrated before they ship. After the holiday it should be faster and probably 3 cameras a day. There are many factors that go into shipping that have nothing to do with whether the camera is ready, like customs forms, verifying addresses, printing up invoices, physical packing, that kind of boring stuff.

    This pretty much says what the roles of everyone at the company are: http://www.digitalbolex.com/about/

    Joe partnered with the executives at Ienso, a preexisting camera company, to create a new company called Cinemeridian. Cinemeridian has existed since 2011, which is when hardware development of the camera began. Joe, Mike (our CTO), and I essentially do the concept development of features both hardware and software, and Mike executes those. Joe is the CEO of the company. He is the actual boss. He works with Kish and Pomfort to design our lenses and software and to seek out new relationships with other companies who might want to make products for the camera, works with Mike and the engineering team to problem solve issues, does the hands-on thorough camera testing on the LA end, writes blog posts, answers questions on the forum, and does a lot of banal business stuff. Mike is a rockstar. What's funny about the suppositions in this thread is that Stelio is actually the least involved in day to day stuff on our project, as he manages the business side of Ienso and all the other projects they've done, and chimes in when we need more heads on an engineering problem. They are all awesome guys up in Canada and everyone in the company has put in a ridiculous amount of work.

    Source of development funds is that Ienso is financially invested in the project, and Joe has put in the funds he received from selling his half of the successful business he founded years ago. He sold his half because his previous business partner did not want to branch out into developing new imaging technology, and he believed in the future of raw. He would not have put his own money, his financial future, into this thing if he didn't believe in it 100%, and that's a very brave thing to do.

    Warranty is 1 year standard warranty like most consumer electronics, and will be serviced in Toronto. A few rental houses have asked if we would be interested in local US based warranty and servicing, and we'll definitely be looking into that once the first batch of cameras is out.

    I think it's a great accomplishment that we've done what other big camera companies have done in a shorter time with far fewer resources. That's not to say that we're perfect, we've had many problems and delays, but that's all part of starting a business. But I hope that someone who has watched our journey and decides to try something they wouldn't have previously thought possible might learn something from where we've gone right and wrong.

  • What's funny about the suppositions in this thread is that Stelio is actually the least involved in day to day stuff on our project, as he manages the business side of Ienso and all the other projects they've done, and chimes in when we need more heads on an engineering problem. They are all awesome guys up in Canada and everyone in the company has put in a ridiculous amount of work.

    If I remember correctly in one of your interviews Stelio was called boss. And he is, indeed, owner of all the domains. I never saw company who have their contractor owning their domain and making major investment in such product. Usually it works the other way.

    Another facts raised in this topic is that Stelio was owner of other strange startups were each one disappeared and on its place new one appeared in absolutely different area of expertise. I also presented open opinion from firms who stated that same bravado and approaches had been common for his enterprises.

    Source of development funds is that Ienso is financially invested in the project, and Joe has put in the funds he received from selling his half of the successful business he founded years ago. He sold his half because his previous business partner did not want to branch out into developing new imaging technology, and he believed in the future of raw. He would not have put his own money, his financial future, into this thing if he didn't believe in it 100%, and that's a very brave thing to do.

    It is brave indeed, but business is business.

    So let me rephrase it. Right now business is in deep minus and works in extra cash invested by Joe and Ienso. As just check salaries and expense of your staff and multiply it by time passed. It must be really big losses now.

    My worry with this data is that in such situation it can turn into Ponzi scheme as you intent to finance assembly and costs of backers cameras from funds you got from preorders.

  • @digger you're forgetting the high-quality SSD inside that allows you to record immediately without need for further storage if you choose, the audio inputs, 12v power in/out, and the basic ergonomics. To get those things on the other cameras you're talking about requires serious accessorizing.

    As for the forum, I'm not sure if you know this but many people who post there, including backers, have actually seen the camera and played with it both in person and using the footage we've posted online. Some have shot projects on it already. We had a working camera at NAB, and have had beta cameras out and about for testing in LA since August.

  • @Vitaly_Kiselev I wouldn't say it's deep minus, but as they say, you have to speculate to accumulate. Most businesses don't start in the black.

    We already have all the parts in the office in Toronto for assembly, have had for a while, and posted photos months ago. Waiting game has always been about firmware bugs. What's good is that at this point new orders should only take 8-12 weeks to fill, depending on how long the turnaround is on certain parts. I'm not sure if you've ever been involved with the manufacturing process but a lot of these factories in China have really shoddy QA and you have to go through a number of batches before anything arrives right, and our engineers reject any part that isn't perfect.

  • had a working camera at NAB

    Looking back, it is not true. As this camera actually did not shot any video as I remember reports. So it was not working camera.

  • "I'm not bashing the camera, and you're right that no one knows anything about it, including you. None of this is to imply that the camera might not turn out well."

    right, but some people have made ridiculous claims in this thread like "xyz camera is better than the Bolex and only 600$". so some people ARE bashing it. I suggest people just stop commenting and wait. people have actually put several years of their lives into this project and some of the comments are kinda harsh. and like i said, even if the camera falls short, maybe you can keep in mind how hard it must be to develop in the first place and be a little more forgiving of any shortcomings it may have.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev You're right. I think at NAB there was an imaging issue with the firmware, so it would have been Cinegear that it was working. We took it to the ASC that weekend so a lot of people played with it there.

  • We already have all the parts in the office in Toronto for assembly, have had for a while, and posted photos months ago. Waiting game has always been about firmware bugs. What's good is that at this point new orders should only take 8-12 weeks to fill, depending on how long the turnaround is on certain parts.

    Ok, if it is firmware stuff. Why cameras were not assembled long time ago?

    I'm not sure if you've ever been involved with the manufacturing process but a lot of these factories in China have really shoddy QA and you have to go through a number of batches before anything arrives right, and our engineers reject any part that isn't perfect.

    I am involved :-) And such things show that you do things wrong. Starting from not having expert in place.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev I don't think they wanted to start the production line moving until ship dates were in place, because they want to set up the assembly area and keep continuously assembling through to the next batch, rather than stopping and starting.

    We do have engineers overseeing our work in China. We're definitely more on top of things now than when we started though, and I think the specialization of these parts requires more precision than the factories we were working with anticipated, so we sent people over to China to show them what we needed, and it's running smoothly now.