Toronto Visit and New Camera Update!

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Hi Everyone,

I’m in Toronto looking at final board designs and talking about the finer points of sensor calibration with the guys! We had our first “Big Picture” meeting with the engineers too!

We talk about “Big Picture” pretty often in LA and with key people here in Toronto, but I think it’s important for everyone on the team to understand it and know how they play a part. In fact we are working on a Big Picture blog for you guys too!

Development is going well, as always there are minor problems here and there, but as Mike puts it there are no “show stoppers” we can foresee. Most of the boards will be finalized this month!

I had a moment yesterday holding one of the finished power boards in my hand where I realized the awesomeness of this journey.

Usually a product like a camera or a car is created by a large company with significant capital resources and intended to be appealing to the largest possible market. In this case this camera is being made by a collaboration of filmmakers and engineers who want to make the best camera possible for a niche market that we hope will grow. This is a very unusual way for a product like this to come into existence! I just wanted to take this moment to thank all of our Kickstarter backers for helping us follow this dream.

So here it is. This is the essential parts of the camera! This is the sensor, the sensor board, attached to the FPGA board behind it. The Guts of the camera…

This piece of electronics is the physical realization of a dream we all had. A dream to make a small piece of this industry the way we want it. And even though it is only small piece of a much larger system, it is being done our way. This means that hopefully we can get other parts of this industry to be the way we want them too. I know this sounds sappy, but holding these boards was really emotional for me.

So many people have been added to the team in the last couple of months that all of the free space here is now taken up with desks. This area used to be a lounge area…

This area used to be completely empty…

There are even people setup in the board rooms! This is Mike(back to us) and the ladies of Ienso…

The guys were showing me some new renders and I knew we had to get them out to you ASAP! I think these are the best renders we’ve ever had!

(some of the details are not 100% right like placement of the side cold shoe and the style of handle on the crank, but I really wanted to share them with you anyway!)

Mike and I went through the entire layout of the camera again, and the 3D model to make sure everything would be just right. I am so excited right now it’s hard to put it in words. We should be getting the new CNC model very soon, and it will be substance accurate (have all the right materials in the right places). As soon as I have it I will be photographing it to show you guys too.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this update as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you. We are in the home stretch! Again thank you all for your support at this crucial time!

All the best,   Joe and Elle

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joerubinstein

About joerubinstein

Joe Rubinstein is one of the founders and CEO of Digital Bolex. At Polite in Public, a photo marketing company he also co-founded, Joe was the Chief Technology Officer who worked with electronics developers and software developers to create the Polite in Public Photobooth which helped define modern photo marketing services.

37 thoughts on “Toronto Visit and New Camera Update!”

  2. ” I know this sounds sappy, but holding these boards was really emotional for me.” Lol. The renders look awesome! Can’t wait till this comes out and becomes available to more of us :-)

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  3. This camera is what the independent Filmmakers want and you two are making it happen. Awesome. Thanks for going where others won’t.

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  6. Hello Joe!
    First of all I would like to apologize for my English. I’m not an English speaker. I’m an independent filmmaker and I have a film project for which the Bolex seems the most appropriate tool. Initially I was interested in Red Scarlet as it seemed more affordable. S35, 4K seemed extraordinary to me. But what would have interested me most in Scarlet is that feature called HDRx. Unfortunately for Scarlet, the HDRx has certain disadvantages. It’s normal. If there weren’t any disadvantages it would have been an “Epic” and the price would have been greater.
    When the first information appeared about the digital Bolex, I knew that it is the camera I need. 2k is enough for me and so is S16. I’m not very good at the technical side. I’m more guided by specs when distinguishing between one product and another. That is why I hope my question doesn’t seem too foolish. Is it possible in the future for the Digital Bolex to have something similar to HDRx?

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  7. Hello DLC,

    My understanding is that HDRx is a patented Red feature. Also the Digital Bolex intends to be a very straight forward camera, HDRx seems a little complicated for our company ethos. I am not saying we will never do anything like this, but it is not currently in our planned product line.

    Thanks for your interest! Joe

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  8. Thanks for the peek behind the scenes at the faces and places, Joe. Nice to see your dream realised in silicon and circuits too. I think anyone would be emotional to have the idea become reality in the hand, so congrats due to you. Also nice to see the handle rendered with appropriate subtlety; the initial early industrial revolution form now updated into what looks unobtrusively functional. Less crank and more handle. Does it fold away flat into what looks like a groove running toward the center? Anyway good stuff and more power to you and the D16 team.

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  10. Is there any chance to see a full black body model to come out? Having a shinny camera on a set seem very tricky to me as it can occur unwanted reflection on the scene or simply become visible on a reflective object. I’d like to buy a cheaper version without crank , hope y’ou ll think about it once this baby is finished and fully released. Congrats on this huge step!

