Birger Lens Mount Reservations

[Steve Sanacore]

This really is ridiculous. I saw and met with Erik at NAB and used my own lens on the mount to test it, and it seemed to work perfectly.

So yes he and his mount are real three dimensional entities.

But if he hasn't shipped any mount at all yet, then I would deduce that;

1. He has a major glitch in his design somewhere that he doesn't want to divulge to his customers.

2. He has a business problem and cannot move forward with manufacturing.


I hope I'm wrong because I could use this mount within a month myself, and Eirk seemed like a smart and nice guy who I would want to see succeed.

 

[SandeepDey]

After all this, do we know when?

 

[Kyle Mallory]

You guys are harsh... Eric has made great strides in communication since this whole endeavor began long, long ago...

Thursday we will decide how big the next batch will be, and email those people. That batch will be scheduled for friday through monday, and will probably be 40 to 50 more mounts.

Last time I checked, its still Thursday, so, let's see what happens. Also note, in his last few posts, nothing about posting a schedule or an update to the list... Only emails going out are to those in the current batch.

 

[Stephen Pruitt]

I just want the knobs and a functioning blue tooth remote. Once that's ready to go, I'll tell him to charge my (new) credit card.

Stephen

 

[Steve Sanacore]

You guys are harsh... Eric has made great strides in communication since this whole endeavor began long, long ago...



Last time I checked, its still Thursday, so, let's see what happens. Also note, in his last few posts, nothing about posting a schedule or an update to the list... Only emails going out are to those in the current batch.

Eric states, "next batch"? Has there been any batch sent yet? I would love to hear from users of the first batch to see how it works.

 

[M Hsu]

I was told I was in the first 25 and so far I've had no tracking number. Has anyone gotten a tracking number?

let's hope nothing bad happened to Erik. We're all going to feel bad if he's sick or something...

 

[Mark B.]

Is there anyone living near the Birger building, who could go there and verify that they are in fact working tirelessly to get our mounts shipped? If you find them working hard, maybe chip in to help them get a few more finished. On the other hand, if you find an empty warehouse filled only with cobwebs and dust, please let us know.

 

[Shawn Bannon]

They can't be working that hard for RED customers. They've taken 9 months with something they claimed would be done in january. Though I suppose we all perceive hard work differently.

sure red modified their lens mount, but you have to remove the entire pl mount to install the birger anyways.

Anyone recently get an e-mail reassuring their money and personal information is in safe hands? I haven't.

 

[M Hsu]

Is there anyone living near the Birger building, who could go there and verify that they are in fact working tirelessly to get our mounts shipped? If you find them working hard, maybe chip in to help them get a few more finished. On the other hand, if you find an empty warehouse filled only with cobwebs and dust, please let us know.

Well boston is pretty lovely, I'll chip in $200 to send akube. anyone else wanna chip in?

 

[Steve Sherrick]

How much are you guys willing to pay?

I should at the very least get first shot at doing the documentary seeing that it's right in my neck of the woods. :wink:

Not that I'm here to defend Erik specifically, but I will say that running a small company with very few employees is a daunting task. There's the R&D, bookkeeping, manufacturing, customer service, etc. From what I can tell, Birger is a small operation. Due to open development process they are facing enormous pressure to deliver this product. If this thread isn't pressure enough, I don't know what is.

I was on the list to get one of these mounts. When delays started to happen, I pulled out. Not because I didn't have faith in Erik, but because I wanted an option in addition to PL, and I needed it sooner rather than later so that I could get to work with the camera. I decided to get the Nikon mount. The Nikkor lenses have allowed me to experiment with the Red, try things out that don't require buying a PL prime lens set, or renting it at quite an expense just to experiment. Best investment I made with the camera so far. I've been able to learn a lot. For $600 you can have a mount and a lens and get to work shooting. I cannot understand not doing this and waiting around for a mount that has not been finalized yet. It doesn't make sense. Compared to the investment in the camera, $600 is nothing. There are Canon dumb mounts out there as well.

Now, you can argue one way or the other whether the Birger mount should have delivered by now. There have been some curve balls thrown along the way and I'm sure Erik wishes this was further along. The only thing though that really holds him to a schedule is whether you have paid for the mount yet. Otherwise it is a product that has not delivered to market and hence, the best bet is to have no expectations until the product is announced as shipping. (I know, this is Reduser and our expectations are always high. I'm as guilty as anybody). But for the love of filmmaking, please take my advice and don't have your camera sitting on a shelf. Get out and shoot with it. You will not regret it. When the Birger mount is available, you will have yet another tool at your disposal and it will be a great thing.

I wish there was someway I could help Erik because I am literally close by to him, but engineering is not one of the areas I would be able to help, and as far as I know, he has a handle on the bookkeeping/paperwork side of things. So, probably not a whole lot I can bring to the table.

It will be a sad day when this thread finally comes to an end. It's been an epic. I'm sure it will be kept alive for posterity sake.

 

[M Hsu]

Please show me where to order this dumb canon mount of which you speak. As far as I can tell, there is no dumb canon option shipping.

I agree though, the nikon mount which I thought was surely a waste of money months ago has been a life saver although I am still adding up rental bills daily on nikon glass for all our shoots.

