Video Released, Crowdfunding Underway For Axiom Open Source Cinema Camera

New submitter atagunov writes "Video clips have been released as crowdfunding starts for the world first open source cinematic videocam. "I am a filmmaker myself ... I would like to have powerful tools that I know to have full control over and that I can tune and tweak," says Sebastian Pichelhofer of Apertus. He is working on the Axiom Beta, the 2nd generation Apertus videocam, fully open sourced under GPL and OHL. It's not cheap compared to consumer-grade cameras, but being not-cheap hasn't stopped people from snapping up Joel Rubenstein's Digital Bolex.

Comments

Don't see the need

[JoeyRox]

The digital camera market for video is very competitive and so there are some great feature-rich cameras available for shooting cinematic video. Most notable is the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema (was on sale for $500 recently), the Panasonic GH2 ($400 used), GH3 ($600 used), and GH4 ($1700 new).

Re:"compared to consumer grade cameras"

[se6astian]

Plus interchangeable lens mounts. The sensor is already 4K, the internal processing is entirely 4K, the outputs will be 1080p at launch but 4K output will definitely follow later on.

Re: only manual lenses?

[atagunov]

Hi,

I'm not on the Apertus team however I've seen many a discussion on the IRC channel and so I can answer that. Yes indeed powered lens mounts are on the list of features. It's just that they expected after the initial release of Axiom Beta, the one which crowdfunding is being collected.

To this I would however like to add that old manual lenses are arguably rather well suited for shooting movies. I think it is an established fact of life that nearly all cinematic production is done with manual focus (google "focus puller", "first assistant camera"). Now the modern electronic lenses even if they have a manual focusing ring are not well suited for the task. The problems are:

1. the connection between the manual focusing ring and the lens part is electronic rather than mechanical - pulling focus is a lot less convenient, there is no mechanical feedback
2. focus control is not always proportionate - with a fully mechanical lens if you rotate forward 1/4 of a turn and then back 1/4 of a turn then you will arrive at the old focusing point; not so with fly-by-wire lenses - the distance your focusing point travels depends on how fast you're rotating the manual focusing ring and returning predictable to an earlier focus setting is not possible; this in particular renders useless "follow focus" devices with hard stops and pencil marks
3. it is often better if the aperture can be set in a step-less fashion

Old manual lenses certainly fix the first two issues, not sure about the last one. So I can conclude that while having a powered mount is very much desirable on Axiom cameras (and so it will come just a bit later) it is also true that the old lenses are in fact more suitable to the task of shooting movies and so the decision to deliver a fully manual Nikon-F mount first is justified

Yes I do have a nice powered lens for GH3. I also have some modern lenses my Nikon. However because of the above limitations I have already decided that should I dare to invest into actually buying an Axiom (presently I'm just a crowdfunding campaign backer) then I'll have to splash out for some old Nikkor-s as well. BTW I've been thinking of buying old glass on occasion anyway. I find it rather charming and the heavy metallic lens barrels inspire confidence in me

Re:What do they mean by "Open Source"

[Wescotte]

They are releasing all the information, plans, and specs for how to purchase, manufacture, and assemble the hardware and software.

Think of it like building a PC. The vast majority of the parts standardize and readily available. However, the water cooling system doesn't mount on the motherboard so you need an adapter they designed. They released a CAD document for this adapter that lets you have it produced by any company who can machine the adapter based on the specs.