Category: digital bolex

13Apr

Now that we have the Blackmagic Pocket camera is the Digital Bolex still relevant?

Posted in Blackmagic Camera, digital bolex | Leave a comment

Digital Bolex (1 of 3)

It’s been 2 years a year since the Digital Bolex was successfully funded on kickstarter. The camera brought the promise of a super 16mm sensor size and a RAW DNG file format at a sub $3000 price point. In 2011 this sounded like an amazing step forward compared to the cameras that were currently on the market. That was until Blackmagic released the 2.5k BMCC.

At $2995 the BMCC basically delivered on many of the promises that the Digital Bolex was based on. The form factor might not be as elegant as the Digital Bolex design but your still getting RAW and Prores at a $3000 price point.

Digital Bolex (2 of 3)

Both cameras have suffered delays, but the BMCC is basically out in the wild, while the Digital Bolex is still only a cool looking design. Now Blackmagic has announced and plans to ship the Pocket Cinema Camera in the next few months at a price point of $995 and the Digital Bolex may or may not be shipping by that time.

The Pocket Cinema Camera has many of the features the Digital Bolex promised for $2000 less. I know XLR inputs, physical knobs, and some of the other features the Digital Bolex offers are attractive, but so is a $995 Super 16mm camera the size of a point and shoot.

Digital Bolex (3 of 3)

Blackmagic is known for their “will fix it later” style of product release, so I expect to see many growing pains during the life cycle of the Pocket Cinema Camera. On the other hand the Digital Bolex is still an unknown, if it’s released in a few more months and they nail every feature on their list perfectly, it could still be a very attractive camera. But if the camera doesn’t live up to the specs list, the Pocket Cinema Camera might have the upper hand.

Just remember, Blackmagic doesn’t plan to have something as simple as audio level meters working at launch. What else will the camera be missing? Will the $140 Sandisk SDXC cards be able to keep up with RAW DNG, or is Prores 422 the best we can hope for? What other problems could this little camera be hiding? If the Digital Bolex wants to remain relevant in the current camera market, they’ll really have to make sure there are zero problems at launch. If the Pocket Cinema Camera isn’t plagued with problems it’ll definitely be a tempting choice for many filmmakers.

All credit is given to author DSLR Film NoobDeejay

25Feb

First Look. Digital Bolex D16 Lenses From Kish Optics.

Posted in Cameras, digi bolex, digital bolex, Jared abrams, video camera, wide open camera, woc | Leave a comment

Here is a quick take lens test with the brand new Kish Optics Digital Bolex D16 lenses. The lineup consists of a 10mm, 18mm and 38mm all fixed aperture of f4.0 with a screw in C-mount camera mount. Kish designed the optics specifically to compensate for the sensor on the digital bolex. They are set to release them in a few months with a street price of around three hundred bucks each. We tested the 10mm and 18mm. The 38mm was not working with our Panasonic GH3. All of the lenses we tested were prototype first generation lenses.


Click here to check it out.

 

Twitt

All credit is given to author Wide Open CameraJared Abrams

28Mar

Interview With Digital Bolex Co-Founder Elle Schneider.

Posted in Cameras, digi bolex, digital bolex, digital bolex project, digitalbolex, elle schneider, Jared abrams, photo, Photography, the digital bolex kickstarter, thedigitalbolex, thge digital bolex, wide open camera, woc | Leave a comment

We got to spend a little time with Elle Schneider, the co-founder of the brand new Digital Bolex D16 camera system. We wanted to meet with her and discuss the new camera, kickstarter and release dates. The Digital Bolex kickstarter project kicked some serious ass in the first few days. They surpassed their funding goal and are still open to donations.

I wanted to meet with the people behind this exciting new camera system and see if it was in fact legitimate. I even contacted Bolex to confirm their relationship. Big promises for very little scratch. Something Red promsed but was not able to deliver. The Team behind the Digital Bolex seem poised to release this beast by Summer 2012 with a Beta program of 100 units. I was unable to nab one of the first hundred myself. I will watch closely as this could be a great camera for the price. A $3500 base model will deliver 4:4:4 12 bit and the money shot 2K RAW resolution. That beats anything currently on the market. Let’s hope that prototype make it to NAB 2012. It was”In Canada” for the interview. I had a girlfriend like that once.

 

For the pixel peepers out there we used a Sony FS100 and Nex 5N with Zeiss glass, always Zeiss glass.

I used the bleach bypass filter in FCPX to get the 70′s look.

 


All credit is given to author Wide Open CameraJared Abrams

13Mar

Digital Bolex Super 16mm Concept Camera. $2500

Posted in bolex, Cameras, digi bolex, digital bolex, digitalbolex, digitalbolex camera, digitalbolex review, digiytal bolex raw, Jared abrams, philip bloom, wide open camera, woc | Leave a comment

I picked this up via Philip Bloom on Twitter. The Digital Bolex concept camera looks insanely awesome. They are running a kickstarter campaign and trying to raise 100K. The footage shown here is from a prototype model. Here is a rip from the kickstarter page. This looks like a really cool concept. I hope they can pull it off!

“MILESTONES
$100,000 is the bare minimum we need to produce the first batch of cameras. If we reach $200,000 we can include a suite of post-processing software with the camera package to manage RAW workflow. If we reach $250,000 we’ll include an additional mount of your choice to anyone who buys a camera.

If the campaign is successful, the first 100 cameras will be available in August. After that, we’ll start taking pre-orders from the general public and the camera will be available in Fall.”

Here are the specs from the Digital Bolex website.
Click here for the Digital Bolex Kickstarter campaign.

Specs

 

Resolution 2048 x 1152 (Super 16mm mode) + 1920 x 1080 pixels (16mm mode)
Format Adobe Cinema DNG, TIFF, JPEG Image sequences
Colour depth 12 bit – 4:4:4
File size 2 to 3 MB per frame in RAW
Sensor Kodak CCD: 12.85 mm (H) x 9.64 mm (V) – Similar to Super 16mm
Pixel Size 5.5 micron (compared to the 4.3 micron size of many DSLRs)
Framerate up to 32 fps at 2K, 60fps at 720p, 90 fps at 480p
Sound Balanced, 2 channel, 16 bit, 48 kHz via XLR
Viewfinder 320×240, 2.4” diagonal, with Focus Assist
Video out 640 x 480 B&W via ?” video jack (HD-SDI avail in separate unit)
Ports ?” video, headphone, USB 3.0, Audio XLR (2), 4-PIN XLR
Data Storage Dual CF card slots, SSD (buffer drive)
Power Internal battery, 12V External via 4 pin XLR port
Body Milled steel and hard plastic
Size (body) Approximately 5”H (without pistol grip) by 4”W by 8”D
Size (grip) 5”H by 2”W by 5”D
Lens mount C-mount comes standard; Optional PL, EF, B4
Weight 5lbs
ISO Options 100, 200, 400
Also in the box pistol grip, USB 3.0 cable, internal battery, 4 pin XLR Battery, cable, video cable, transcoder/raw conversion software

 

Philip Bloom has an audio interview with the creators of the Digital Bolex here.

All credit is given to author Wide Open CameraJared Abrams