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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 Reservations

calling Houston ...

calling Houston ...

AquaVideoRed206 said:
FEDEX dropped it off 15 minutes ago. Pictures soon - looks sexy!

Will be a few hours before I get it mounted. Erik sent pictures and instructions, and yes the s/w is user upgradable.
Click to expand...

Hey ... never mind the sexy bit ;-) ... given Erik's silence, do i take you (and a select few others) are THE Beta testers ? and the next batch (or batches dare i say) of the mount will only ship after n-days of testing has elapsed ? :waaa:

The wait continues ... :angry03:
 
jaadgy akanni said:
I've been wondering about that. How's that coming along? Have you heard the latest from them? That would make it simple for us Nikon users.
Click to expand...

Status updates on the bottom of their page:

We are confident that the long lead times of the past few months will soon be over, as soon as we clear the order backlog. The first 25x orders placed from January 5 will ship before the end of June. All subsequent back-orders should now ship early in July.
 
Aqua! awesome to hear!

I'm out here in Montana right now shooting Primal Quest. Trying to figure out if bring the RED out might match up with when the Birger can ship....

peace

Mike
 
h2opixels said:
Hey ... never mind the sexy bit ;-) ... given Erik's silence, do i take you (and a select few others) are THE Beta testers ? and the next batch (or batches dare i say) of the mount will only ship after n-days of testing has elapsed ? :waaa:

The wait continues ... :angry03:
Click to expand...

I don't even think it is a matter of testing as far as us "beta" testers - more just how fast he can get an efficient work flow for wiring the connectors - LEMOs are a bitch to solder - particularly the 10 pin and then testing/QC.
 
AquaVideo, do you have a RED lens (or know anyone with a RED and RED lens) to compare images with the Birger? I'd be very interested to see a side-by-side and see how these images match. I have 2 cams and am considering Birger-izing one and keeping one PL and am very interested in whether this will work or not.
 
Birger's not a scam!!!

Birger's not a scam!!!

Here are some photos of the birger mount I received. For those that weren't at NAB the mount has a cable with a 10pin LEMO that connects to the camera for power and future communication with the camera head. It has two 4 pin lemos that will allow you to attach the knobs. Knobs can loop through each other so you can have one of the 4 pins still available which I believe allows us to get additional power from the rear camera 4 pin for lenses that require more than the 500ma available from the RED 10 pin. The cable you see is an accessory to allow us to control the mount remotely through one of the 4 pins - i.e. via a computer or through a custom control we are considering for use in the housings.

(Question for RED - is there anyway to increase that power availability - I'm not an expert but have used a lot of B4 zooms with integral focus, iris, zoom motors and that seems low to me - and it seems like the original intention of the 10 pin was to allow use of B4 video lenses.)

Picture of the housings is showing my main application for the Birger mount (kid in the background is bummed 'cause he just found out he won't get his birger mount for a couple weeks). The other picture is a custom gear for the ARRI 8r - $4000 for the pair - focus and iris. Now you see why Birger is so important for us - not only is it much cheaper but it provides focus and iris control for any Canon lens (with PL cine glass you have to have gears for every lens - there is a little adjustability but not much so unless the lenses are extremely similar you need more gears/locations). With Birger, no matter if we switch from a 10-22mm superwide lens (about 3.5 inches long) to a 180 macro at over 7.5 inches we don't have to worry about control. We just put on a different port and go.
 
Bad news...

Bad news...

My camera is back to RED for repairs/upgrades, and we will not be able to ship until it comes back. I talked to Stuart last night, and Brian emailed from RED earlier this morning to say they would look at the camera today when it got in. Fedex just confirmed delivery. My camera had some issues with the power on the AUX/232 connector. After three months of testing with a production version of the mount, it just stopped putting out power. Rest of the camera functions just fine. Yesterday, one of our customers put a mount on his camera for the first time, had the same thing happen after an hour of use. This customer powered the mount directly from the battery, and is off and running for his shoot in Africa later this week.