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    • The metal won’t be as reflective in real life as it is in the render, if you recall the original Bolexes, this wasn’t a big issue. IThe mechanics of the crank are integrated into the electronics and so would be difficult to remove–and since it’s programmable to different functions I don’t know why you would want to remove it IMO. As it is now, the crank folds into itself pretty seamlessly, so it’s easy to ignore if you’re not using it.

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  15. And please make exchangable batteries, this is what everyone is hating BMCC for….you could win a lot there….and the BMCC does not hold up very well when handheld, it’s so terribly shaky, you could be ahead there too…… good luck. COME ON SHIP IT SOON :)

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    • Hi Vick,

      We are working hard to ship as fast as we can! As you can see from this update we have added so many people we don’t have room for all of the desks!

      As far as removable batteries, we cannot do that with this model.

      This is a from a forum post I made explaining it a little more…

      The power consumption is between 2 and 3 times higher than a DSLR. Our through put is 4 times higher, we have 3 times as many processors, our main processor does 3 times the calculations, we run 2 cards and an SSD, 4 times the storage devices, and so on.
      A swappable battery solution small enough to fit inside the camera might give you only 20 – 30 mins run time. Our internal battery should last between 3 – 4 hours, twice as long as the BMC.
      We are also looking into a swappable battery pistol grip accessory down the road. But it will be much larger that he currently planned pistol grip.
      I grew up with battery belts, I still think they are the best option. they don’t add weight to the camera, they last all day, they are more reliable and “burn down” less than internal batteries, they have accurate meters built into many of them. They are just really solid time tested solutions.

      See the full thread here http://www.digitalbolex.com/forum/lenses-and-accessories/cheap-power-solutions/#p1160

      And obviously we are thinking a lot about the best possible way to do hand held on a camera like this :)

      Thanks for your comment, Joe

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  17. Hi Joe,

    first of all thanks for the update. Nice renders.

    I was wondering if you could show off a render from the base of the camera, showing the mounting options with the handle detached. We are going to put a Angenieux Super 16 Zoom (roughly 6 punds +) on the D16, which would make the camera very front heavy and I’d really like to start looking for valid rigging solutions. I know you didn’t intend the camera first and foremost for this kind of setup. Considering the weight of the lens, we will not shoot the D16 as much hand held with the provided handle as opposed to a properly rigged setup.

    Any news about the PL mount solution?

    All the best to you.

    Cheers,

    Yves Roy

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    • Hi Yves,

      The bottom of the camera is actually one of the changes we are making so it is not correct in the current rendering. We will make sure that the bottom of the camera is flat so you can use extended plates and whatever you need for advanced rigging. The lens mount is all metal to metal connections with weight bearing leverage in mind so hopefully will be a very strong robust solution. I told them there were people like you out there :)

      I hope you will give the handheld setup a try, I know that this is the least favorable way to shoot with many modern cameras, but I think it will be pretty fun with the D16 :)

      The passive EF, PL, and MFT mounts are the first things on the schedule for the hardware engineers once the camera tweeks are finished. I don’t think they will be ready at launch, but hopefully very soon after!

      Thanks for your support, Joe

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  18. Wow, I came across this while doing a search for 16mm cameras on ebay, and followed the progression of Bolex here! This is amazing, recording a series of JPEG’s instead of compressed video, why didn’t I think of that? Haha, it makes much more sense really, it’s just like film, a series of images. Although, being a hobbyist web designer as well, I must confess I prefer PNG’s, allows for an alpha channel, but that’s not for pro-images. Seriously, amazing work. I read an above comment where you were talking about battery belts, which makes me think that there will be a port to add a system like Anton Bauer batteries? That’s what I have on my current camera and the fewer extras I’d have to buy the better :)

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  21. Internal battery: Will it be relatively replaceable when approaching end of lifecycle? I.e. not having to send it back to the factory?

    And finally, a simple question of aesthetics: I have had the leatherette replaced on all vintage user cameras with varying genuine leathers for the simple joy of tactile pleasure: will this be relatively easy with The DBolex? Will The panels be glued on?

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    • We are experimenting with panel finishes right now actually! I took some pictures in a photo studio yesterday of a new CNC model. I will do a post this week with the new pictures soon!

      We had originally thought we were going to do plastic panels that were acid etched to look like the leather, but I think we are moving away from that now. You will see in the new pics very soon :)

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  23. Bravo! It looks real slick and strong at the time!!! The riggin was also one of my concern, the batteries too but you have answered those previously. Thx. I don’t want you to rush it out too much though, ’cause I really want you guys to make a better cam than the BMCC! ;) So my concern was about THUNDERBOLT port, will you be able to implement some on this model or will we have to wait for the upgrades?

    Thanks and congratulations on your magnificent progress and tenacity :)

    C

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