The Digital Bolex D16 -VERY Affordable RAW Digital Cinema 4:4:4 16mm Camera..WOW!!

[Ian-T]

http://www.digitalbolex.com/

For those of you who passed on the Scarlet and kicked the new 5Dlll to the curb...you might be in luck. This guy just raised almost $200,000 on kickstarter for his new Digital Bolex. Yes...this is legit....and the Bolex company allowed him to use their name.



The camera specs are:

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 ⅛” video jack (HD-SDI avail in separate unit)

Ports

⅛” 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

Something shot with the camera.


If you hurry and make a pledge of $2,500 and you are the first 100 customers you can get a cam by end of May. Other than that it will be priced at $3,200. Not bad....and even less than a Canon 5Dlll. Sure....there are some limitations in ISO....but this is RAW...which means in post you can really get at least twice as much ISO range than the advertised.

I think this is (almost) everything the original Scarlet should have been.

[Ian-T]

Don't worry...it's not vaporwear. You can view a behind the scenes footage of their online trailer which shows the setup somewhere in the background.

[Ian-T]

http://philipbloom.net/2012/03/13/digitalbolex/

And correction....August will be the first release of these cameras.

[Gillvane]

Looks interesting. Will wait till there is a production model to see if it's reliable.

[Ian-T]

Here's a skeptic POV,

http://prolost.com/blog/2012/3/13/digital-bolex.html

[Gillvane]

C mount lenses at first. So something like this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-3-12-5MM-S...item3f0b4c1af7

That's really fast for really cheap.

[Ian-T]

Yes that would be perfect. But from what I understand C mount lenses will be rare very soon. I'm suprised it's at such a low price.

[Gillvane]

Yes that would be perfect. But from what I understand C mount lenses will be rare very soon. I'm suprised it's at such a low price.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._8mm_F1_4.html

I see. Very expensive.

[Erik Bien]

Most C mount lenses made today are pretty specialized (i.e., for CCTV/security or machine vision cams), but once upon a time it was a standard mount for 8mm and 16mm film cameras. Between the virtual death of 16mm film and the current mania for large sensors, there's a lot of unloved vintage 16mm glass going cheap.

The tricky part is C mount lenses were also made for 8mm film and 1/3", 1/2", 2/3" and 1" video formats, so you'd want to choose only glass meant for 16mm or Super16 cameras (projecting a 12.5mm-14.5mm image circle).

[Janke]

there's a lot of unloved vintage 16mm glass going cheap.

Yup, C-mount lenses abound. I think I have about 15-20 of them...

Note though, that cheap C-mount lenses are designed for CCTV cameras, and don't have the quality or resolution needed for 1080 or 2k video.

And do beware of CS-mount lenses...

[1]

Well, it's neat for sure.
He won't meet the deadline is my prediction, and the good guys over at Ikonoskop have been doing this for years; albeit for €7700!!

[1]

Vimeo link corrected in original post...

[Gillvane]

Most C mount lenses made today are pretty specialized (i.e., for CCTV/security or machine vision cams), but once upon a time it was a standard mount for 8mm and 16mm film cameras. Between the virtual death of 16mm film and the current mania for large sensors, there's a lot of unloved vintage 16mm glass going cheap.

The tricky part is C mount lenses were also made for 8mm film and 1/3", 1/2", 2/3" and 1" video formats, so you'd want to choose only glass meant for 16mm or Super16 cameras (projecting a 12.5mm-14.5mm image circle).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cosmicar-Sol...15207498849420

Super fast lenses are really cheap so the fact that the ISO isn't that high shouldn't be a big deal.

[Janke]

Cosmicar makes CCTV lenses, not at all up to the quality of Angenieux, Kern-Switar or other "real" Bolex lenses...

[Gillvane]

Cosmicar makes CCTV lenses, not at all up to the quality of Angenieux, Kern-Switar or other "real" Bolex lenses...

I've used one of these before, the 12-120:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/M25-Angenieu...#ht_2725wt_872

[Erik Bien]

Almost triple their Kickstarter goal raised and 99 of the slots for the first 100 cameras sold with nearly a month to go?

Krikey! Seems they may have found an untapped vein of hipster demand ...

[1]

Seems they may have found an untapped vein of hipster demand

...or a nifty way to finally buy that beach-front condo on Bali!

[Gillvane]

Almost triple their Kickstarter goal raised and 99 of the slots for the first 100 cameras sold with nearly a month to go?

Krikey! Seems they may have found an untapped vein of hipster demand ...

Sold out. NO more presale cameras, not even the 3,500 collectors edition. You have to admit it's a nifty idea. Deliver what Red could not, Raw video for around 3,000 bucks.

And XLR inputs. Nothing fancy, no slick proprietary codecs, proprietary batteries or storage media, etc. Most of the components are "off the shelf". They didn't design some great new sensor, just slammed one in there that was already available and ready to go from Kodak.

Granted, it's 2k not 4k, but movies are being made on the Arri Alexa and it delivers a 1080p output.

[Gillvane]

...or a nifty way to finally buy that beach-front condo on Bali!

If they can release this camera they'll make even more money than just running off with the kickstarter funds. PLus, you'd think Bolex would have checked them out since they did lend their name to the product.

[cammy]

This has been exposed as a fake over at dvxuser.com

It is simply a GX2300 by Allied Vision.

http://www.alliedvisiontec.com/emea/...gx/gx2300.html

Here is a shot of El Cinematographer with egg on his face, hoping nobody can read the words on the side of the red box.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/attachment...chmentid=49929

Unbelievable!

[Almohada]

I am looking into this.

[1]

It is simply a GX2300 by Allied Vision.

lol

[Bertzie]

This has been exposed as a fake over at dvxuser.com

It is simply a GX2300 by Allied Vision.

http://www.alliedvisiontec.com/emea/...gx/gx2300.html

Here is a shot of El Cinematographer with egg on his face, hoping nobody can read the words on the side of the red box.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/attachment...chmentid=49929

Unbelievable!

Did it ever pass your mind to think that they're taking the very limited camera, adding things that it lacks to make it a complete single object? Things that the GX2300 doesn't have. Like a viewfinder, microphone input, on camera storage, ect ect. Calling the Digital Bolex "simply a GX2300" is like calling a Ferrari simply an internal combustion engine.

[1]

Did it ever pass your mind to think that they're taking the very limited camera, adding things that it lacks...

Sure. So why wouldn't they disclose that before?

Such a project REALLY demands full disclosure!

It's a scam on so many levels....

[Bertzie]

Sure. So why wouldn't they disclose that before?

Such a project REALLY demands full disclosure!

It's a scam on so many levels....

Because telling people exactly how you're doing something is a great way for them to snatch it up for themselves. If it is a scam, the Bolex company will come after them. Given the amount of publicity the kickstarter project is getting, and that it's still up, they probably know about it. If they don't do anything about it, it's probably legit.