UPDATE: I stand corrected, andy alesniak does indeed seem to have a dumb canon mount pending for sale at $300.

http://www.andylesniak.com/red/

 

[Mark B.]

I was told I was in the first 25 and so far I've had no tracking number. Has anyone gotten a tracking number?

let's hope nothing bad happened to Erik. We're all going to feel bad if he's sick or something...

That's one of the four excuses Erik could use that would not trigger my ire (exercising my vocabulary :weight_lift.

What really bugs me, is that if his delays are manpower based, the obvious solution is to hire a couple people to help finish things on time. They could run their machines day and night, and during the weekends. They don't even have to be full time employees, just contract workers until the job is done.

 

[Karl H]

Well he already said that the mounts have shipped, he just didn't have time to send a tracking number e-mail to us.

So it will be hard for him to annoucnce a delay on those mounts. Assuming of course they were actually shipped :-0

 

[Karl H]

Is Andy's mount shipping does anyone know? Also what's the warranty issue on this?

I really cant wait much longer for Birger. I need to use my camera.

Edit : dont worry, i found the thread..

 

[Joe Vinson]

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'm out.

I cannot understand not doing this and waiting around for a mount that has not been finalized yet. It doesn't make sense. Compared to the investment in the camera, $600 is nothing. There are Canon dumb mounts out there as well.

Steve, you're absolutely right. I should have gotten a Nikon mount months ago, when it became obvious that Erik is not entirely realistic and/or forthcoming about his production timetable.

Erik, no hard feelings, I wish you the best, but I'm sick of this shit. For how many months now have you been telling us that volume shipping is just a few days away? Can you really be that unfamiliar with how long it takes to make your own product?

I hereby rescind the authorization email I sent back in... May, was it? Do not charge my balance, or if you've done so already, please issue a refund. You can keep my reservation deposit for now; I'll check back in a few months to see if those knobs and remotes ever got done.

:matrix:

 

[M Olsen]

I too am moving on,

To long now, time to get a Nikon dumb mount and I will wait and see what companies with Canon mounts in development like ET come up with.

As an aside I bumped into some guys shooting at Bali Airport with RED # 12. Was in a hurry so did not get any names... early camera though, they were happy with it all.

Over and Out.

 

[Craig Schober]

early adopters

early adopters

i'm not an early adopter for the birger mount (i only got in line about a month ago) but i am a fairly early adopter for the red camera. people on this thread seem to forget that this is is all very similar to how the first few hundred red cams shipped and now people have nothing but praise for the red product. i remember being told that i would receive my camera in june or july at the latest...june of 2007! after engineering and production delays i finally did receive the camera in january 2008. that's at least 7 months (more than 7 months if you count from the first broken promises on the red forum) with very little communication from the red people along the way. this is the price of early adoption and no competition (at least not in the canon mount arena).

i've been following this thread for several months and i think we should all take a moment to remember that birger's communication over the past few weeks has improved dramatically. the only thing i can fault him for is taking full payment on orders long before they ship but then again i chose that payment option because i had the cash and no urgent need for the mount at the time. it's one month later and i'm getting very anxious but i know i lived through the red cam delivery delays so i'll be fine and so will everyone else here.

 

[David Nardini]

It is Friday, is it not ???

Does Ami know what a Birger 'day' or 'week' means ;-)
The wedding plans may also run and run and ... run ;-)

 

[Harmonica]

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'm out.



Steve, you're absolutely right. I should have gotten a Nikon mount months ago, when it became obvious that Erik is not entirely realistic and/or forthcoming about his production timetable.

Erik, no hard feelings, I wish you the best, but I'm sick of this shit. For how many months now have you been telling us that volume shipping is just a few days away? Can you really be that unfamiliar with how long it takes to make your own product?

I hereby rescind the authorization email I sent back in... May, was it? Do not charge my balance, or if you've done so already, please issue a refund. You can keep my reservation deposit for now; I'll check back in a few months to see if those knobs and remotes ever got done.

:matrix:

Another one bites the dust. Erik, how about dropping us a life line in this black hole of a thread?!? The least you could do is have your assistant pick up the phone.

You said you've shipped some mounts. Forget the e-mails! Just post the dang order numbers that have shipped. For all the excuses people type up for you on this thread, really, how difficult can that be?!?

 

[Lauri Kettunen]

people on this thread seem to forget that this is is all very similar to how the first few hundred red cams shipped.

Although well understand what you try to say I'm afraid you've not quite captured what has happened. Those of us who made an early reservation got an email in August saying we are now shipping the mount, may we go on and charge your credit card. Taking the money and not shipping the mounts as promised is a .... I'll let everybody to decide what it is.

There's definitely a big difference in between how Jim and Erik manages their business. The point is, if there were somebody who wanted to make a fraud to the people on this forum and escape with their money, how would this person act? Certainly, whatever angle of view you take, you'll find that Jim's and RED's business style creates confidence although making simultaneously difficult predictions of the development and production of a rather complicated device. So, what about Birger's style?

Again, personally I do have faith in Erik's work but do wonder what the heck has he been thinking? For instance, Why did he told me on March --the only time I called him-- that I'll get my mount in two weeks? This kind of history and promises recorded in this thread is not the best marketing weapon for his future business. Of course, Erik can still hit a home run by coming out with a first class product everybody is amazed of.