So, the limited amount of power from the AUX232, and the fact that lens data is not yet being recorded as metadata in Build 16, has caused us to make some changes. First, we will be powering the mount from the “Aux Power / GPIO” port on the rear of the camera.

This will result in the following positive changes:
  1. There will be enough power in the default configuration for *any* lens.
  2. The cable will no longer be captive, it will be removable.
  3. The GPIO port has an output, so we can monitor the record status from the remote control.
  4. Record start/stop is still supported.

This will result in the following negative changes:
  1. Camera recording of lens metadata will require an additional cable (once implemented by RED).
  2. All RED camera adapters have just left by courier for rework at the machine shop, and will be back on Tuesday. The rework is limited to boring out an existing hole, and tapping it for another LEMO.
  3. We will be releasing a new revision of the circuit board in the RED camera adapter (which is not required to support the first 10 units in the field, but is required for volume production) which will be released by tomorrow morning, and will be back next week. This is a very simple board, that mostly just replaces what would otherwise be a complicated cable harness. Risk is low, but it does become a schedule dependency.

We will honor all reservations, at the prices committed, including the new collimation adapter, and a 4pin to 4pin cable, instead of the captive 10pin cable. I think in the end all are still getting a bargain in the deal. If everybody recalls, when we announced this product the camera had a calibrated reference surface, and this product was much simpler.

I will not state delivery schedule until we have assembled a unit with the new connectors some time next week. The next 100 mounts are in a partial state of assembly.

Recent developments…

Image stabilization is now working along with the dynamic focus and iris. With no knob present getting the IS switch to control this requires manually homing both the focus and iris, using the push buttons on the mount.

PC application is working extremely well. The collimation part is still in final phases of development before we send it out to customers for further testing. The mac version is going to require a rewrite. We should have the mac version out during July.

Knob progress update will come early next week. We have put this on a back burner given that 90% of our customers have said that they would prefer to have their mounts shipped as soon as available, rather than wating for complete delivery of the knobs.

Amy and I will both be unavailable friday through monday of this week, as we will be in Maryland furthering our wedding plans for the fall. :love:
 
So it seems like another few weeks at least in delay. I'm not even sure if I'm in the first 100. This sure is going to start another flurry of posts. Maybe we'll hit 200,000? lol.

I've got my red sitting here and I just need a lens to test my camera, build 16, etc. Does anyone know what would be the most inexpensive way to get a lens on my camera? Maybe renting something really old and cheap? I don't want to buy a Nikon mount. Doesn't sound cheap to me at $500 plus a nikon lens. I'm not convinced on the easy resell of it.
 
Thanks for the update, Erik.

The delay is a bummer, but it will be worth it to get a solid mount.

Can't wait to test the IS.

Thanks for all your hard work.

-Thor
 
Jason, the truly cheapest way is to make a few friends with RED cameras and share some gear or tips or opportunities...shouldn't be hard in LA.

RED users seem pretty friendly and willing.
 
Jason Ing said:
So it seems like another few weeks at least in delay. I'm not even sure if I'm in the first 100. This sure is going to start another flurry of posts. Maybe we'll hit 200,000? lol.

I've got my red sitting here and I just need a lens to test my camera, build 16, etc. Does anyone know what would be the most inexpensive way to get a lens on my camera? Maybe renting something really old and cheap? I don't want to buy a Nikon mount. Doesn't sound cheap to me at $500 plus a nikon lens. I'm not convinced on the easy resell of it.
Click to expand...

Don't know what your definition of cheap would be, but you could get an Arri mount prime and an Arri-PL adapter from Visual Products for around $700-$800. I'm sure you could sell the lens and adapter for close to what you paid for it, when the Birger finally ships
 
Erik thanks for the update.

It's amazing the amount of hoops you have jumped through. hang in there. we all believe in you. congrats on the wedding this fall. Amy rocks =)

Mike
 
Nikon mount concerns..

Nikon mount concerns..

Erik, can you please tell us how long 'til the Nikon mount is completed. Give us a rough idea how much longer we'd have to wait. I'm willing to wait as long as it takes, but I really must know so that I can look for other alternatives while I wait. Thank you.
 
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