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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Birger Lens Mount & Follow Focus

Yes you don't need to buy the nikon mount from Red, just the Birger mount. You would take off the PL mount that comes as standard and insert the Birger Mount in it's place using the 4 screws on the front (As seen in the pic on page 1).

Frankly I can't see why anyone will bother buying the $500 Nikon mount now, seems to have been made redundant by Eric and Co at Birger, when for just $900 more you get a follow focus, remote control, and ability to control the lens!
 
This is excellent news. Thanks Erik, I'm also going to make an order for the Canon mount during August.
 
Erik, it sounds great. Question about the ff knob and iris control.

Erik, it sounds great. Question about the ff knob and iris control.

birgerEngineer said:
The lens mount will be $950 and the cable to connect it to the RED camera lens port will be $75. The follow focus knob that mounts on the camera rails is $300 and the cable to attach this to the lens mount is also $75. We will have a wireless controller, with an LCD and two control surfaces (a knob and a slider) available in October for $600. Development of this controller will be public, on reduser.net.
Click to expand...

Erik, it sounds great. Is the FF knob wired or wireless?

Without the wireless controller due in October, is iris control only through the buttons on the mount itself (assuming you incorporated that) or is there another wired input?

If there are wires, can we get to these through a jack so we can just have pots in our underwater housing or are we going to need a smart controller in the housing?

Anyway, great work.
 
I understand how the focus and iris will work but how will the zoom work with the mount? Say I get a Canon EOS zoom lens, will I be able to zoom in during a shot at a variable speed and feather the start and stop? Will I be able to wrack focus and zoom at the same time? Half my work is high end TV spots and music videos where snap zooms are common and the other half is corporate trade stuff where they love the pretty zooms with the feathered starts and stops. Do I need another gizmo to make this happen?
 
Zoom is a manual function on the lens.

Zoom is a manual function on the lens.

Dreamcine said:
I understand how the focus and iris will work but how will the zoom work with the mount? Say I get a Canon EOS zoom lens, will I be able to zoom in during a shot at a variable speed and feather the start and stop? Will I be able to wrack focus and zoom at the same time? Half my work is high end TV spots and music videos where snap zooms are common and the other half is corporate trade stuff where they love the pretty zooms with the feathered starts and stops. Do I need another gizmo to make this happen?
Click to expand...

Zoom is a manual function of the lens. It will take a separate servo system to drive the zoom - I think they may be working on it but it is a completely different animal requiring mount to the matte box arms. Since the lens give zoom position the birger mount can provide some feedback to a zoom controller that will be useful.
 
Thanks Erik

Thanks Erik

birgerEngineer said:
When I first met Jim, he said something along the lines of: engineer a great solution, charge a fair price, and the volume will happen. (Sorry Jim, if I butchered this). One of the other things I have learned by watching Jim/RED is that the loyalty of the early adopters should be rewarded. So, anybody who reserves the first four items listed by the end of August (with a 20% refundable deposit), and schedules/takes delivery by the end of the calendar year, will receive our wireless controller for free.


I will start a new thread in the next day or two, with current images of the prototypes, a complete feature list, pricing/reservations and any other pertinent information.
Click to expand...

Thanks Erik for maintaining the ethos of RED with your offer and pricing package. You have another customer here. Let us know how to order soon.

P.S. Somebody mentioned on a previous thread about the whole RED phenonena and on how business is done will find its way on to a future Harvard course. I think this is true and it will be a business model used worlwide.

Openness, Ingenuity, Customer orientated feedback, Ethics etc.etc...

Its great being part of the RED revolution:red_bandana:
 
birgerEngineer said:
Twist my arm... though we are still working out final details for the announcement I will pre-announce pricing...

The lens mount will be $950 and the cable to connect it to the RED camera lens port will be $75. The follow focus knob that mounts on the camera rails is $300 and the cable to attach this to the lens mount is also $75. We will have a wireless controller, with an LCD and two control surfaces (a knob and a slider) available in October for $600. Development of this controller will be public, on reduser.net.

When I first met Jim, he said something along the lines of: engineer a great solution, charge a fair price, and the volume will happen. (Sorry Jim, if I butchered this). One of the other things I have learned by watching Jim/RED is that the loyalty of the early adopters should be rewarded. So, anybody who reserves the first four items listed by the end of August (with a 20% refundable deposit), and schedules/takes delivery by the end of the calendar year, will receive our wireless controller for free.

As time goes on, the lens mount and camera cable will be the minimum configuration, as data will be sent to the camera (in the same way a Cooke or Broadcast lens does) and control surfaces such as CVB/viewfactor's remote and RED's supergrip are planned to be compatible. Prior to the integration with the camera, and/or availability of our wireless controller, a Palm PDA or laptop with Bluetooth will be required for setting up the system, and adjusting things like knob direction and gain. An appropriate PDA is the Palm Tungsten E2 ($199) or the Palm TX ($299). Any Bluetooth device with a terminal emulator and a 1SPP profile will also work fine (i.e. a laptop).

I will start a new thread in the next day or two, with current images of the prototypes, a complete feature list, pricing/reservations and any other pertinent information.
Click to expand...

Sold.
 
Sold! Do you plan on making different length cables for remote mount. I prefer not to use the wireless at least when on the aircraft mount.
 
DAServices said:
Sold! Do you plan on making different length cables for remote mount. I prefer not to use the wireless at least when on the aircraft mount.
Click to expand...

Use the remote control or PDA rather than being hardwired to the mount. Length of cables is not an issue.
 
DAServices said:
Sold! Do you plan on making different length cables for remote mount. I prefer not to use the wireless at least when on the aircraft mount.
Click to expand...

Yes. At a minimum we will offer an "on camera", an "off camera" and the option for a custom length. We will charge a premium for custom, but it won't be that bad.

Anybody want to suggest what the standard "off camera" length should be?
 
birgerEngineer said:
Yes. At a minimum we will offer an "on camera", an "off camera" and the option for a custom length. We will charge a premium for custom, but it won't be that bad.

Anybody want to suggest what the standard "off camera" length should be?
Click to expand...

Well, how long is the longest professional non-hothead, non-telescopic crane? Plus a good bit of slack! :tongue:
 
At such a low pricepoint for the remote I just can't see why anyone would want to bother with an "off camera" wired option. Can anyone think of a reason why?
 
Because wireless requiires power, and potentially has interference/signal strength problems. And not just when out of line of sight - working in studios, you can get dead spots.
 
Fair points.

I imagine the birger mount will be great for steadicam owners like yourself Eric. a really quick way of swapping out lenses.
 
PaulClements said:
At such a low pricepoint for the remote I just can't see why anyone would want to bother with an "off camera" wired option. Can anyone think of a reason why?
Click to expand...

To add a few of my own.. The wireless controller is using BlueTooth, which is in the "garbage band" shared with things like microwave ovens. We already have a bunch of systems that are flown (i.e. airplanes and helicopters), and these customers have a strong dislike of extra radios on flight vehicles.

The wireless remote control will have a LEMO connector to talk to the accessory bus on the lens mount, so wired is always an available option, so long as you have an extra cable.
 
accessory bus

accessory bus

birgerEngineer said:
The wireless remote control will have a LEMO connector to talk to the accessory bus on the lens mount, so wired is always an available option, so long as you have an extra cable.
Click to expand...

Erik: does that accessory bus allow use of switches/pots to control iris and focus or is it an RS 232 port and I need to get to work on my controller board or better still is there or could you put another lemo on your off camera controller that would parallel the switches/pots or whatever.

All I am trying to do is simplify control in our housing, but that parallel capability might be useful for other people too.
 
birgerEngineer said:
Anybody want to suggest what the standard "off camera" length should be?
Click to expand...

As already mentioned the off-camera length should allow a crane of reasonable length and helicopter/airplane use. So, how about 7-8 meters?
 
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